1900s
1900–1999Jim Crow, the Great Migration, the Civil Rights revolution, and new systems of control.
Zoom in — decades
Key events
- February 12, 1909The NAACP is founded
The nation's most enduring civil-rights organization is established.
- March 1925The Harlem Renaissance flowers
Alain Locke's "The New Negro" anthology announces a generation of Black artistic genius.
- November 1925Louis Armstrong reinvents jazz
Armstrong's Hot Five recordings make the soloist the heart of jazz and reshape American music.
- August 9, 1936Jesse Owens wins four Olympic golds
Owens triumphs in Berlin, puncturing Nazi myths of Aryan supremacy before the world.
- April 20, 1939Billie Holiday records "Strange Fruit"
A haunting protest against lynching becomes one of the most powerful songs in American history.
- April 15, 1947Jackie Robinson integrates baseball
Robinson breaks Major League Baseball's color line, enduring abuse to open the game.
- January 12, 1959Motown Records is founded
Berry Gordy launches the label that will define the "Sound of Young America."
- October 2, 1967Thurgood Marshall joins the Supreme Court
Marshall becomes the first Black Supreme Court justice.
- August 11, 1973Hip-hop is born in the Bronx
DJ Kool Herc's back-to-school party launches a culture that will conquer the world.
- October 7, 1993Toni Morrison wins the Nobel Prize
Morrison becomes the first Black woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.
- September 28, 1912W.C. Handy's "Memphis Blues"
One of the first published blues compositions helps launch a new American art form.
- February 13, 1920The Negro National League
Rube Foster organizes the first lasting Black professional baseball league.
- August 1920Marcus Garvey and the UNIA
Garvey's movement for Black pride and self-determination draws millions worldwide.
- February 16, 1923Bessie Smith, Empress of the Blues
Smith's recordings make her the highest-paid Black entertainer of the 1920s.
Resources from this period
Primary sources·1
Books·9
Life inside the antebellum slave market.
The book-length investigation into the CIA, the Contras, and crack.
Pulitzer-winning novel of slavery and memory.
One of the most influential memoirs of the 20th century.
Baldwin's searing essays on race in America.
National Book Award-winning novel of Black identity in America.
A landmark of the Harlem Renaissance.
Foundational essays on race and "double consciousness."
Washington's influential and contested autobiography.
Research·2
Newspapers·2
Documentaries·2
Films·3
Speeches·2
Music·4
The defining protest anthem of hip-hop, 1989.
A landmark of socially conscious soul.
An anthem of the Civil Rights movement.
A protest against lynching, 1939.