African-Americans in the Twentieth Century

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AFRICAN-AMERICANS IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

*1950*
	Dr. Carter G. Woodson (1875-1950), the "Father of Black History," died on April 3, 1950.
	Edith Spurlock Sampson (1901-1979) became the first African-American to serve on the United States delegation to the United Nations.
	Gwendolyn Brooks (1917- ) became the first African-American to win a Pulitzer Prize for her volume of poetry entitled, Annie Allen.
	Dr. Charles Drew (1904-1950), the founder of the American blood banks, died April 1, 1950.
	Ethel Waters (1900-1977), consummate stage and movie actress, starred on Broadway in The Member of the Wedding.
	The 1950 United States Census produced a figure of over 15 million African-Americans living in the United States. This figure represented ten percent of the total U.S. population.
	Jackie Robinson (1919-1972) became the first African-American to appear on the cover of Life magazine.

*1951*
	Private First Class William Henry Thompson (1928-1950) was posthumously presented the Congressional Medal of Honor for bravery in the Korean War (1950-1953). He was mortally wounded August 6, 1950.
	Dr. Ralph J. Bunche (1904-1971) was appointed Undersecretary of the United Nations on December 25, 1951.
	One of America's worst race riots took place in Cicero, Illinois on July 12, 1951. Governor Adlai Stevenson had to send out the National Guard to stop the violent outbreak.
	Mary Church Terrell (1863-1954), civil rights activist, was able to convince the Washington, DC Municipal Appeals Court to outlaw segregation in all restaurants in the nation's capitol. The ruling was handed down on May 24, 1951.
	Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1921-1968) graduated from Crozer Theological Seminary in June 1951 at age twenty-two.

*1952*
	Ralph Ellison's (1914-1994) classic, Invisible Man, was published in 1952. The following year, 1953, he became the first African-American to win the National Book Award for the Invisible Man.
	1952 saw, for the first time in seventy-one years, that there were no recorded accounts of lynchings in America, according to the Tuskeegee Institute Reports.
	Dorothy L. Maynor (1910- ), opera singer, became the first African-American to perform in the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) Constitution Hall. Not since the refusal to allow Marian Anderson to sing there had the door been opened.
	The United States Supreme Court agreed to hear the cases presented by the NAACP involving segregation in American schools by race.

*1953*
	James Baldwin (1924-1987) became a recognizable American author from the start with his first book, Go Tell It on the Mountain in 1953.
	The NAACP started a more accelerated fight against segregation and discrimination in America. 1953 marked the start of a campaign called the "Fight for Freedom." The NAACP wanted to end the unfair treatment of African-Americans as American citizens by the year of 1963 The 100th Anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation.
	Baton Rouge, Louisiana became the first city to boycott its segregated city buses on June 19, 1953.
	Earl Warren was appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court upon the death of Frederick Moore Vinson. The Warren Court was helpful in moving the court forward in eliminating race barriers during his tenure on the bench.

*1954*
	On May 17, 1954, the United States Supreme Court ruled, in the landmark case of Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka, that "separate but equal" educational facilities were "inherently unequal," and therefore segregation in public education was unconstitutional. Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote the overriding decision, and Thurgood Marshall headed the legal defense team of the NAACP.
	Mary Church Terrell (1863-1954) died on July 24 in Annapolis, Maryland.
	Dr. Alain LeRoy Locke (1886-1954) died on June 9, 1954 in New York.
	Dorothy Dandridge (1924-1965) starred in the movie Carmen Jones which won her an Oscar nomination for Best Actress.
	Benjamin O. Davis, Jr. (1912-2002), the son of Brigadier General Benjamin O. Davis, Sr. (1877-1970), was appointed to General in the United States Air Forces. He was later elevated to the position of Major General in the Air Forces in 1959.
	Willie Mays (1931- ) played for the New York Giants, and his team won the pennant. He was voted the League's Most Valuable Player with a batting average of .345.

