BLACK HISTORY

DEFINING MOVEMENTS AND EVENTS: 1851-1900

1851
• Fugitive Slave Act. included as part of "The Compromise of 1850" and forced the northern states into assisting in the return of runaway slaves or face consequence of fines. It also provided for heavy fines for he aiding, abetting and non-report of fugitive slaves
  
  1852 For two years, the anti-slavery newspaper called The National Era had been running a serialized novel intended to reveal to all Americans the horrible truth about slavery. On March 20, 1852, that novel was published for the first time in Boston. "Uncle Tom's Cabin" told the story of a self-sacrificing slave named Uncle Tom who dies at the hands of his master, and of a heroic slave couple named George and Eliza Harris, who escape the South to ultimately find their freedom in Canada. The novel sold 300,000 copies in its first year alone, and proved to be an unqualified triumph for author Harriet Beecher Stowe and the Abolitionist cause
  1853
• William Wells Brown, a former slave, abolitionist, historian, and physician, publishes the first novel by a black American. Clotel tells the story of the daughters and granddaughters of President Thomas Jefferson and his slave Currer
  
  1854
• Lincoln University , formerly known as Ashmun Institute was charted in Oxford, Pennsylvania
  
• Kansas-Nebraska Act repeals Missouri Compromise, allowing popular sovereignty to determine slave- or free-state status of territories seeking statehood, which increases sectional division within the U.S. and breaks down traditional two-party system, giving rise to Republican Party.
  
• Republican Party is formed to oppose extension of slavery into the territories
  
• Venezuela and Peru abolish slavery
  
• The "Ostend Manifesto" is drawn up by American foreign ministers in Cuba they argue that Cuba must be annexed as a slave state, and that if Spain refuses to sell the island, it should be taken by force. When the document is published in the U.S., the public reaction is negative and the proposal falls from view
  
  1856
• California court affirms freedom of Biddy Mason, who stayed in California when her master returned South
  
  1857
• In Dred Scott v. Sanford case, U.S. Supreme Court rules that Dred Scott cannot sue for his freedom in a free state because he is property while also denyingany possibility of citizenship for African Americans, imperils fugitive slaves, and sets back cause of abolition. The U.S. Supreme Court legalizes slavery in all the territories, exacerbating the sectional controversy and pushing the nation toward civil war. The decision -- only the second time in the nation's history that the Supreme Court declared an act of Congress unconstitutional -- was a clear victory for the slaveholding South
  
• Maine and New Hampshire continue to grant freedom and citizenship to blacks
  
  1859
• John Brown raids federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, WV to undermine slavery. He and 18 other men are captured and executed
  
• During this year, the last ship to bring slaves to the United States, the Clothilde, arrived in Mobile Bay, Alabama
  
• Total number of slaves in the Lower South : 2,312,352 (47% of total population). Total number of slaves in the Upper South: 1,208758 (29% of total population). Total number of slaves in the Border States: 432,586 (13% of total population)
  
• Ableman v. Booth deems the 1850 fugitive slave law constitutional
  
  1860
• Lynching becomes a popular pastime in the south and continues until the early 60's
  
• South Carolina officially secedes from the union after Abraham Lincoln elected President, followed by 10 other states
  
  1861
• Seceding states establish government of the Confederate States of America and create constitution endorsing slavery but prohibiting slave trade
  
• The Civil War begins in Charleston, S.C., as the Confederates open fire on Fort Sumter, and lasts until April 1865. Also called the "war between the states," the conflict pits the federal government of the United States and 11 Southern states that assert their right to secede from the Union
  
  1862
• Penn School on St. Helena Island, South Carolina, founded; one of the first Southern schools for nely freed slaves; Laura Towne and Ellen Muray were founders; Charlotte Forten became the first black teacher in 1863
  
• U.S. Congress bans slavery in the District of Columbia and U.S. territories; slaveholders compensated for their lost "property"
  
• Jefferson Davis denies prisoner of war status to captured Black soldiers
  
• Mary Jane Patterson becomes the first black woman to graduate from an American college. Upon receiving her degree from Oberlin College in Ohio, Patterson heads to Philadelphia where she teaches in the "Institute for Colored Youths"
  
