1900–2004

1900
Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing is first performed.

1901
Joe Walcott defeated Rube Ferns in five rounds to become the first black welterweight champion.

1902
Joe Gans became the first black lightweight champion by knocking out Frank Erne in the 1st round. Known as the Old Master he was perhaps the greatest fighter in the history of the lightweight division.

Langston Hughes is born.

Marian Anderson is born.

1903
Maggie Lena Walker founded the Saint Luke Penny Savings Bank, becoming the first black woman to head a bank.

1904
George Poage is the first black to compete in the Olympics.

Gertrude Pridgett teams up with Will Rainey who leads the Rabbit Foot Minstrels troop. They marry and call themselves "Rainey and Rainey, Assassinators of the Blues."

1906
Paul Laurence Dunbar dies in Dayton, Ohio, on February 9th.

1907
Alain L. Locke is the first black Rhodes scholar.

1908
Jack Johnson was the first black heavyweight boxing champion. He defeated Tommy Burns

1909
A racially-mixed group meets at Niagara Falls to organize the NAACP. Matthew Henson reaches the North Pole.

Matthew Henson became the first black to reach the North Pole, accompanying Robert Peary.

A racially-mixed group met at Niagara Falls to organize the NAACP.

1912
W.C. Handy's Memphis Blues was the first published blues number. Bill Foster's comedy, The Railroad Porter was the first black film.

1913
Rosa Lee Parks is born.

1914
Sam Lucas was the first black actor in a full-length Hollywood film--he played Tom in Uncle Tom's Cabin.

1915
Ernest E. Just receives the first Springarn Medal for pioneering research on fertilization and cell division.

The Lincoln Motion Picture Company was the first black movie production company.

Ernest E. Just received the first Springarn Medal for pioneering research on fertilization and cell division.

1917
10,000 African-Americans demonstrate against lynching and racial discrimination in New York City.

The jazz migration from New Orleans to Chicago begins.

Tally Holmes and Lucy Stone were the first black players to win the American Tennis Association championship.

1919
Fritz Pollard was the first black professional football player. He was also the first black coach. He coached the Indians to a world professional championship in 1920.

The biggest race riot in Chicago rages for 4 days. 38 die, more than 500 are injured, and about 1,000 homes are burned.

1920s
James Weldon Johnson became the first black secretary of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. He was preceded by 3 white women and 2 white men.

Ma Rainey makes more than 50 hit recordings. Her rapid rise to fame and her unique style leads to her title as "The Mother of the Blues."

1921
Aviator Bessie Coleman became the first African American and woman to be licensed as an international pilot.

Georgiana Simpson and Sadie M. Alexander were the first black women awarded Ph.D. degrees.

1923
The Chipwoman's Fortune was the first Broadway play by a black writer, Willis Richardson.

1924
DeHart Hubbard was the first black to win an Olympic gold medal.

Dixie to Broadway, "the first real revue by Negroes," opened in New York City. Florence Mills starred.

1926
Negro History Week is first observed.

Tiger Flowers became the first black middleweight champion, defeating Harry Greb in 15 rounds.

1928
Archibald Motley was the first black artist to have a show at the New Gallery of New York.

1929
Martin Luther King, Jr. birthday.

The first feature-length black Hollywood films were Hearts in Dixie and Hallelujah.

1933
Caterina Jarboro was the first black to perform with an American opera company, the Chicago Opera Company. She was the first flack prima donna of an opera company, performing Aida at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City.

Hank Aaron is born.

1936
Mary Mcleod Bethune was the first black woman to receive a major appointment from the U.S. government and was named Director of Negro Affairs of the National Youth Administration.

Jesse Owens defied Hitler's racist predictions and won four gold medals at the Summer Olympics in Berlin.

1938
Crystal Bird Fauset of Pennsylvania was the first black woman elected to a state legislature.

1939
Marian Anderson performs on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.

Way Down South was the first film with a script by black writers-Langston Hughes and Clarence Muse.

Jane Matilda Bolin was the first black woman judge in New York City.

