Defining moments in black history

Table of Contents

Browse the following gallery and discover the milestone events and the accomplishments of individuals that have helped shape black history across the world. Click on!

Black people in Antiquity

Classical references to black people neither glorified nor caricatured the negro races. Greek and Roman writers described people with physical characteristics of sub-Saharan Africans as “Aethiopes,” or Ethiopians, but the term carried no social implications. Black people were not excluded from any profession, and there was usually no stigma or bias against mixed-race relationships. Pictured are groups of black people in ancient Egypt indulging in water jousting.

Royal trumpeter

John Blanke was a black musician in London in the early 16th century. As one of the court trumpeters, he was present in the entourage of Henry VII from at least 1507. He is one of the earliest recorded black people in England after the Roman period, and is depicted in the 1511 Westminster Tournament Roll (pictured).

First transatlantic slave voyage

The Portuguese were the first to engage in the Atlantic slave trade, completing the first transatlantic slave voyage to Brazil in 1526. Pictured: Portuguese explorers presenting themselves in Kingdom of Kongo (present-day northern Angola).

Brazil—the largest destination for African slaves in the Americas

Over nearly three centuries from the late 1500s to the 1860s, Brazil received approximately 4.9 million enslaved Africans. Recife (pictured) was the first slave port established in the Americas.

Slavery’s roots take hold

The arrival in 1619 of a Dutch slave ship in Jamestown, Virginia with its cargo of African indentured servants marked the beginning of the transatlantic slave trade.

First black person to arrive in Canada

Mathieu da Costa (1589–1619) was the first recorded black person to arrive in what would become Canada. Of mixed-race African-Portuguese heritage, da Costa was a gifted linguist and worked as an interpreter. A postage stamp honoring him was issued by Canada Post in 2017, in conjunction with Black History Month. Picture: artist’s conception.

“Governor of the Blacks”

History doesn’t record whether Afro- Brazilian combatant and militia leader Henrique Dias was born free or captive. But this literate and intelligent soldier went on to command a military regiment composed of enslaved and free Afro-Brazilians and defended—rather ironically—Portuguese settlements from Dutch forces. He later requested the enslaved blacks who served with him be freed and should have “all the rights and privileges of white units.”

Charles Ignatius Sancho (c.1729?–1780)

Born on a slave ship crossing the Atlantic, Sancho was returned to England aged two. As a young adult, he flourished at reading, writing, music, and poetry. He is the only Briton of African heritage known to have been eligible for and to have voted in an 18th-century general election.

The American Revolutionary War (1775–1783)

Black combatants fought for both the British and American side during the Revolutionary War, depending on who was offering freedom for doing so.

Sons of Africa

The Sons of Africa were an 18th-century group in Britain that campaigned to end the transatlantic slave trade. The organization was comprised of educated Africans living in London, and included formerly enslaved men like Olaudah Equiano (1745–1797), whose autobiography depicted the horrors and deprivation of slavery.

Atlantic slave trading nations

The major Atlantic slave trading powers were the Portuguese, the British, the French, the Spanish, and the Dutch Empires. Slaves were considered the legal property of their owners. Pictured: the human cargo of a British slave ship (1788).

Prince Whipple and the Battle of Trenton

According to legend, African-American slave Prince Whipple (1750–1796) accompanied his former owner General Whipple and George Washington in the famous crossing of the Delaware River, during the Battle of Trenton on the night of December 25, 1779.

The Haitian Revolution

One of the few successful anti-slavery and anti-colonial insurrections, the Haitian Revolution began in August 1791 and ended in 1804. The rebellion involved self-liberated slaves—blacks and mulattoes—plus French, Spanish, and British participants opposed to French colonial rule in Saint-Domingue (now modern-day Haiti).

Toussaint Louverture (1743 –1803)

The best-known leader of the Haitian Revolution was Toussaint Louverture. Possessed of military and political acumen, Louverture’s achievements in the field set the ground for the black army’s absolute victory and the creation of the sovereign state of Haiti.

The cotton industry and the passing of the Fugitive Slave Act

The post-Revolutionary War years witnessed the growth of the cotton industry, which led inexorably to an increased demand for black slaves. This in turn prompted Congress in 1793 to pass the Fugitive Slave Act, which made it a crime to harbor an escaped slave.

