Charles Chesnutt's Life...In Broader Terms
(This page was developed by a Berea College student as part of a course on Chesnutt)
Charles Chesnutt lived in a very historical era in American history. Throughout his life, he saw many events that shaped his life, as well as events that still shape our lives today. While many occurrences have been omitted, some of the most important ones are listed below, with several links at the end. The Civil War, The Reconstruction of the South, race riots in several prominent cities, and the long, hard battle for civil rights that he did not see recognized, where some of the things he experienced. Chesnutt also had many contemporary authors, so some of the publications of his time have also been listed to give an idea of what the time frame was like and how other people viewed their surroundings.1857
Dred Scott decision in which the Supreme Court declared Missouri Compromise unconstitutional
1858
Charles Chesnutt is born
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow publishes The Courtship of Miles Standish
1859
Stephen Douglas wins second term in Senate, defeating Abe Lincoln.
Legislature resolves to secede from Union immediately if a Republican
president is elected.
John D. Rockefeller helps Negro buy his wife out of slavery.
1860
May 16-Lincoln declared republican presidential nominee.
November 16-Linclon elected president.
December 20-South Carolina secedes from the Union.
1861
April 15-Lincoln declares "state of insurrection."
May 6-Confederate Congress declares war on the United States.
1862
Morrill Land Grant Act
1863
Lincoln delivers the Gettysburg Address
and issues the Emancipation Proclamation.
1865
Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrenders to Union General Ulysses
S. Grant.
13th Amendment to the US Constitution.
President Lincoln is shot while attending Our American Cousin at
Ford's Theater by John Wilkes Booth.
The Ku Klux Klan is organized
1866
14th Amendment to the US Constitution.
Race riots erupt in Memphis, TN
1867
Reconstruction begins in the South
Howard University and Morehouse College open to help in the advancement
of ex-slaves and other Negroes
1868
14th Amendment ratified
Ulysses S. Grant is voted President of the United States
Twenty-eight holding seats in the Georgia legislature are expelled on
grounds that
Negroes have the right to vote, but not to hold office
1869
The first national Negro labor group is organized (Colored National Labor
Union)
1870
Civil Rights Act (Enforcement Act)
Two negroes, Joseph Rainey and the Reverand Hiram R. Revels, take seats
in Congress
1871
Congress is petitioned by the Colored National Labor Union for a system
of educational and technological training
1872
Civil Rights Act (Ku Klux Klan Act)
First Negro enters Naval Academy
Freedman's Bureau collapses
1875
Civil Rights Act (Second)
1876
In the United States v. Cruikshank, the Supreme Court restricts
14th Amendment to Civil Rights violations committed by states instead
of individuals
1877
Rutherford B. Hayes declared President
End of Reconstruction of the South
1881
President Garfield is shot
Booker T. Washignton heads the Tuskegee Institute
Chester Arthur becomes president
1883
Spellman College founded in the basement of a church for the education
of Negroes
Nullification of Civil Rights Act of 1875
1885
Grover Cleveland inaugurated as president
1888
Negro banks founded in Washington D. C. and Richmond, VA
Benjamin Harrison elected president
1890
Morrill Act (2nd)
1892
Grover Cleveland becomes president for a second term
1895
Frederick Douglass, one of the greatest aboloitionist and speakers for
Negroes, passes away
1896
Plessy v. Ferguson (Supreme Court Rule that "separate but equal" facilities
were constitutional)
1897
William McKinley is sworn in as president
1898
Wilmington race riots
1899
W. E. B. Dubois publishes a study based on the history and environment
rather than genetics or race as factors, called The Philadelphia Negro
1900
G. H. White, a representative for the Negroes, from North Carolina, introduced
a bill to make lynching a federal crime, but the bill is defeated
National Negro Business League is organized by Booker T. Washington
W. E. B. Dubois warns that the biggest problem for the new century will
be the "color line"
William McKinley elected for his second term as president
1901
President McKinley is shot and dies eight days later from an infection
Theodore Roosevelt sworn in as president
1903
Orville and Wilbur Wright become "first in flight"
Jack London publishes The Call of the Wild
1904
In Kentucky, a bill is passed which imposes a $1000 fine plus $100 a day
against institutions admitting both white and black students
1905
Roosevelt elected to full term as president
The Clansman, a novel about the KKK written by Thomas Dixon Jr.
is published
Movement called for by W. E. B. Dubois gathers, urging racial equality
1906
When the revival of the KKK is urged along with disenfranchisement of
the Negroes by the press in Atlanta, violence and rioting begin in Brownsville,
Georgia
1908
William Taft wins presidential election over William Jennings Bryan
Springfield, IL race riots
1910
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (N. A. A. C.
P.) is founded by W. E. B. Dubois, Jane Adam, John Dewey, and John Milholland
1912
The Lincoln Institute, meant to provide vocational training for Negroes,
open with protest from Negro leadrers such as W. E. B. Dubois
Woodrow Wilson is elected president
Titanic sinks after hitting iceberg
1914
Robert Frost publishes North of Boston, his first book
Harriet Tubman, a fugitive slave and abolitionist, dies
1915
Supreme Court declared restrictive residential ordinances in Louisville
Kentucky illegal
KKK revived by William J. Simmons of Atlanta
Booker T. Washington dies
1916
Woodrow Wilson elected to second presidential term
1917
The United States enters World War I
East St. Louis, IL race riots
1918
World War I ends
1919
Chicago race riots
1920Women gain the right to vote
Warren G. Harding wins presidential election
National Negro Baseball League founded by Rube Foster
1921
Tulsa race riots
1922
The Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill, which would have made law officers be fined
for allowing Negroes to be lynched, failed in the senate
1925
Ministers and businessmen in Greenswood, Mississippi lead a mob in the
lynching of 2 negroes
A minister known for "preaching equality" is shot by mob
KKK leader receives life imprisonment after being convicted for the rape
and murder of an Indianapolis woman
1927Calvin Coolidge wins presidential election
for second term
Television is first introduced to the American public
1928
Hoover becomes president, promising "a chicken in every pot and a car
in every garage"
Blackbirds of 1928, featuring an all-Negro cast, opens to popular
acclaim
1929
Stock Market Crash
An all negro union receives a charter from the American Federation of
Labor
Amos 'n' Andy, a radio program, becomes a hit while offending many negroes
Hot Chocolates, a negro musical revue by Fats Waller, opens
1930
Two negroes accused of killing two whites are dragged from jail and lynched
by mob numbering thousands
1931
Scottsboro 9 scheduled to die for rape
1932
Retrial for Scottsboro 9
Laura Ingalls Wilder issues first in series of books titled Little
House
Charles Chesnutt dies
The Civil War
Race Riots
Scottsboro 9
Timeline compiled by Kimberly Branson using the Chronicle of America, Copyright 1995 edited by Clifton Daniel, John Kirshon, and Ralph Berens
| Page created January 1999 Last update: Jan, 29 1999 For more information on this site Click Here. |