• Harriet Tubman serves as a spy, scout and guerrilla for Union Army
  
  1863
• President Abraham Lincoln signs the Emancipation Proclamationon Jan. 1 and thus frees the slaves of the Confederate states in rebellion against the Union. In addition to lifting the Civil War to the level of a crusade for human freedom, this edict brought substantial practical results because it allowed the Union to recruit black soldiers. African Americans responded in considerable numbers to this invitation to join the U.S. Army, with nearly 180,000 of them enlisting during the remainder of the warbr/>
• Netherlands abolishes slavery
  
• The all Black Soldiered (but not commanded) 54th Massachusettes formed with many members from the African American Masonic Lodge
  
  
• New York Draft. Two years into the Civil War, the Union Army held a draft in New York City that exploded into rioting and violence. At issue was a draft selection process that was plainly directed to enlist poor white laborers, many of them recent immigrants. For three days a mob ravaged New York and ultimately focused its anger on the city's Black population forcing the residents of a Black orphanage to seek refuge in a barge on the east river for several days as the violence subsided. Over 20 Blacks were bludgeoned and lynched during the violence
  1864
• The New Orleans Tribune. On October 4, the New Orleans Tribune began publication. The Tribune was one of the first daily newspapers produced by blacks
  
• The Women's Loyal National League presents Congress with 100,000 signatures demanding the abolition of slavery
  
• Congress makes Black soldiers wages equal to whites in the union army
  
• Louisiana voters approve a new State Constitution abolishing slavery
  
  1865
• Juneteenth or June 19, 1865, is considered the date when the last slaves in America were freed. Although the rumors of freedom were widespread prior to this, actual emancipation did not come until General Gordon Granger rode into Galveston, Texas and issued General Order No. 3, on June 19, almost two and a half years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation
  
• The Civil War ends on April 26, after the surrender of the Confederate generals Robert E. Lee and J.E. Johnston. Congress establishes the U.S. Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands to aid four million black Americans in transition from slavery to freedom. Despite handicaps of inadequate funds and poorly trained personnel, the bureau builds hospitals for, and gives direct medical assistance to, more than 1 million freedmen. Its greatest accomplishments are in education: more than 1,000 black schools are built and over $400,000 spent to establish teacher-training institutions. All major black colleges are either founded by, or receive aid from, the bureau
  
• The Betrayal of Reconstruction: Reconstruction, 1865-1877: Most liberals assumed that the termination of slavery meant that blacks could immediately enter into community life on an equal footing with other citizens. Frederick Douglass, however, complained that the slaves were sent out into the world empty-handed. The ex-slave had not yet been granted his civil rights. Lincoln initiated a program aimed at the rapid reconstruction of the South. He offered immediate pardon to all who would swear allegiance to the Federal Government. As soon as ten percent of the citizens of any state who had voted in 1860 had taken this oath, a state could then hold local elections and resume home rule. After Lincoln's assassination, Andrew Johnson further accelerated the pace of reconciliation. Granting personal pardons by the thousands, he initiated a plan for restoration which was even more lenient. Southern states resumed home rule, and, in the Federal election of 1866, they elected scores of Confederate officials to Congress. One of the most urgent tasks taken up by these new home-rule governments was the determination and definition of the status of the ex-slave. State after state passed black codes which thinly veiled laws forcing Blacks back into a condition of servitude. Radical Republicans in Congress were outraged at the leniency of Johnson's plan for restoration. After refusing to seat many of the Southern delegates to Congress the Radical Republicans went on to pass civil rights legislation which was aimed at protecting the ex-slave from the black codes. President Johnson, however vetoed these bills as well as the Fourteenth Amendment. Congress reacted by impeaching Johnson, falling a single vote shy of impeachment. With the Federal Government protecting the civil and political rights of the ex-slave, the South was unable to use the law to keep him in his place. With groups springing up such as the Ku Klux Klan, Negroes and white sympathizers were beaten and lynched. Although Reconstruction did protect some of the political and civil rights of the Afro-American community, it achieved almost nothing in improving the social and economic situation. ex-slaves needed land, tools, and training to provide him with an economic base that would make his freedom real. The ex-slave had limited education, limited experience, a servile slave attitude, and he was in need of social and economic training to compensate for the years of slavery. Ultimately, many Black communities that were able to prosper after the civil war, despite the odds, were disassembled and their land (40 acres and a mule) returned to their former White owners. Ultimately, reconstruction was the first wave and grandfather for the civil rights movement one hundred years later. The failure of Reconstruction, is evident in the institutionalized racism and disparity still evident in the Black community
  
