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African American & Black History Timeline
Here’s a compilation of key dates related to African American & Black history in the United States. For more information and resources, visit the blog article here!
15th century – Portugal becomes first European country to participate in trade of enslaved African people
December 6, 1492 – Columbus lands on Hispaniola (now Haiti and the Dominican Republic)
August 1619 – Arrival of the White Lion in Jamestown, Virginia. Commonly recognized as the “beginning” of African slavery in the American colonies
1705 – Passing of the Virginia Slave Codes
1861-1865 – Civil War
January 1, 1863 – President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. This was later codified into law with the 13th Amendment on December 6, 1865
June 19, 1865 – The news of the end of the Civil War and emancipation reached Texas. President Joe Biden established Juneteenth as a federal holiday in 2021
July 9, 1868 – 14th Amendment ratified
February 3, 1870 – the 15th Amendment was ratified, allowing Black men to vote
April 20, 1871 – Civil Rights Act of 1871
1896 – Plessy v Ferguson
August 18, 1920 – the 19th Amendment was ratified, allowing women to vote. However, this did not eliminate all barriers for Black women to exercise their voting rights
1954 – Brown v Board of Education
July 2, 1964 – Civil Rights Act of 1964
August 6, 1965 – Voting Rights Act of 1965
1966 – Kwanzaa established as a holiday celebrating the pan-African diaspora
April 11, 1968 – Civil Rights Act of 1968 (Fair Housing Act)
1976 – National Black History Month established
1983 – Martin Luther King Jr. Day established as a federal holiday 15 years after being proposed
2000 – Alabama is the last state to formally repeal its ban on interracial marriage
2007 – The United Nations proclaimed March 25 as International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade
February 26, 2012 – Fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin, launching the #BlackLivesMatter movement
July 17, 2014 – Fatal shooting of Eric Garner
August 9, 2014 – Fatal shooting of Michael Brown
March 13, 2020 – Fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor
Want to learn more about different cultural and cause-related observances? Check out the Social Impact Nerd Observation Calendar.
Visit the Social Impact Nerd Bookshop for suggested reads. As an Affiliate, Social Impact Nerd will receive 10% of all sales made through its lists. You’ll be supporting local indie bookstores too!
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Adoption, Fostering, & Guardianship
A compilation of resources related to adoption, fostering, guardianship, and kinship care
Photo by Pavel Danilyuk on Pexels.com About
My Nana still shares stories of her many years as a Court Appointed Special Advocate and social worker. I have family members who are adopted. I grew up experiencing abuse from a parent and have a lot of strong, messy feelings about parenthood. One of my closest friends gave a child up for adoption. I’m queer and unable to have a biological child with my partner. All of this is to say – this is a topic I’m deeply invested in.
From my childhood, I can personally attest that the child welfare system in the United States is horribly broken. There’s a long history of birth parents (particularly BIPOC) being coerced into giving up their kids, open adoptions not being honored, inaccessible medical records, loss of cultural identity, abusive foster homes, and far more.
Based on what I’ve learned from former foster youth and adoptees, a functional system would:
- at minimum, provide matching funds to birth parents when foster caregivers receive financial benefits
- eliminate the ability to change original birth certificates and make parental medical information private
- prioritize preventative support and reunification
- establish kinship placement and guardianship (in that order) as the norm rather than adoption until the adoptee is able to provide informed consent
- be a public government program and not run primarily through private religious agencies
On top of this, we’re in an era of political movement attacking comprehensive sex education, birth control and abortion access, LGBT+ rights, and public assistance programs – all of which contribute to the issue.
Facts & Figures
- There are 391,098 youth in foster care across the nation. (Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System, 2021)
- Adoptees are 4x more likely to attempt suicide than non-adoptees (National Library of Medicine, 2013)
- 13 states have laws allowing state-licensed adoption agencies to refuse LGBT+ people to adopt, based on the agency’s religious affiliation (Movement Advancement Project)
- About 1/3 of youth in foster care are LGBT+ (The Imprint, 2021)
Resources to Explore
Observances
These holidays were established in part to encourage adoption, but are also used to raise awareness about the experiences of adoptees as the narrative shifts to include more discussion about the associated trauma and ethical concerns.
November: National Adoption Month
November 9: World Adoption Day
November 18: National Adoption Day
Want to learn even more about different cultural and cause-related observances? Check out the Social Impact Nerd Observation Calendar.
Organizations
Family Preservation Foundation
Mission: to defend children who can be safely raised in their own families in order to help parents preserve their right to raise their own children. Our main focuses are Child Welfare systemic advocacy reform, addressing disparity, poverty, and addiction, building stronger families and communities, bridging divides, and building respect.
The upEND Movement
Mission: The upEND Movement is a collaborative movement that works to abolish the existing child welfare system, which is built on a model of surveillance and separation and is more accurately described as a family policing system. Abolition requires ending this oppressive system AND imagining and recreating the ways in which society supports children, families, and communities in being safe and thriving.
Adoption: Facing Realities
This Facebook group centers those in the triad (adoptees, birth parents, and adoptive parents) in discussions about various aspects of adoption, fostering, guardianship, and kinship care. There’s a lot of raw content, and new members are required to read rather than post or comment for the first 28 days. I’ve learned so much from being in this group and hearing directly from folks with lived experience as I consider my personal goal of supporting LGBT+ youth for whom reunification is not feasible.
FosterClub
Mission: to lead the efforts of young people in and from foster care to become connected, educated, inspired and represented
Search Angels
Mission: to provide support, advice, and help using traditional search and genetic genealogy to benefit adoptees with their search and, ultimately, knowledge of their biological family tree (ancestry).
