1619 First record of black people in North America - 20 Africans arrive at Jamestown, Virginia.    

1639  Virginia enacts the first law making reference to blacks "Act X, All persons except Negroes are to be provided with arms and ammunition or be fined."   1659  Virginia enacts the first statute referring to Blacks as slaves.
   "Act XVI. Dutch and all strangers of Christian nations are allowed free trade if they give bond and pay import of ten shillings per hogshead laid upon all tobacco exported to any foreign dominions always provided that if Dutch or other foreigners shall import any Negro slaves then, the said Dutch or other foreigners, shall for the tobacco produced by the said Negroes, pay only the impost of two shillings per hogshead, the like being paid by their own nation."

1641  Massachusetts becomes the first colony to authorize slavery by statute.

1691 Act XVI (Virginia): "...whatsoever English or other white man or woman, bond or free, shall intermarry with a Negro, mulatto or Indian man or woman, bond for free, he shall within three months be banished from this dominion."

1669 Fundamental  Constitution of 1669 (Carolina): "Every Freeman shall have absolute power and authority over Negro slaves, of what opinion or religion soever."

1705 Chapter XXIII (Virginia): "All Negro, mulatto and Indian slaves within this dominion shall be held to be real estate and not chattels and shall descend unto heirs and widows according to the custom of land inheritance..."

1739  The Stono Rebellion
     On September 9, 1739, a group of 20 slaves broke into a store near Charleston, South Carolina, killed the storekeepers and stole guns and powder. The group was eventually met by an armed group of white planters. In the ensuing battle, approximately 21 whites and 44 blacks died.

1740 South Carolina statute provided that the killing of "rebellious" negroes was: "hereby declared lawful, to all intents and purposes whatsoever, as fully and amply as if such rebellious negroes had undergone a formal trial and condemnation."

1775  On November 7, 1775, John Murray, Earl of Dunmore and Governor of Virginia, issued a proclamation freeing all "indentured Servants, Negroes or others" able and willing to fight for England in the Revolutionary War.
  On November 12, 1775, General George Washington issued an order instructing recruiters not to enlist, "Negroes, boys unable to bear arms, or old men unable to endure the fatigues of campaign." This was in spite of the distinguished performance by blacks in the Battle of Bunker Hill on June 17, 1775.
  On December 31, 1775, Washington retreated from his original position and authorized the recruitment of free Negroes.  

1776  Declaration of Independence   "We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness..."
   At the signing of the Declaration of Independence, some 500,000 blacks were held in slavery and indentured servitude in the United States. Nearly one out of every six persons in the country was a slave. Clause I of Virginia Bill of Rights:

"1. That all men are by nature equally free and independent, and have certain inherited rights, of which, when they enter into a state of society, they cannot by compact deprive or divest their posterity: namely, the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety."

  But in 1806, the Virginia Court of Appeals held that Clause I did not apply to black slaves.    

1777  Slavery is abolished in Vermont

1787  The United States Constitution adopted including the following provisions:
 Article I, § 2
    Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several states...according to their respective numbers which shall be determined by adding to the whole number of free persons, including those bound to service for a term of years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three-fifths of all other persons.

Article I, § 9
    The Migration or Importation of such persons as any of the States now existing shall think proper to admit shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight, but a Tax or duty may be imposed on such Importation, not exceeding ten dollars for each person.

 Article IV, § 2
    No person held to Service or Labour in One State under the Laws thereof, escaping into another, shall in Consequence of any Law or Regulation therein, be discharged from such Service or Labour, but shall be delivered up on Claim of the Party to whom such Service or Labour may be due.  

1807  Congress passes law prohibiting further import of African slaves    

1842  In Prigg v. Pennsylvania, the United States Supreme Court held that state officials were not required to assist in the return of fugitive slaves, despite the fugitive slave law. The refusal of state courts to order the return of fugitive slaves became a precipitating factor in the decision of southern states to secede.     1847  Robert Morris becomes second black lawyer in America when he is admitted to practice in Massachusetts.    

1848  Robert Morris files an action to desegregate the public schools of Boston (Roberts v. City of Boston).       1849  John Mercer Langston becomes first black known to have applied to (and be rejected by) an American law school. Langston would later study law privately and be admitted to practice in Ohio. In 1869, Langston would found and become the first dean of the Howard Law School.    