The 1811 Louisiana Slave Revolt

More than a century before the first modern-day civil rights march, a revolt of enslaved men took place in parts of the Territory of Orleans. The insurgency left 95 black people dead.

The 1831 Nat Turner Slave Revolt

Twenty years later, a slave preacher by the name of Nat Turner led a four-day rebellion of both enslaved and free black people in Southampton County, Virginia. An an estimated 120 black men, women, and children died in the fighting. Turner was later caught and hung.

The Amistad Case of 1839

African slaves being transported to their owners’ plantations on the Spanish-owned schooner La Amistad took over the vessel and eventually ended up in Long Island. Their actions, subsequent trial, and eventual freedom was the subject of a film directed by Steven Spielberg (1997’s ‘Amistad’). Actor Djimon Hounsou portrayed Joseph Cinqué (pictured), who led the revolt.

Frederick Douglass (1818–1895)

Social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman Frederick Douglass (1818–1895) described his experiences as a slave in his 1845 autobiography, ‘Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave,’ which became a best-seller and was influential in promoting the cause of abolition.

Sojourner Truth (c. 1797–1883)

Born Isabella Baumfree into slavery, Truth became a committed abolitionist and women’s rights activist. She’s especially known for a speech she delivered in May 1851, which became known as “Aint’ I a Woman” during the Civil War.

Negro Infantry

Some 186,000 black soldiers joined the Union Army during the American Civil War. Pictured are black troops on parade at Fort Lincoln.

Thirteenth Amendment to the US Constitution

Passed by the Senate on April 8, 1864, and passed by the House on January 31, 1865, the measure was then sent to the states for ratification. The Thirteenth Amendment to the US Constitution officially abolished slavery in the United States on December 6, 1865, when Georgia ratified it. The Amendment paved the way for the Civil Rights Act of 1866, passed to protect the civil rights of persons of African descent born in or brought to the United States. However, the question of freed blacks’ status in the post-war South remained.

Booker T. Washington (1856–1915)

Booker T. Washington, author of the best-selling ‘Up from Slavery,’ was the first African American to address a racially mixed southern audience when he delivered his so-called “Atlanta Compromise” speech on September 18, 1898.

George Washington Carver (1860s–1943)

Another former slave, Carver was the most prominent black scientist of the early 20th century. He helped liberate the South from its reliance on cotton by convincing farmers to plant peanuts, soybeans, and sweet potatoes.

Queen Victoria’s black goddaughter

Sara Forbes Bonetta (1843–1880) was a West African princess sold into slavery who, once liberated from enslavement, became a goddaughter to Queen Victoria. She’s buried in the English Cemetery in Funchal, on the Portuguese island of Madeira.

Scott Joplin (1868–1917)

Celebrated for his ragtime compositions including ‘Maple Leaf Rag’ and ‘The Entertainer’ (widely known from the hit 1973 film ‘The Sting’), Scott Joplin is credited with making the ragtime musical style a national craze.

W. E. B. Du Bois (1868–1963)

Social scientist, critic, and public intellectual, William Edward Burghardt Du Bois was one of the founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), established in 1909. Today, the NAACP bestows annual awards to African Americans in two categories: Image Awards are for achievement in the arts and entertainment, and Spingarn Medals are for outstanding achievement of any kind.

World’s first self-made female millionaire

Sarah Breedlove (1867–1919), better known as Madame C.J. Walker, developed and marketed a line of cosmetics and hair products for black women and became the first female self-made millionaire in the US, and indeed the world.

First African American to reach the North Pole

Born to sharecropper parents, Matthew Henson (1866–1955) participated in a polar expedition that reached the geographic North Pole on April 6, 1909. He later became the first African American to be made a life member of The Explorers Club.

Foundation of the Universal Negro Improvement Association

In 1914, black nationalist leader Marcus Garvey (1887–1940) founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA). At its height in the 1920s, the UNIA had some 500,000 members.

Henry Johnson (1892–1929)

Henry Johnson was a soldier who fought heroically in the first African American unit of the US Army to engage in combat in WWI. In 1918, he was awarded the Croix de guerre, France’s highest military honor. Decades after his death, the US finally awarded him a Purple Heart, the Distinguished Service Cross, and the Medal of Honor.

The Great Migration

Also referred to as the Black Migration, this was the movement of around six million African Americans out of the rural southern states to the urban Northeast, Midwest, and West that took place between 1916 and 1970.

