Below find a timeline of the African presence in the Americas. It
is divided into three sections for easy viewing. Click on a time period
to view its timeline.
1000
B.C. - 1800 A.D. | 1800
- 1960 |
1960
- 1992 | Full Timeline
| 1000 BC | Olmecs - La Venta |
| 800 BC | African contact with Americas |
| 100 AD | Classic Mayan Empire |
| 500 | Nok civilization, West Africa |
| 700 - 1250 | Empire of Ghana |
| 1200 | Aztec Empire |
| 1300 - 1450 | Empire of Mali |
| 1324 | Mansa Musa makes pilgrimage |
| 1450 - 1590 | Empire of Songhai |
| 1492 |
Columbus voyages to the Western Hemisphere accompanied by explorers and servants of African descent, lands at San Salvador, Cuba and Hispaniola. Moorish Empire comes to an end in Spain; Moors expelled from Grenada. Jews expelled from Spain. Askia Muhammad expands borders of the African Empire of Songhai. |
| 1493 | Columbus' second voyage, lands at Puerto Rico and Jamaica. |
| 1497 | English sailor John Cabot reaches North America. |
| 1498 |
Columbus departs Spain on his third voyage to America; he reaches Trinidad and South America. Portuguese sea captain, Vasco da Gama, sails to India. |
| 1500 |
Portuguese sea captain Pedro Cabral reaches Brazil. Portuguese trading vigorously with the people of the Kongo in Africa; they begin exporting slaves. European monarchs heavily finance exploration hoping to become richer. |
| 1502 | Columbus departs Spain on his fourth voyage and reaches Central America. |
| 1505 | Portuguese ships attack key African ports and try to control trade. |
| 1506 | Columbus dies in Valladolld. |
| 1513 | Thirty Africans accompany Balboa to Pacific Ocean. |
| 1518 | Las Casas suggests importing Africans for slave labor. Atlantic Slave Trade begins. |
| 1521 | Spanish Conquistador Hernando Cortez defeats the Aztec Kingdom. |
| 1526 |
King Alfonso of the Kongo writes a letter to Portuguese King John asking him to put an end to the kidnapping of his people for slavery. Negro slaves in first settlement in United States (a Spanish colony in the area of present-day South Carolina) revolted and fled to the Indians. |
| 1530 | The Inca Kingdom conquers much of South America. |
| 1533 | Pizarro executes Incan King and imposes Spanish rule on Peru. |
| 1538 | Estevanico leads expedition and discovers Arizona and New Mexico. |
| 1600 | The Kongo Kingdom comes to an end due to wars sparked by the Portuguese. |
| 1605 | Quilambo dos Palmares founded, Brazil. |
| 1619 | History of Negro in English America began with landing of "twenty negars" at Jamestown, Virginia. |
| 1621 | Dutch enter the slave trade. |
| 1665 | First Maroon War in Jamaica. |
| 1712 | Slave revolt, New York. |
| 1739 | Slave revolt, Stono, South Carolina. |
| 1741 | Slave conspiracy, New York City. |
| 1754 | Benjamin Banneker builds first clock in U.S. |
| 1767 | Phillis Wheatley publishes poem. |
| 1773 | First Black Baptist Church organized, South Carolina. |
| 1775 | Peter Salem and Salem Poor fight in Battle at Bunker Hill. |
| 1776 | Declaration of Independence adopted. |
| 1777 | Vermont abolishes slavery. |
| 1787 |
Free African Society organized, Philadelphia. PA. African Free School organized in New York City. |
| 1794 | Toussaint L'Ouverture leads rebellion in Haiti. |
| 1800 | Insurrection led by Gabriel Prosser in Virginia. |
| 1804 |
Haiti becomes a Republic under the leadership of Emperor Jean-Jacques Dessalines. Black Laws enacted in Ohio. |
| 1807 |
Great Britain outlaws the Atlantic Slave Trade. U.S. President bans slave trade. |
| 1812 | Black soldiers fight in Battle of 1812. |
| 1816 | African Methodist Episcopal Church organized, Philadelphia, PA. |
| 1818 | First battle of Seminole Wars. |
| 1820 | Missouri compromise. |
| 1822 | Denmark Vesey conspiracy betrayed. |
| 1824 | Slaves freed in the United Provinces of Central America. |
| 1827 |