1852  Robert Morris appointed first black magistrate (judge) by the Governor of Massachusetts  

1857  Dred Scott v. Sanford
Dred Scott was a Missouri slave whose master had taken him first to Illinois and then to a place in which slavery had been excluded by the Missouri Compromise. When his master brought him back to Missouri, Scott went to court claiming that by having lived in a place where slavery was prohibited, he had become free and as a free citizen, could not be subjected to involuntary servitude. A majority of the Justices of the Supreme Court concluded that Scott was not a citizen.         

1861  The Civil War begins  

1866  Civil Rights Bill of 1866 passed, overturning the decision in Dred Scott.  

1868  Fourteenth Amendment ratified.    

1869  George Lewis Ruffin becomes the first black to graduate from Harvard Law School.
   Howard University becomes the nation's first black law school.    

1872  George Lee elected first black Superior Court judge in the south when he was elected by the South Carolina legislature. 
   Charlotte E. Ray became the first black woman to graduate from Howard Law School and the first black woman admitted to practice in the District of Columbia. 
   Thomas Morris Chester is admitted to practice in Louisiana. Trained in England and admitted to practice in England, Chester the is first black American known to have been admitted in England.  

1890  Mississippi imposes a poll tax of two dollars and required voters to be able to read or understand any section of the state constitution. Franklin A. Denison becomes the first black valedictorian to graduate from Northwestern Law School.  

 1790  The black population of the United States numbered slightly more than 750,000 with 304,000 living in Virginia alone. Included in the total number were 59,000 free blacks. In the South Atlantic states lived 641,691 slaves and 32,048 free blacks.  

1792  Congress enacts first militia law directing every free able-bodied white male citizen to be enrolled in the militia.

 1793   The first fugitive slave law was enacted. It allowed the master of a slave who had escaped and fled to another state, to seize the runaway wherever found. The alleged runaway was not entitled to a jury trial and could be convicted on oral testimony of the claimant or on an affidavit certified by a magistrate of the state from which he/she was alleged to have fled.  

1830  There were more than two million slaves in the United States, including 319,000 free blacks. By the Civil War, there were almost four million slaves.    

1845  Macon B. Allen is the first black lawyer regularly admitted to the Bar of any State.      

1854  Macon B. Allen appointed Justice of the Peace in Boston.  

1862   Slaves in the District of Columbia are emancipated. The proclamation included a provision of $100,000 to transport freedmen who volunteered to emigrate to Haiti or Liberia.  

1863  President Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation:
    "...all persons held as slaves within any State, or designated part of the State, the people whereof shall be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free."  

1865  Freedman's Bureau created to address the basic needs of former slaves.

  Civil War ends. 

 John Swett Rock of Massachusetts becomes the first black lawyer admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court. Dr. Rock, a physician, gave up his medical practice in 1861 to study law.      

1870  Fifteenth Amendment ratified and Civil Rights Act of 1870 passed.   Jonathan Jasper Wright elected as first black to sit on any state supreme court when he is elected Justice of the Supreme Court of South Carolina.   
 Hiram Revels, a black lawyer admitted to practice in Indiana, becomes first black elected to the U.S. Senate, from Mississippi.  

1875  Civil Rights Act of 1875 passed.  

1880  In Ex Parte Virginia and Strauder v. West Virginia, the Supreme Court affirmed the right of blacks not to be systematically excluded from juries because of race or color.
John W. E. Thomas is admitted to practice in Illinois. As the first black in the Illinois legislature, Thomas drafted the first civil rights law in Illinois.

1883  George Lewis Ruffin, an 1869 graduate of Harvard Law School, became the first black in Massachusetts to hold judicial office higher than magistrate.  

1891  The first bar association organized by African American lawyers--The Colored Bar Association Of Mississippi--held its first meeting in Greenville, Mississippi. This precipitated the movement to form other black bar organizations in other states.