*1955*
	Marian Anderson became the first African-American to sing at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City on January 7, 1955.
	Music with a fast rhythm started to grow with Chuck Berry's (1926- ) new record hit "Maybellene," and Rock-and-Roll took hold in 1955.
	Ray Charles (1930- ) also gained popular support with his "I've Got a Woman" in 1955.
	Just when the world had begun to see a decrease in lynchings, the shocking discovery of the body of Emmett Till, a fourteen year old boy from Chicago, was found in the river in Money, Mississippi on August 28, 1955. He had been badly beaten beyond recognition.
	Roy Wilkins (1901-1981) became the Executive Secretary of the NAACP on March 11, 1955.
	The United States Supreme Court ordered the desegregation of all public schools "with all deliberate speed" on May 31, 1955. The order was to implement the May 31, 1954 decision.
	Martin Luther King, Jr. received his Ph.D. in Systematic Theology from Boston University on June 5, 1955.
	On December 1, 1955, Mrs. Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white passenger on a segregated Montgomery, Alabama bus and was arrested.
	On December 5, 1955, the Montgomery Improvement Association was organized, and the famous boycott began which lasted 381* days. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., at twenty-seven years old, became the leading thrust for civil rights in America. (*On December 21, 1956, the United States Supreme Court ruled that segregation on city bus lines was unconstitutional.)

*1956*
	The Nat King Cole Show made its debut on November 11, 1956. It was the first television variety show hosted by an African-American.
	For the first time in America, over 1,000 school districts opened their doors to African-American children on an integrated basis. No desegregation took place in the districts of North Carolina, Georgia, Virginia, South Carolina, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana in the year of 1956.
	Althea Gibson (1927- ) became the first African-American to win a major tennis title - the French Open Women's Single title in 1956.
	Milton Campbell became the first African-American win an Olympic gold medal for the decathlon. He had won the bronze in 1952.

*1957*
	The Civil Rights Act of 1957 provided for the protection of voters, and their right to vote came before Congress in 1957. It was the first major civil rights legislation since 1875.
	On January 12, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLS) was formally organized, and later, on February 14, 1957, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was elected president.
	President Eisenhower sent in Federal troops to enforce court-ordered integration of Little Rock, Arkansas' schools. Nine African-American students, later known as the "Little Rock Nine," did enter the classroom under lots of resistance from the white students and administration.
	Althea Gibson (1927- ) won the singles title at the Wimbledon tennis championships in England in July 1957
	The USSR launched its first space satellite, Sputnik, and America began its race in the field of science and technology in 1957.

*1958*
	Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was stabbed by a deranged woman while he was signing copies of his new book, Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story in a Harlem, New York, department store. He was hospitalized but recovered.
	Alvin Ailey (1931-1989) formed his dance company, The Alvin Ailey Dance Theater, in New York, 1958.
	Sidney Poitier (1924- ) became the first African-American male to be nominated for Best Actor for his role in The Defiant Ones in 1958.
	The Civil Rights Act of 1957 was signed into law on September 9, 1958 by President Eisenhower.

*1959*
	On April 26, 1959, a lynching hit the news. Mack Charles Parker was hung in Poplarville, Mississippi for allegedly raping a white woman. The murderers were never apprehended.
	Lorraine Hansberry (1930-1965) opened her play, A Raisin in the Sun, on March 11, 1959 starring Sydney Poitier. On April 7, 1959, the play won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for best play.
	Berry Gordy, Jr. (1929- ) started his own record company, Motown Record Corporation, in Detroit, Michigan. It grew into a multimillion dollar enterprise with stars such as Smokey Robinson, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, The Jackson Five, The Temptations, The Supremes, plus others.
	Ella Fitzgerald (1918-1996) and William "Count" Basie (1904-1984) both were the first African-Americans to win Grammy Awards in 1959.

*African-Americans in the Twentieth Century*
*1900s*	*1910s*	*1920s*	*1930s*	*1940s*
*1950s*	*1960s*	*1970s*	*1980s*	*1990s*

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