50 Years of Black History

From the civil rights movement to the election of President Barack Obama, Henry Louis Gates Jr., The Root’s editor-in-chief, presents a timeline of the highlights of African-American history.

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1960

Feb. 1, 1960, four students at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College in Greensboro, N.C., begin a sit-in at Woolworth's Drug Store.
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1963

Sidney Poitier wins Best Actor for Lilies of the Field. Aug. 28, The March on Washington becomes the largest civil rights demonstration in American history, a moment defined by Dr. King's historic "I Have a Dream" speech.
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1965

Feb. 21, Malcolm X is assassinated in Harlem by members of the Nation of Islam. Aug. 6, President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act.
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1967

Jan. 3, Edward William Brooke III becomes the first black senator (Massachusetts) since Reconstruction. Aug. 31, Thurgood Marshall takes his seat as the first African-American justice of the United States Supreme Court.
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1968

April 4, Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated in Memphis, Tenn.
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1972

November, Barbara Jordan of Houston and Andrew Young of Atlanta become the first blacks elected to Congress from the South since 1898.
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1973

May 29, Tom Bradley elected mayor of Los Angeles; Oct. 16, Maynard Jackson elected mayor of Atlanta.
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1974

April 8, Henry Louis "Hank" Aaron hits his 715th home run, breaking Babe Ruth's longstanding record. Nov. 12, in the Bronx, Clive "Hercules" Campbell, aka "Kool Herc," starts using two turntables and chanting rhymes over the beat, forming the basis of rap.
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1975

Arthur Ashe becomes the first African-American male to win the British Men's Singles championship at Wimbledon.
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1977

Feb. 3, The eighth and final episode of the mini-series, Roots, based on Alex Haley’s novel, airs, receiving the highest ratings for a single program.
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1982

Nov. 30, 1982, Michael Jackson releases Thriller; with sales of $110 million, it becomes the best-selling recording of all time.
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1983

April 12, Harold Washington elected mayor of Chicago; Alice Walker's The Color Purple wins the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award.
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1984

Jesse Jackson wins one-fourth of the votes cast in the Democratic primaries and caucuses, and one-eighth of the convention delegates in his first presidential bid.
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1985

The Oprah Winfrey Show is syndicated in more than 120 American cities.
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1989

March, Frederick Drew Gregory becomes the first African American to command a space shuttle, the Discovery; Aug. 10, General Colin L. Powell named chair of the United States Joint Chiefs of Staff; Nov. 7, L. Douglas Wilder elected first black governor of any state (Virginia), David Dinkins elected mayor of New York.
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1990

Feb. 11, Nelson Mandela is freed after 27 years in prison; August Wilson wins Pulitzer Prize for The Piano Lesson.
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1991

March 3, Rodney King brutally beaten in San Fernando Valley by L.A. police officers, sparking riots, an investigation and subsequent trial; Feb. 1, Harvard University commits resources to create major, endowed research center in African and African-American Studies; Oct. 15, Judge Clarence Thomas confirmed by the Senate, by a vote of 52-48, as second black associate justice of the Supreme Court, following bitter testimony of sexual harassment by law professor, Anita Hill.
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1992

April 30, The Cosby Show broadcasts final episode of its eight-season run; Sept. 12, Dr. Mae Jemison becomes first black female astronaut; Nov. 3, Carol Moseley Braun is the first black woman elected to the U.S. Senate (Illinois).
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1993

Oct. 7, Toni Morrison becomes the first African American to win the Nobel Prize for Literature.
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1995

Oct. 16, Million Man March, under the leadership of Minister Louis Farrakhan, held in Washington, D.C.
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2000

2000-July, Venus Williams becomes the first black woman to win the Women's Singles title at Wimbledon since Althea Gibson in 1957 and 1958; December, President George W. Bush appoints Colin L. Powell as secretary of state, and Condoleezza Rice as national security adviser.
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2002

March 24, Halle Berry becomes the first African-American female to win an Academy Award for Best Actress; Denzel Washington becomes second African-American male to win Best Actor.
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2005

Jan. 26, Condoleezza Rice becomes first black female secretary of state; Aug. 29, Hurricane Katrina hits Louisiana and southern Mississippi, devastating New Orleans.
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2008

Nov. 4, U.S. Sen. Barack Hussein Obama becomes the 44th president of the United States.