Black History Month

Events in African American History, 1900 – 1949

1600 - 1699 | 1700 - 1799 | 1800 - 1849 | 1850 - 1899 | 1900 - 1949 | 1950 - 1999 | 2000+

1905

July 11-13. W. E. B. Du Bois and William Monroe Trotter were among the leaders of the meeting from which sprung the Niagara Movement, the forerunner of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

1910

April. The National Urban League was established.

1912

September 27. W. C. Handy published "Memphis Blues."

1915

September 9. Carter G. Woodson founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History.

1918

February 19-21. The First Pan-African Congress met in Paris, France, under the guidance of W. E. B. Du Bois.

1920

August 1-2. The national convention of Marcus Garvey's Universal Negro Improvement Society met in New York City. Garvey would be charged with mail fraud in 1923. He was convicted in 1925 and deported in 1927 after serving time in prison.

1922-1929

These are the years usually assigned to the Harlem Renaissance, which marks an epoch in black literature and art.

1925

May 8. A. Philip Randolph organized the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters.

1931

April 6. Nine young blacks were accused of raping two white women in a boxcar. They were tried for their lives in Scottsboro, Alabama, and hastily convicted. The case attracted national attention.

1936

August 9. Jesse Owens won four gold medals at the Summer Olympics in Berlin.

1937

June 22. Joe Louis defeated James J. Braddock to become heavyweight boxing champion of the world.

1940

October 16. Benjamin O. Davis, Sr., became the first black general in the United States Army.

1941

June 25. President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued an executive order forbidding discrimination in defense industries after pressure from blacks led by A. Philip Randolph.

1942

June. Some blacks and whites organized the Congress of Racial Equality in Chicago. They led a sit-in at a Chicago restaurant.

1944

April 24. The United Negro College Fund was founded.

October 2. The first working, production-ready model of a mechanical cotton picker was demonstrated on a farm near Clarksdate, Mississippi.

1947

April 19. Jackie Robinson became the first black to play major league baseball.