The first full-length black film was Oscar Micheaux's Birthright.

1940
Hattie McDaniel was the first black to receive an Oscar for her supporting role in Gone With the Wind.

Benjamin O. Davis Sr. was the first black general in the regular army.

Booker T. Washington was the first black to be pictured on a U.S. postage stamp (the 10-cent stamp.)

1943
W.E.B. Du Bois was the first black admitted to the National Institute of Arts and Letters.

1945
Branch Rickey of the Brooklyn Dodgers signs Kansas City Monarchs shortstop Jackie Robinson. He was the first black in the major leagues, and played first base.

1946
Kenny Washington of the Los Angeles Rams was the first black player on professional football team - Los Angeles Rams.

1948
Alice Coachman was the first black woman to win a gold medal in the Olympics.

1949
The first black-owned radio station was WERD in Atlanta.

1950
Edith S. Sampson became the first black named to the U.S. delegation to the United Nations.

Ralph J. Bunche, undersecretary of the U.N., was the first black to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Gwendolyn Brooks was the first black to receive a Pulitzer Prize for poetry.

Althea Gibson was the first African American invited to enter the all-England tournament at Wimbleton.

Arthur Dorrington of the Atlantic City Seagulls was the first black man in organized hockey to suit up.

Ralph J. Bunche is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

1951
Amos 'n' Andy moved to television, the first TV show to have an all-black cast.

1952
Jackie Robinson was named Director of Communication for NBC, becoming the first black executive of a major radio-TV network.

1953
Lorraine Williams was the first black to win a nationally recognized tennis title, the junior girls' championship.

225,000 students boycott Chicago schools in a Freedom Day protest of de facto segregation.

A group of black retail florists forms the International Florists Association.

1954
Benjamin O. Davis Jr. was the first black general in the U.S. Air Force.

The U.S. Supreme Court orders the desegregation of public schools across the country.

1955
E. Frederic Morrow was the first black named to an executive position in the White House. He was appointed administrative aide to President Eisenhower.

Marian Anderson was the first black signed by the Metropolitan Opera.

The Brooklyn Dodgers made history as the first team with a majority of black players.

1956
Nat King Cole was the first black with his own network TV show, The Nat King Cole Show.

1957
Charles Sifford was the first black to win a major professional golf tournament (Long Beach Open).

Althea Gibson was the first black to win a major U.S. national tennis championship. She also won both the women's single and doubles at Wimbledon

A federal court orders Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, to integrate. Governor Orval E. Faubus sends the Arkansas National Guard to block integration and preserve order. President Dwight Eisenhower puts the National Guard under federal control and sends 1,000 U.S. Army troops to enforce the court order.

1958
Clifton R. Wharton, Sr. is named minister to Romania.

Althea Gibson is voted female athlete of the year.

Ruth Carol Taylor was the first black woman to become a stewardess.

Lorraine Hansberry's Raisin in the Sun was the first Broadway play by a black woman to be produced.

1959
Berry Gordy's Motown label releases its first single.

1960
Lorraine Hansberry's Raisin in the Sun was the first Broadway play by a black writer to win the New York Drama Critics Award.

1961
With a contract for $85,000, Willie Mays made more money than any other baseball player at the time.

Ernest Davis of Syracuse is the first black to win the Heisman Memorial Trophy.

1962
Jackie Robinson was the first black inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

John "Buck" O'Neil was the first black coach of a major league baseball team, the Chicago Cubs.

1963
Martin Luther King, Jr. delivers his I Have a Dream speech in the shadows of the Lincoln Memorial.

A 5-cent Emancipation Proclamation stamp celebrates 100 years (1863-1963).

Sidney Poitier was the first black to receive an Academy Award for best actor for his performance in Lilies of the Field.

1964
Martin Luther King Jr. was the youngest person awarded the Nobel Peace Prize—he was 35.

Arthur Ashe was the first African-American to play on the U.S. Davis Cup tennis team.

1965
Patricia R. Harris took the post of U.S. Ambassador to Belgium, becoming the first African-American U.S. ambassador.