• Missouri's Constitution converntion abolishes slavery
  Illinois becomes the first state to ratify the 13th amendment abolishing slavery
  
• John S. Rock, a noted Boston lawyer, became the first African-American to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court and the first Black person to speak before the U.S. House of Representatives
  
• U.S. Congress ratifies 13th Amendment abolishing slavery
  
• The largest and most famous uprising by black Jamaicans. In a riot in Morant Bay the crowd attacks the police station and the local militia killing 17 Europeans and wounding 32. Over a few days a number of plantations are also attacked. The authorities react violently and declare martial law. The ringleaders are executed and around 400 blacks are killed
  
  1866
• A Black delegation led by Frederick Douglass met with President Andrew Johnson at the White House to advocate black suffrage. The president expressed his opposition, and the meeting ended in controversy
  
• New Orleans Massacre: On July 30, a group of whites and blacks attempted to hold a Radical political convention in New Orleans. A mob of ex-Confederate soldiers attacked the convention members. The New Orleans police not only failed to protect them, but actually joined in the attack. Nearly 40 convention members, mostly black men, were killed. The Mayor of New Orleans helped plan the attack and President Johnson forbid any interference
  
  
• Howard University founded. When President Andrew Johnson approved the charter enacted by Congress to establish Howard University in Washington, D.C. Only six months earlier, members of The First Congregational Society of Washington had gathered to discuss the creation of a seminary that would train Black preachers. Major General Oliver O. Howard, who also commissioned and oversaw the Freedman's Bureau, joined the founding members of the creation of the proposed seminary. The vision of a seminary had grown into one of a university made up of a College for Medicine and one for Liberal Arts
  
• Memphis massacre. On May 1-3, white civilians and police killed forty-six African-Americans and injured many more, burning ninety houses, twelve schools, and four churches in Memphis, Tennessee
  
• 14th Amendment: "All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws"
  
• Civil Rights Act: The Civil Rights Act (1866) was passed by Congress on 9th April 1866 over the veto of President Andrew Johnson. The act declared that all persons born in the United States were now citizens, without regard to race, color, or previous condition. As citizens they could make and enforce contracts, sue and be sued, give evidence in court, and inherit, purchase, lease, sell, hold, and convey real and personal property. Persons who denied these rights to former slaves were guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction faced a fine not exceeding $1,000, or imprisonment not exceeding one year, or both.
  
• Fisk University founded
  
• The Ku Klux Klan founded in Pulaski, TN
  
• When Cheyenne Indians encountered African-American men fighting in the uniform of the United States Army, they gave them the name "Buffalo Soldiers", a reference to their skin, wooly hair and bravery on the battlefield. After a Congressional act in 1866 Blacks were allowed into the regular army. With the founding of the 9th and 10th Cavalry Regiments, Black men enlisted for five-year terms at $13 a month
  
  1867
• Black suffrage. On January 8, overriding President Johnson's veto, Congress granted the black citizens of the District of Columbia the right to vote
  
  1868
• 13th Amendment: Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
  
• Freedmen's Bureau: On March 3, 1865, Congress established the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, also known as the Freedmen's Bureau. It was to function for only one year, but on July 16, 1866, Congress extended the bureau's life over the veto of President Andrew Johnson. The bureau was organized under the War Department with Major General Oliver O. Howard as the commissioner. The ex-slave states were divided into 10 districts, and an assistant commissioner was appointed to each. The bureau's chief focus was to provide food, medical care, help with resettlement, administer justice, manage abandoned and confiscated property, regulate labor, and its most notable task, establish schools. Over 1,000 schools were built, teacher-training institutions were created, and several black colleges were founded and some were financed with the help of the Freedmen's Bureau. Despite the bureau‰Ûªs success in education, it was unable to cure all problems. The commissioners attempted to give the 850,000 acres of abandoned and confiscated land to freedmen, but President Johnson pardoned Confederates and gave the land back to them. Without the resettlement of land, the bureau instead focused on helping freedmen gain work. They encouraged them to work on plantations, but this eventually led to oppressive sharecropping and tenancy arrangements
  