First African American to hold a pilot’s license

Civil aviator Bessie Coleman (1892–1926) was awarded her pilot’s license in France in 1921, the first black person to earn such a permit. Tragically, she died in an air crash in 1926.

Jesse Owens (1913–1980)

Track and field athlete Jesse Owens famously won four gold medals at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin. Adolf Hitler refused to acknowledge the feat.

Paul Robeson (1898–1976)

Known for his bass baritone, famed concert artist and stage and film actor Paul Robeson was active in the civil rights movement, opposed fascism, and supported the Loyalist cause in the Spanish Civil War (he’s pictured here in Madrid in 1938, surveying bomb damage). His sympathies for the Soviet Union and for communism led to him being blacklisted during the McCarthy era.

First Oscar won by a black entertainer

Hattie McDaniel (1893–1952) won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as “Mammy” in ‘Gone with the Wind’ (1939)—the first Oscar won by a black entertainer.

The Tuskegee Airmen

The Tuskegee Airmen were a group of African American military pilots (fighter and bomber) who fought in WWII. They saw combat against German and Italian troops, flew more than 3,000 missions, and served as a great source of pride for many blacks back home in America.

The “Windrush generation”

After WWII, many African-Caribbean people migrated to North America and Europe. The British government in particular encouraged mass immigration. In June 1948, the first wave of immigrants arrived in England on board the cruise ship Empire Windrush. These postwar West Indians became known as the “Windrush generation” and came to symbolize the beginning of modern British multicultural society.

The Windrush scandal

In 2018, a political scandal erupted in the United Kingdom after it was revealed that dozens of people had been wrongly detained, denied legal rights, lost homes and jobs, and even deported despite having been born British subjects and having arrived in the UK before 1973 (after which the rights of Commonwealth citizens living and working in Britain were substantially curtailed).

Jackie Robinson (1919–1972)

Jackie Robinson became the first African American to play in major baseball leagues in the modern era—breaking the so-called “color line,” a segregation practice dating back to the 19th century. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962.

First African American to win the Nobel Peace Prize

Political scientist, academic, and diplomat Ralph Bunche (1904–1971) was the first African American recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, awarded in 1950 for his efforts at mediation in Israel.

Emmett Till (1941–1955)

Emmett Till, a 14-year-old boy from Chicago on vacation in Mississippi, was abducted and beaten to death by two white men after being accused of flirting with the wife of one of them in a grocery store. The alleged killers were found not guilty, though a few years later both admitted to murdering Till. This photo shows mourners gathered during the funeral service for the slain youngster. Till posthumously became an icon of the civil rights movement.

Rosa Parks (1913–2005)

On December 1, 1955, activist Rosa Parks defied segregation laws by refusing to relinquish her bus seat in the “colored section” to a white passenger, after the whites-only section was filled. Her act of defiance and the subsequent Montgomery bus boycott became defining symbols of the civil rights movement.

March on Washington

Organized to advocate for the civil and economic rights of African Americans, the March on Washington in August 1963 saw civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. deliver his historic “I Have a Dream” speech, in which he called for an end to racism.

Birmingham church bombing

On the morning of Sunday, September 15, 1963, dynamite planted by the Ku Klux Klan exploded under the steps of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. The blast killed four young girls. The atrocity marked a turning point in the civil rights movement and contributed to support for passage by Congress of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Civil Rights Act of 1964

A landmark civil rights and labor law, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was signed into effect by President Lyndon Johnson (pictured). It prohibited discrimination in public places, provided for the integration of schools and other public facilities, and made employment discrimination illegal.

The first African American to win a Best Actor award

Sidney Poitier won the 1964 Academy Award for Best Actor for ‘Lilies of the Field’ (1963), the first black actor to win the coveted accolade.

Assassination of Malcolm X

Muslim minister and human rights activist Malcolm X was shot and killed on February 21, 1965, during a rally of the Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU) at the Audubon Ballroom in New York City.

“The Greatest”

Muhammad Ali (1942–2016) is cited as one of the most significant and celebrated sports figures of the 20th century, and as one of the greatest boxers of all time. He’s pictured standing over Sonny Liston and taunting him to get up during their title fight in 1965.

Supreme Court of the United States appoints first African-American justice

The first black person appointed to the United States Supreme Court, this on August 30, 1967, Thurgood Marshall (1908–1993) spent his entire life battling for civil rights.