Freedom's Journal published in New York City. Slavery abolished in New York State. |
| 1829 |
Slavery abolished in Mexico. David Walker's appeal published, Boston. |
| 1831 | Slavery abolished in Bolivia. |
| 1834 | Slavery abolished in British Empire. |
| 1838 | Frederick Douglass escapes from slavery, Baltimore, MD. |
| 1849 | Harriet Tubman escapes from slavery. |
| 1857 | Dred Scott decision. |
| 1861 | Civil War begins, United States. |
| 1863 | Massachusetts 54th Regiment formed. |
| 1865 | Slavery abolished in the United States. |
| 1865-1871 | RECONSTRUCTION ERA |
| 1881 | Tuskegee Institute opens. |
| 1888 | Slavery abolished in Brazil. End of slavery in Western Hemisphere. |
| 1905 | Niagara Movement organized. |
| 1909 |
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (N.A.A.C.P.) founded. Matthew Henson reaches North Pole with Admiral Peary. |
| 1914-1918 | WORLD WAR I |
| 1915 | Great Migration begins. |
| 1917 | US enters World War I. |
| 1918 | Marcus Garvey launches the Universal Negro Improvement Association. |
| 1919-1929 | NEW NEGRO MOVEMENT (Harlem Renaissance) |
| 1925 |
A. Philip Randolph founds the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. Josephine Baker performs in La Revue Negre in Paris. |
| 1929-1939 | GREAT DEPRESSION ERA |
| 1939-1945 | WORLD WAR II |
| 1955 | Montgomery Bus Boycott begins Civil Rights era. |
| 1955-1975 | VIETNAM WAR |
| 1957 | Ghana proclaimed independent. |
| 1960 |
Nigeria proclaimed independent. The Alvin Alley American Dance Theater debuts Revelations. |
| 1962 |
Jamaica proclaimed independent. Trinidad-Tobago proclaimed independent. James H. Meredith registered at the University of Mississippi. Edward J. Dwight, Jr. became the first African-American astronaut candidate. |
| 1963 |
March on Washington, largest Civil Rights demonstration in history. President John F. Kennedy assassinated in Dallas. Muhammad Ali becomes world heavyweight boxing champion. Malcolm X founds the Organization for Afro-American Unity in New York. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. awarded Nobel Peace Prize. |
| 1965 | Malcolm X assassinated in New York. |
| 1966 |
Barbados proclaimed independent. Bill Russell named first black coach of a major professional sports team in the United States. Black Panther party organized in Oakland, California. |
| 1967 |
First African American government installed in the Bahamas. United States Supreme Court ruled Virginia law banning interracial marriage unconstitutional. Thurgood Marshall became the first African-American Supreme Court Justice. Carl B. Stokes elected the first African-American mayor of a major American city, Cleveland, Ohio. |
| 1968 |
Martin Luther King, Jr. assassinated. John Carlos and Tommie Smith stage Black Power demonstration at Olympics. |
| 1971 | Soledad Brothers murdered at San Quentin. |
| 1974 |
Hearings on the Watergate controversy begin. Henry "Hank" Aaron broke Babe Ruth's record. |
| 1977 | Alex Haley's Roots televised. |
| 1978 | NASA names three African-American astronauts. |
| 1979 | Rosa L. Parks, catalyst in the Montgomery Bus Boycott, awarded Spingarn Medal. |
| 1983 | Guion S. Bluford, Jr., first African-American to go into space. |
| 1984 | Jesse Jackson becomes first serious African-American contender in a presidential place. |
| 1989 | Douglas Wilder elected first African American governor in the United States, in Virginia. |
| 1990 |
First democratic election in Haiti. Nelson Mandela freed from prison after 27 years. |
| 1991 | Clarence Thomas, second African American appointed to the United States Supreme Court. |
| 1992 |
Rebellion in Los Angeles, California and other urban centers in the United States. Mae Jemison, first African-American woman astronaut, travels on mission for NASA. |
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Top
1000 B.C. - 1800 A.D.
| 1800
- 1960 |
1960
- 1992 | Full Timeline