Malcolm X is shot to death in New York.

1966
Emmett Ashford becomes the first African-American umpire in the major league.

Robert C. Weaver became the first black cabinet member when appointed by President Johnson to be secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Andrew F. Brimmer was the first black governor of the Federal Reserve Board.

Emmett Ashford was the first black umpire in the major leagues. Andrew F. Brimmer was the first black governor of the Federal Reserve Board.

1967
Thurgood Marshall joins the U.S. Supreme Court.

Emlen Tunnell, a defensive back for the New York Giants, was the first black elected to the Football Hall of Fame.

1968
Martin Luther King, Jr. is assassinated in Memphis, and riots break out across the country.

The Jackson 5 audition for Berry Gordy—he signs them on the spot.

Henry Lewis was the first black musical director of an American orchestra, the New Jersey Symphony.

Shirley Chisholm was the first black woman in Congress.

Moneta J. Sleet Jr. of Ebony magazine was the first black male to receive a Pulitzer Prize for photography.

1970
Joseph L. Searles III became the first black on the New York Stock Exchange.

Cheryl Brown, Miss Iowa, was the first African-American contestant in the nation's popular Miss America Beauty Pageant.

1971
Samuel Lee Gravely, Jr. was the first black admiral in the U.S. Navy.

1972
Shirley Chisholm was the first black woman nominated for president of the U.S.

Jerome H. Holland was the first black elected to the board of directors of the New York Stock Exchange.

Bob Douglas, owner and coach of the New York Renaissance (which won 88 consecutive games in 1933) was the first black man to be elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame.

1973
Pittsburgh-born artist Henry O. Tanner is featured on a stamp.

1975
Lee Elder was the first black to play in the Masters Tournament at Augusta, Georgia.

The first black-owned TV station was Detroit's WGPR-TV.

Jesse Jackson founds People United To Serve Humanity (PUSH) at a Chicago meeting.

Hank Aaron receives the Springarn Medal for achievements in baseball.

Revolutionary War soldier Salem Poor (the first acknowledged African-American in the military) is featured on a postage stamp.

1976
Jimmy Carter appoints Patricia R. Harris to his cabinet.

Patricia R. Harris was the first black woman named to the cabinet of a U.S. president. She was appointed secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development by Jimmy Carter.

1978
Harriet Tubman appears on a 13-cent stamp, inaugurating the ongoing Black Heritage series.

1979
The first black general in the Marine Corps was Frank E. Peterson, Jr.

Hazel Johnson was appointed the first black woman general.

1983
Guion Steward Bluford, Jr. was the first black in space.

Vanessa Williams, Miss New York, was crowned the first black Miss America.

1986
Matthew Henson, who joined Robert E. Peary on six expeditions, appears with him on a stamp.

Jean Baptiste Pointe De Sable appears on the 22-cent stamp.

Navy Lt. Commander Donnie Cochran became the first black pilot to fly with the celebrated Blue Angels precision aerial demonstration team.

Debi Thomas was the first black to win a world figure skating championship.

1988
The Most Reverend Eugene Antonio Marino became the nation's first black Roman Catholic archbishop during an installation mass in the Atlantic Civic Center.

1989
Oprah Winfrey forms her own television and film production company.

1993
Maya Angelou creates and renders the poem On the Pulse of Morning at the inauguration of fellow Arkansan, Bill Clinton.

1996
Barbara Jordan dies.

1997
Kwanzaa gets its own stamp.

1999
The Little Rock Nine received the Congressional Gold Medal on November 9th. They integrated Little Rock's Central High School 3 years after the Brown vs. Board of Education ruling.

2002
Vonetta Flowers was the first African-American to win a gold medal in a Winter Olympics. She wins in the women's bobsleigh event on February 19th.

On March 24th, Actress Halle Berry became the first African-American woman to win the Academy Award for best actress for the film Monster’s Ball.

2003
Dennis Archer became the first African-American president of the American Bar Association.

2004
Dr. Johnnetta B. Cole named chairwoman of United Way of America.