The United Kingdom’s first black life peer

Not only was West Indian Learie Constantine (1901–1971) a cricketer, he later became a lawyer, then a politician, before finally ending up as the UK’s first black life peer and taking a seat in the House of Lords.

Assassination of Marin Luther King Jr.

On April 4, 1968, civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis. His death opened a huge chasm between white and black Americans, with the black community seeing his murder as a rejection of their robust pursuit of equality through the nonviolent resistance he had advocated.

Arthur Ashe wins first tennis title

Arthur Ashe (1943–1993) proudly displays his trophy after winning the US Men’s Singles Tennis Championship at Longwood Cricket Club on August 25, 1968. The first African-American tennis player to be ranked number one, he is still the only black man ever to win the singles title at Wimbledon, the US Open, and the Australian Open.

Shirley Chisholm (1924–2005)

In 1968, Shirley Chisholm became the first African-American woman elected to the United States Congress. In 1972, she became the first African-American woman to run for president. In 2015, she was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

The Soweto uprising

A series of demonstrations led by black school children in the township of Soweto that began on the morning on June 16, 1976 quickly turned deadly after police opened fire on the protesters. An estimated 700 students were killed or injured. Today, June 16 is a public holiday in South Africa, named Youth Day.

Bob Marley assassination attempt

On December 3, 1976, reggae musician Bob Marley (1945–1981) narrowly escaped death after gunmen raided his house and opened fire. The singer was hit in the chest and arm. His wife, Rita, was shot in the head. Two of Marley’s entourage were also targeted. Remarkably, there were no fatalities. Marley died of cancer in 1981.

The first African American in space

Guion Bluford Jr. is the first African American in space. He participated in four Space Shuttle flights between 1983 and 1992.

The best-selling album in history

Several decades after its release, Michael Jackson’s (1958-2009) ‘Thriller’ is still the best-selling album of all time, according to Guinness World Records.

The first African-American Miss America

Singer and actress Vanessa Williams became the first African-American woman to be crowned Miss America, winning the title in 1983.

Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960–1988)

An American artist of Haitian and Puerto Rican descent, Basquiat briefly held the art world by the scruff of its neck with his neo-expressionist paintings created in a flowing street-art graffiti style. He died aged just 27 of a heroine overdose. In 2017, one of his paintings sold at auction for a record US$110.5 million.

Nelson Mandela (1918–2013)

The South African anti-apartheid figurehead spent 27 years in prison before being released in 1990 (pictured). He later served as President of South Africa—the country’s first black head of state. He’s widely regarded as one of the most influential and admired public figures of recent years.

LA riots

The airing in 1992 of footage showing Rodney King being violently beaten by Los Angeles Police Department officers—and their subsequent acquittal on charges of using excessive force—sparked the LA riots: six days of civil disturbance that left 63 people dead and over 2,000 injured.

First African American to win the Nobel Prize in Literature

Author Toni Morrison (1931–2019) won the prestigious award in 1993, on the back of a trilogy of novels about love and African-American history.

Death of Ken Saro-Wiwa

Nigerian writer and environmental activist Ken Saro-Wiwa was an outspoken critic of Nigeria’s petroleum industry and the damage caused by oil exploration. Wrongly accused of murder by the country’s military dictatorship, Saro-Wiwa was hanged on November 10, 1995. His death provoked international outrage and resulted in Nigeria’s suspension from the Commonwealth.

Million Man March

In October 1995, hundreds of thousands of black men gathered in Washington, D.C. for what became known as the Million Man March. Intended to foster a spirit of support and self-sufficiency within the black community, the event also sought to dispel the perceived negative racial stereotypes of African Americans portrayed in the US media and in popular culture.

Condoleezza Rice and Colin Powell

In 2001, Colin Powell became the first African-American Secretary of State; in 2006, Condoleezza Rice became the first African-American female Secretary of State.

The first African-American female billionaire

Oprah Winfrey achieved this financial landmark in 2003. Four years later, she was ranked as one of the most influential women in the world.

First African-American President of the United States

The election of Barack Obama in 2008 saw the American people vote into office the first African-American President of the United States.

The most nominated woman in Grammy Award’s history

With a current total of 24 Grammy Awards to her name, Beyoncé is the most nominated and awarded woman in the history of the music entertainment event.