1895  South Carolina imposes poll tax and literacy requirement for voters.

1896  In Plessy v. Ferguson, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the doctrine that the provision of "separate but equal" facilities met the requirements of the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution.   Ferdinand Lee Barnett, an 1878 graduate of the Northwestern University Law School, is appointed the first black Assistant State's Attorney in the State of Illinois.
   Violette Anderson of Chicago became the first black woman admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court.

1899  Robert Sengstacke Abbott graduated from Kent College of Law. In 1905, Abbott founded the Chicago Defender.

1901  Robert H. Terrell becomes first black appointed to a judgeship by a U. S. President when he was appointed to the District of Columbia Municipal court

1905  In June, a group of young African Americans met in Niagara Falls, Canada, and developed an action plan to improve the lot of African Americans. Subsequent meetings were held in Boston in 1907 and Oberlin, Ohio, in 1908. This became known as the Niagara movement.

1909  A group of prominent white Americans, concerned about the lack of racial progress, called a conference and invited the members of the Niagara movement. The conference concluded that a new permanent organization was needed to lead the assault on bigotry and discrimination. That organization was to be called The National Association For The Advancement Of Colored People.

1910  The NAACP is formed.

1911  The National Urban League is created to address the economic and social condition of African Americans.    William Henry Lewis of Massachusetts was nominated by President Taft and confirmed by the U.S. Senate as Assistant Attorney General of the United States--the first black to hold high office in the Justice Department.

1914  Cook County Bar Association is founded because of exclusion of blacks from membership in the Chicago Bar Association and to promote election of African American judges.

1915  Guinn v. U.S. declared unconstitutional the grandfather clauses of Maryland and Oklahoma constitutions as being repugnant to the Fifteenth Amendment. Guinn was the first case in which the NAACP participated.

1925  The National Bar Association is founded. The National Negro Business League (NNBL) was founded by Booker T. Washington 1900. Lawyers were among its first members. In 1909, a black lawyer's auxiliary was formed, called the National Negro Bar Association (NNBA). In 1925, the black lawyers group ended its association with the NNBL and formed the National Bar Association. Albert Bailey George is first black elected to Municipal Court in Chicago.  

1931  Jane Matilda Bolin becomes first black woman to graduate Yale Law School.

1934   Charles Houston became the first Special Counsel of the NAACP. Thurgood Marshall became Assistant Special Counsel.

1937  William H. Hastie appointed as Judge in the Virgin Islands by President Roosevelt.

1939  NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. created    Herman E. Moore appointed Judge in the Virgin Islands Jane Matilda Bolin becomes first black woman judge in the United States when she is appointed to the Domestic Relations Court in New York, N.Y.

1940  Thurgood Marshall became Director Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc.

1945  Irwin C. Mollison appointed to the United States Customs Court.

1949  William Hastie becomes first black federal judge under Article III of the Constitution when he is appointed to the U.S. court of Appeals for the third Circuit. William Coleman is the first black law clerk on the U.S. Supreme Court.

1961  James B. Parsons becomes first black United States District Court Judge

1962  Thurgood Marshall confirmed as Judge of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.

1965  Thurgood Marshall appointed Solicitor General of the United States.

1966  Constance Baker Motley is appointed to the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. She is the first African-American woman appointed to the federal judiciary. She wrote in a Yale Law Journal article entitled My Personal Tribute to Thurgood Marshall.

1967  Thurgood Marshall is appointed to the United States Supreme Court.

1979  Amalya Kearse becomes the first black woman appointed to a United States court of appeals.

1991   Clarence Thomas becomes the second black appointed to the United States Supreme Court.

1992 The Just The Beginning Foundation grew out of a weekend celebration in September 1992, "Just The Beginning - A Celebration of Integration of the Federal Judiciary."  This event was held in Chicago to celebrate the integration of the federal judiciary and to honor Judge James Parsons, the first African-American United States District Court Judge, who was retiring after 31 years of service on the federal bench.  For the first time in history, 52 African-American federal judges from across the country and hundreds of African American lawyers gathered to celebrate the history, struggles, and accomplishments of African-Americans in the law. Inspired by the events of that weekend, JTBF was founded as a not-for-profit organization of judges, lawyers, and citizens dedicated to improving the legal system in the United States and preserving and honoring the legacy of African-Americans in the federal judiciary.