• Post Civil War Disarmament Of Blacks: After the Civil War, Black Codes often prohibited the purchase or possession of firearms by freedmen. The Special Report of the AntiSlavery Conference of 1867 noted with particular emphasis that under these Black Codes blacks were "forbidden to own or bear firearms, and thus were rendered defenseless against assaults." Mississippi's Black Code included the following provision: Be it enacted that no freedman, free negro or mulatto, not in the military and not licensed so to do by the board of police of his or her county, shall keep or carry firearms of any kind, or any ammunition
  
  1869
• The first Black labor union, the colored national labor union convenes in Washington
  
• Enfranchisement Act attempts to intensify the assimilation process for Native Americans. It includes Clause Six, which states that Indian women who marry non-Indian men will, along with their children, lose their status
  Enfranchisement Act attempts to intensify the assimilation process. It includes Clause Six, which states that Indian women who marry non-Indian men will, along with their children, lose their status.
• Ebenezer Don Carlos Bassett was appointed minister to Haiti -- the first black American diplomat and the first black American presidential appointment. For many years thereafter, both Democratic and Republican administrations appointed black Americans as ministers to Haiti and Liberia
  
  1870
• 15th Amendment: The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
  
• In January, Hiram R. Revels of Mississippi becomes the first African-American elected to the U.S. Senate when he is chosen to complete the term vacated by the former Confederate president, Jefferson Davis
  
• Joseph Hayne Rainey is the first black elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. Reelected four times, Congressman Rainey enjoys the longest tenure of any black during Reconstruction
• Congress passes first Enforcement Acts to control Ku Klux Klan and guarantee civil and political rights to blacks through federal courts
  
• John J. Smith, whose barber shop was an abolitionist rendezvous prior to the Civil War, was elected to the Massachusetts state House of Representatives in 1868 and 1869, and then re-elected in 1972. He was also the first Black to serve onthe Boston Common Council in 1878
• 15th Amendment passes, granting male suffrage regardless of "race, color, or previous condition of servitude."
  
  1871
• From 1871-1912 The height of Global European Imperialism and the "scramble for Africa" proceed, rationalized as a civilizing mission of Africa, that was in fact, based on white supremacy. Europeans assert their spheres of interest in African colonies arbitrarily, cutting across traditionally established boundaries, homelands, and ethnic groupings of African peoples and cultures. Following a divide and rule theory, Europeans promote traditional inter-ethnic hostilities. The European land grab of Africa that began in the mid 1400s culminated over 400 years later with the partitioning of Africa. Armed with guns, fortified by ships, driven by the industry of capitalist economies in search of cheap raw materials, and unified by a Christian and racist ideology against the African 'heathen'
  
• Ku Klux Klan Act (2nd KKK Act in 1915): The Act authorized the President to suspend the writ of habeas corpus, suppress disturbances by force, and impose heavy penalties upon terrorist organizations. President Grant was lax in utilizing this authority, although he did send federal troops to some areas, suspend habeas corpus in nine South Carolina counties, and appoint commissioners who arrested hundreds of Southerners for conspiracy. In United States v. Harris in 1882, the Supreme Court declared the Ku Klux Act unconstitutional, but by that time the Klan had practically disappeared. It disappeared because its original objective‰ the restoration of white supremacy throughout the South‰ had been largely achieved during the 1870s.
  
• Segregated street cars integrated in Louisville, KY following sit-in staged by a Black teenager
  
• Fisk Jubilee Singers were formed at Fisk University and went on a European tour, to raise money for the University, singing before the Queen of England
  
  1872
• J.W. "Bud" Fowler became the first African American to play on a professional on a White baseball team. Legend credits Fowler as the first ball player to wear protective guards on his legs to protect him from the spiking he often received from white players. In July 1887, while playing in the International League for the Binghamton team of New York, Fowler was dismissed from the game as League directors had put a ban on contracts with black players. it would be 58 years before Jackie Robinson would once again break the color barrier
  
  1873
• U.S. Supreme Court rules that the "due process" clause of the 14th Amendment protects national citizenship
  
