Events in history help complete the understanding of African American history. This month-by-month outline of historic dates relevant to South Carolina African American history offers readers a perspective that compliments the biographical data on African American leaders. This timeline view helps complete the picture of the African American impact on South Carolina history.
| January | February |
| March | April |
| May | June |
| July | August |
| September | October |
| November | December |
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August |
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1 | Whitney Young named executive director of National Urban League in 1961. Benjamin E. Mays born in 1895. |
17 | Marcus Garvey born in 1887. |
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2 | James Baldwin, writer, was born in 1924. |
18 | The first African-American admitted to the University of Mississippi, James Meredith, graduated in 1963. |
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3 |
The Congress of African Peoples convention was held in Atlanta in 1970. |
19 | Benjamin Banneker published his first Almanac in 1791. |
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4 | "Long" John Woodruff won an Olympic gold medal in the 800-meter run in 1936. |
20 |
Richard Allen chaired the first National Negro Convention in Philadelphia in 1830. |
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5 | Edwin Moses and Evelyn Ashford won gold medals in Olympic track & field in 1984. |
21 |
William "Count" Basie, jazz pianist and musician, was born in 1904. |
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6 |
Voting Rights Act signed by President Johnson in 1965. |
22 |
John Lee Hooker, blues singer and guitarist, was born, 1917. |
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7 | Ralph J. Bunche, diplomat and first African-American winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, was born in 1904. |
23 | National Negro Business League founded in 1900. |
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8 |
Matthew A. Henson, explorer and first to reach the North Pole, was born in 1865. |
24 | Edith Sampson was appointed first African-American delegate to the United Nations by Harry S. Truman, in 1950. |
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9 |
Jesse Owens won four Olympic gold medals in 1936. |
25 |
Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters organized in 1925. |
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10 |
Clarence C. White, composer and violinist, died, 1880. |
26 | William Dawson elected Black Democratic Party vice-presidential candidate, 1943. |
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11 |
Thaddeus Stevens, abolitionist, died in 1868. |
27 | W.E.B. DuBois died in 1963. |
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12 | Frederick Douglass' home in Washington D.C. was declared a national shrine, 1922. |
28 | March on Washington in 1963. |
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13 | Baltimore Afro-American Newspaper was founded in 1892. |
29 | Charlie "Bird" Parker, jazz musician, was born in Kansas City in 1920. |
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14 | Ernest Everett Just, scientist, born in 1883. |
30 | Lt. Col. Guion S. Bluford, Jr, became the first African-American astronaut in space in 1983. |
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15 | Liberia established by freed American slaves, 1824. |
31 | Eldridge Cleaver was born in 1935. |
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16 |
Louis Lomax, author, was born in 1922. |
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