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Black History Timeline and Famous People

February is Black History Month. We are going to make an African-American book.

Below are the people we are going to study:

• Sarah Boone (inventor of the ironing board; received a patent in 1892) - About.com: Sarah Boone
• George Washington Carver (plant scientist who made great contributions to the field of agriculture chemistry) – Wikipedia: George Washington Carver
• Dr. Charles R. Drew (physician) – phillyBurbs: Charles Drew
• Shirley Chisholm (Congresswoman) Wikipedia: Shirley Chisholm
• Medgar Evers (civil rights leader) – Wikipedia: Medgar Evers
• Fanny Lou Hamer (civil rights leader) – Wikipedia: Fannie Lou Hamer
• Matthew Alexander Henson (explorer) – Enchanted Learning: Matthew Alexander Henson
• John W. Hunter (inventor of the portable weighing scale) – Evia L. Davis: African American Awareness for Young Children – John W. Hunter
• Dr. Mae Jemison (first African-American woman in space) - Wikipedia: Mae Jemison
• Henry Lincoln Johnson (distinguished soldier) – Wikipedia: Henry Lincoln Johnson
• Dr. Maulana Karenga (founder of Kwanzaa in 1966) – Wikipedia: Maulana Karenga
• Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (civil rights leader) - Wikipedia: Martin Luther King, Jr.
• Abraham Lincoln (16th President of the United States) – Wikipedia: Abraham Lincoln
• Elijah McCoy (inventor) – Wikipedia: Elijah McCoy
• Thurgood Marshall (Supreme Court justice) - Wikipedia: Thurgood Marshall
• Jan E. Matzeliger (Inventor of the shoe-lasting machine) - Inventors Assistance League: Jan Ernst Matzeliger
• Garrett Morgan (inventor; his inventions included the automatic stop sign and breathing masks used by firefighters) - Wikipedia: Garrett A. Morgan
• Lyda D. Newman (inventor the modern day hairbrush; received a patent on Nov. 15, 1898) – About.com: Lyda Newman
• President Barack Obama (44th President of the United States) – Wikipedia: Barack Obama
• Jesse Owens (athlete) – Wikipedia: Jesse Owens
• Rosa Parks (mother of the Civil Rights movement) – Wikipedia: Rosa Parks
• Jackie Robinson (athlete; in 1947, became the first African American to play for a Major League Baseball team) – Wikipedia: Jackie Robinson
• George T. Sampson (inventor of the clothes dryer) – Evia L. Davis: African American Awareness for Young Children – George T. Sampson
• James Monroe Trotter – Wikipedia: James Monroe Trotter
• Sojourner Truth – Biography Resource Center – Sojourner Truth
• Harriet Tubman (abolitionist) – Wikipedia: Harriet Tubman
• Mme. C. J. Walker (businesswoman; invented a hair softener and straightening comb; became the first African-American female millionaire) – Wikipedia: Madam C.J. Walker
• Booker T. Washington (educator) - Wikipedia: Booker T. Washington
• Ida B. Wells – Wikipedia: Ida B. Wells
• Dr. Daniel Hale Williams (physician; first to perform open-heart surgery) – Wikipedia: Daniel Hale Williams
• Joseph Winters (inventor of the fire escape ladder; received a patent on May 7th, 1898) - Wikipedia: Joseph Winters

Groups:

• Wikipedia: Little Rock Nine
• Wikipedia: Freedom Riders

This is the timeline that we are using for our African-American unit:

• 1492: Christopher Columbus arrives in the Americas – Wikipedia: Christopher Columbus
• 1517: Spaniards bring first African slaves to West Indies sugar cane plantations -  Slavery in America: Sugar and Slavery – Molasses to Rum to Slaves
• 1619: First African slaves arrive in , a mid-Atlantic English colony – World Book: The Slave Trade in Colonial America (scroll halfway down)
• 1778: Writers of the U.S. Articles of Confederation compromise on slavery – Online Library of Liberty: Articles of Confederation 1778 (click “Hide TOC”)
• 1793: Congress passes a law that makes it illegal to help escaping slaves – The FreeDictionary: Fugitive Slave Laws
• 1808: Slave trade becomes illegal – Wikipedia: Atlantic Slave Trade
• 1820: Missouri Compromise divides states into free and slave – Wikipedia: Missouri Compromise
• 1838: Underground Railroad is formally established - National Geographic Online: The Underground Railroad
• 1850: Fugitive Slave Law says that all persons must help catch escaped slaves – Wikipedia: Fugitive Slave Law of 1850
• 1852: Uncle Tom’s Cabin tells about the evils of slavery – Wikipedia: Uncle Tom’s Cabin
• 1857: Supreme Court rules that slaves are property, not people - Prentice-Hall: A Slave Sues for Freedom in 1857
• 1863: Emancipation Proclamation frees southern slaves - Wikipedia: Emancipation Proclamation
• 1866: Amendment 13 frees all slaves – Wikipedia: Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
• Amendment 14 makes all slaves citizens – US Constitution Online: Amendment 14
• 1867: Amendment 15 gives ex-slaves the right to vote – Wikipedia: Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
• 1877: “Jim Crow” laws begin the segregation of black Americans from white - Wikipedia: Jim Crow laws
• 1896: Supreme Court “separate but equal” ruling declares segregation to be legal – Wikipedia: Separate but equal
• 1909: NAACP forms to protect black Americans from prejudice and violence – DealofDay.com: February 12, 1909, Founding of the NAACP
• 1915: Great Migration begins. Millions of black Americans leave the South and move north and west – University of Washington: The Great Migration – Number of Migrants
• 1920s: Harlem Renaissance takes place. Black arts and literature eloquently and proudly describe black life – Wikipedia: Harlem Renaissance
• 1929: Great Depression begins – Wikipedia: Great Depression
• 1941: Defense plants desegregate – Our Documents: Executive Order 9981 – Desegregation of the Armed Forces (1948)
• 1947: Jackie Robinson breaks the “color barrier” - Wikipedia: Jackie Robinson
• 1948: Armed forces desegregate – Truman Library & Museum: Desegregation of the Armed Forces
• 1954: Supreme Court rules that segregation is unconstitutional - Wikipedia: Brown v. Board of Education
• 1955: Rosa Parks begins Civil Rights movement – Wikipedia: Rosa Parks
• 1963: Martin Luther King, Jr. leads 200,000 Americans in protest march to Washington DC – MLK Online: I Have a Dream – Address at March on Washington (Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I have a dream speech,” both audio and written)

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Great web sites:

• Kaboose: Martin Luther King Day 2009
• The King Center
• Wikipedia: Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
• Infoplease: Martin Luther King, Jr.

• 1964: Congress passes Civil Rights Act - Wikipedia: Civil Rights Act of 1964
• 1965: Voting Act passed - Wikipedia: Voting Rights Act of 1965
• 1970s: African Americans work to turn the promise of the law into reality.
• 2009: Barack Obama becomes America’s first African-American president. NOTE TO PARENTS: There is a commercial before this video (the one I watched was from Victoria’s Secret. You may want to screen the commercial, but it is a great video!) – CNN Election Center 2008: Obama – ‘This is your victory’

African-American Web sites for kids:

• Kaboose: Black History for Kids – Educational Activities, Games, Coloring Pages, Trivia
• KET’s Underground Railroad: Kentucky Historical Timeline
• PBS Kids: African-American World for Kids – Find the Face
• Walter L Sargent, University of Minnesota: The Sixties – Civil Rights, The Great Society, Vietnam

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