• Zanzibar closes slave market
• Lewis Hayden, a leading Black abolitionist who harbored over two-thirds of Boston's fugitive slaves in his Beacon Hill house prior to the Civil War, elected to the Massachusetts General Court
  
  1875
• Civil Rights Act (ruled unconstitutional in 1883)That all persons within the jurisdiction of the United States shall be entitled to the full and equal enjoyment of the accommodations, advantages, facilities, and privileges of inns, public conveyances on land or water, theaters, and other places of public amusement; subject only to the conditions and limitations established by law, and applicable alike to citizens of every race and color, regardless of any previous condition of servitude
  
• Clinton Massacre: In Mississippi, over 20 African Americans are killed
  
• Portugal abolishes slavery
  
• Blanche Kelso Bruce of Mississippi elected as first Black U.S. Senator
  
  1876
• Major Race Riots across the United States Begin
  
• The Black Codes begin to coalesce into the era of "Jim Crow"
  
  1877
• Henry O. Flipper became the first black American to graduate from West Point
  
• The end of Reconstruction. A deal with Southern Democratic leaders made Rutherford B. Hayes (Republican) president, in exchange for the withdrawal of federal troops from the South and the end of federal efforts to protect the civil rights of Blacks and the end of the Freedmen's Bureau
  
  1879
• Anglo-Zulu War: The British High Commissioner in South Africa, Sir Henry Bartle Frere, picked a quarrel with the Zulu king, Cetshwayo kaMpande, in the belief that the Zulu army would soon collapse. Three columns of British troops under the command of Lt. Gen. Lord Chelmsford invaded Zululand. Almost immidiately, the war went badly wrong as the British were defeated at Isandlwana mountain. Over 1300 British troops and African allies were killed; however, within six months the kingdom lay in pieces.
  
  1881
• Tennessee enacts a law requiring racial segregation in railroad cars
  
  1883
• U.S. Supreme Court rules that Civil Rights Act of 1875 is unconstitutional, on grounds U.S. Congress had gone beyond its authority by making laws that only states had right to make
  
  1883
• Civil Rights Act of 1875 Overturned: The Court holds, That the denial of equal accommodations in inns, public conveyances and places of public amusement, imposes no badge of slavery or involuntary servitude upon the party, but at most infringes rights which are protected from State aggression by the 14th Amendment, and also holds that accommodations and privileges sought to be protected by the first and second sections of the Civil Rights Act are or are not rights constitutionally demandable. and furthermore that no legislation of the United States under said amendment, or any proceeding under such legislation, can be called into activity, for the reason that the prohibitions of the amendment are against State laws and acts done under State authority
  
  1884
• The Berlin Conference: Europeans needed to establish rules for dealing with one another if they were to avoid constant bloodshed and competition for African resources. The Berlin Conference established those ground rules. Article 34 of the Berlin Act states that any European nation that took possession of an African coast, or named themselves as "protectorate" of one, had to inform the other powers of the Berlin Act of this action. If this was not done then their claim would not be recognized. This article introduced the "spheres of influence" doctrine, the control of a coast also meant that they would control the hinterland to an almost unlimited distance
  
  1885
• King Leopold of Belgium and the genocide of the Congolese. King Leopold's "ownership" of the Congo is perhaps the most devastating, and little known holocaust of economic exploitation the world has ever not heard about. From 1885-1908 Native Congolese were forced to work under horrific conditions cultivating rubber and other resources, under forced labor, as government agents cut off hands, noses, lips and heads to terrorize the pupulace into compliance. Under the auspices of bringing God to the dark continent, Leopold turned the entire country into a forced labor camp in a rush to seek out rubber vines before organized exploitation had a chance to take root. Leopold made himself hundreds of millions in the process by exploiting an area 76 times the size of Belgium. Mostly through the use of African conscripts. (at it's height there were only 420 white agents and 19,000 hired Blacks, who were barred from a cash wage). In the first 30 years of his reign, an estimated 10 million Congolese died as a direct result of his brutality. The year 1960 brought Congolese independence and ultimately brought to power Joseph-Desire Mobutu, who proved to be every bit as corrupt as his European predecessors
  