Literature
- Recommended reads on adoption and related topics
- Seven Core Issues in Adoption and Permanency (North American Council for Adoptable Children, 2019)
- LGBT+ Youth in the Foster Care System (Human Rights Campaign)
Featured Book
I read Nicole Chung’s “All You Can Ever Know” in June 2023. The author shares her experience as a transracial adoptee piecing together her origin story and reconnecting with relatives, beyond the myths and assumptions many adoptees grow up hearing.
Check out the whole Social Impact Nerd Bookshop for even more suggested reads. As an Affiliate, Social Impact Nerd will receive 10% of all sales made through its lists. You’ll be supporting local indie bookstores too!
Film & TV
Found
The story of three American teenage girls – each adopted from China – who discover they are blood-related cousins on 23andMe. Their online meeting inspires the young women to confront the burning questions they have about their lost history.
Rethinking Foster Care (TEDxBaltimore)
Molly McGrath Tierney is a leading professional in the work reforming child welfare programs and social services. Her efforts in Baltimore are shifting the foster care model to reunify families.
Podcasts
Open Adoption Project
Our key focus is to improve adoptee experiences by encouraging open communication between all members of the adoption triad, nurturing ongoing open adoption relationships, and promoting ethical adoption practices
Adoptees On
Adoptees On is a gathering of incredible adopted people willing to share their intimately personal stories with you about the impact adoption has had on our lives. Listen in and you will discover that you are not alone on this journey.
Have a recommendation or comment? Let me know below!
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African American & Black History
A compilation of resources related to Black history & justice efforts in the United States
Photo by Jumana Dakkur on Pexels.com About
Racial justice is not at all a new subject in the United States and has yet to be achieved, despite the supposed progress (which is often attributed to a transformation from overt to covert racism moreso than actual progress).
Many social inequities bubbled to the surface in pandemic years. In the summer of 2020, the US experienced (yet another) racial reckoning that involved police brutality, protests, legislation, and heated debates.
The global attention included a boom of interest in DEI and anti-racist education. A huge component of both is seeking out resources to provide the historical context that contributes to today’s environment. Ideally, this comes from those with lived experiences. There’s definitely not a shortage of material to work with.
Like many other well-intentioned white folks, I put ALL the “here’s why you should give a sh*t and try to be less racist” books on my TBR pile. I did (and still do, and will forever do) the work, and probably do so imperfectly. I’m not here to pretend to be an expert – that’s why I have collected the resources below and prioritized Black voices as best I can.
From these experts are some facts that should help frame the picture, wherever you are on your learning journey.
Facts & Figures
- Black Americans are incarcerated in state prisons at nearly 5 times the rate of white Americans. (The Sentencing Project, 2021)
- The 13th Amendment abolished only chattel slavery, not punitive slavery like the US prison labor system. (Legal Defense Fund, 2022)
- More than 80% of Black adults say the legacy of slavery affects the position of Black people in America today. (Pew Research, 2019)
Resources to Explore
Key Dates
In addition to the below observances and holidays, there are a ton of key dates associated with this topic, from when Portugal began to expand its empire into African nations, launching the Atlantic slave trade, to today. Learn more here!
Observances
3rd Monday in January: Martin Luther King Jr. Day
Though proposed in 1968, this federal holiday wasn’t established until 1983. It honors the life and legacy of Dr. King and is also a national day of service.
Every February: Black History Month
Established in 1976, this annual observation seeks to honor and celebrate the contributions of Black and African American people throughout the history of the United States.
March 25: International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade
Established in 2007 by the United Nations, this global observation selects a different theme each year to commemorate the lives lost in the Transatlantic slave trade and honor the reclamation of cultural identity.
December 26 – January 1: Kwanzaa
Established in 1966, a cultural holiday celebrating the Pan-African diaspora.
Want to learn even more about different cultural and cause-related observances? Check out the Social Impact Nerd Observation Calendar.
Organizations
Association for the Study of African American Life and History
Mission: The mission of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH®) is to promote, research, preserve, interpret and disseminate information about Black life, history and culture to the global community.
DuSable Black History Museum and Education Center
Mission: The DuSable Black History Museum and Education Center is a Chicago community institution and the first non-profit Museum dedicated to the collection, documentation, preservation, study and the dissemination of the history and culture of Africans and African Americans.
Literature
Recommended reads include:
- Fiction by Black authors
- Essays and memoirs by Black authors and biographies of notable Black figures
- Scholarly works about Black history and social issues
Featured Book
Check out the whole Social Impact Nerd Bookshop for even more suggested reads. As an Affiliate, Social Impact Nerd will receive 10% of all sales made through its lists. You’ll be supporting local indie bookstores too!
Film & TV
The 1619 Project
Hulu’s six-part 1619 Docuseries is an expansion of “The 1619 Project” created by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones and the New York Times Magazine. The series seeks to reframe the country’s history by placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of Black Americans at the very center of our national narrative
Podcasts
Blackbelt Voices
The Blackbelt Voices podcast propagates the richness of Black Southern culture by telling the stories of Black folks down South. Through first-person narratives and in-depth conversations, hosts Adena J. White, Kara Wilkins, and Katrina Dupins share the experiences of Black Southerners living in, loving, and reconciling with the region we call home.
Black History Buff
The Black History Buff podcast is a fun and thrilling journey through time. Covering the full historical tapestry of the African Diaspora, you’ll hear tales covering everything from African Samurai to pistol-wielding poets. More than just a podcast, the show is a bridge that links communities throughout the African diaspora and enlightens and empowers its friends.
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