  1886
• Cuba abolishes slavery
  
• Compulsory school attendance for Native-American children is decreed; residential and boarding schools are established, setting off a cultural destruction previously unprecedented in the America's
  
  1887
• Post-Reconstruction Massacre of Blacks
  
  1888
• Brazil, the last nation in the western hemishphere, abolishes slavery
  
• American Negro Academy
  
  1890
• Jim Crow was the name given to the system of laws and customs that was used to legally enforce segregation and discrimination in the South. The earliest of such laws appeared in 1890 in New Orleans and required local railroads to provide separate cars for white and black passengers
  
• The Mississippi Plan: Mississippi state constitution restricts black votes by requiring a rigged test of "literacy" and "understanding". African-Americans are disenfranchised. Similar statutes were adopted by South Carolina (1895), Louisiana (1898), North Carolina (1900), Alabama (1901), Virginia (1901), Georgia (1908), and Oklahoma (1910)
  
  1891
• Dr. Daniel Hale Williams establishes what will become the oldest freestanding black-owned hospital in the United States -- Provident Hospital and Medical Center in Chicago. Two years later, Dr. Williams performs the first successful open-heart surgery
  
  1893
• Queen Liliuokalani of Hawaii overthrown by John L. Stevens, U.W. Ambassador to Hawaii and planters led by Sanford P. Dole
  
  1894
• Pullman Strike: The Pullman Company strike caused a national transportation crisis. On May 11, African-Americans were hired by the company as strike-breakers.
  
  1895
• Dr. Daniel Hale Williams establishes what will become the oldest freestanding black-owned hospital in the United States -- Provident Hospital and Medical Center in Chicago. Two years later, Dr. Williams performs the first successful open-heart surgery
  
• W.E.B. DuBois receives first doctorate degree awarded to a black from Harvard University in Massachusetts
  
• Cuban insurgents, supported by American sugar planters revolt against Spanish Rule, the "yellow press" led by William Randolph Hearts and Joseph Pulitzer, fan the flames for imperialism as a logical extension of the "Monroe Doctrine"
  
• At the Atlanta Cotton States Exposition, educator Booker T. Washington delivers his "Atlanta Compromise" speech, Washington asserted that vocational education, which gave blacks an opportunity for economic security, was more valuable to them than social advantages or political office. He also stated that the "Negro Problem" would be solved by a policy of gradualism and accommodation. White leaders in both the North and South greeted Washington's speech with enthusiasm, but it disturbed black intellectuals (mainly W.E.B. DuBois) who feared that Washington's philosophy would doom blacks to indefinite subservience to whites
  
  1896
• George Washington Carver was appointed Director of agricultural research at Tuskegee Institute. His work advanced peanut, sweet potato, and soybean farming
  
• Mary Church Terrell becomes the first president of the National Association of Colored Women, working for educational and social reform and to end racial discriminatio/n
  
• U.S. Supreme Court rules "separate but equal" facilities are constitutional
  
• National Association of Colored Women formed
  
  1898
• National Afro American Council formed
  
• Louisiana begins restricting the vote to those males whose grandfathers were eligible to vote on or before January 1, 1867
  
  1899
• Composer and pianist Scott Joplin publishes "The Maple Leaf Rag," one of the most important and popular compositions during the era of ragtime, precursor to jazz
  
• Spanish American War over. Spain cedes Phillipines, Guam and Puerto Rico to the U.S.
  
• Theodore Roosevelt leads the Black Ninth and Tenth regiments into a charge up San Juan Hill in Cuba, and capture it
  
  1900
• Rayford W. Logan, author of, 'The Betrayal of the Negro' stated that after Emancipation, the hopes of the Negroes were betrayed as they were pushed down into second-class status rather than raised up from slavery. in the place of hope, came an increasing growth of racism and of segregation.
  
• Booker T. Washington organizes the National Negro Business League
  
• The Paris Exposition was held, and the United States pavilion housed an exhibition on black Americans. The "Exposition des Negres d'Amerique", developed by Daniel A.P. Murray, won several awards for excellence
  
• Black Cowboys: Nat Love, Bronco Sam, Isom Dart, Bob Leavitt, Eugene Tyler, Louis Sheridan Leary & Dangerfield Newby tame the wild west
  
  
  

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