Black History Month

A timeline of local events in black history

1649: The first Newport ship engages in the slave trade, which becomes fully established in Newport by the end of the century.

1652: A law is passed in Providence requiring that all indentured servants, white and black, be freed after 10 years of service. The law is enforced for whites, but not for blacks

1730: Blacks make up a third of the population in South County, the only area in New England to use slave labor on plantations for farming

1736: Providence enters the slave trade, as James Brown sends the sloop Mary to Africa for a cargo of slaves

1750: There are about 3,350 blacks in Rhode Island, more than 10 percent of the colony's population, giving Rhode Island the highest concentration of blacks in New England

1773: A school for blacks is established in Newport, one of the first such schools in the country

1774: Urged by abolitionists, the General Assembly passes a law making it illegal to import slaves to the colony

1778: Enticed by the prospect of gaining their freedom, about 200 blacks join the 1st Rhode Island Regiment, the only all-black regiment in the American Revolution, and they defend Newport in the Battle of Rhode Island

1780: Newport Gardner establishes the African Union Society, in Newport, the state's first black benevolent association and a model for similar associations later formed around the nation

1784: Rhode Island becomes one of the first states to pass a gradual emancipation law, freeing children born of slave mothers

1787: The Constitutional Convention approves the U.S. Constitution, which includes pro-slavery provisions

1790: In the first session of Congress, Rhode Island is the only state to propose that Congress "promote and establish such laws as may effectually prevent the importation of slaves." Congress takes no such action

1821: The African Union Meeting and Schoolhouse Society, the first church building for blacks in Rhode Island, is established at Meeting Street near Congdon Street, in Providence. Three years later the Colored Union Church, which had been holding services in private homes since 1783, dedicates its building in Newport

1822: The General Assembly passes a law that says that black men may not vote

1824: Stirred by racial animosity, white rioters destroy Hard Scrabble, the black community in Providence (currently, University Heights, on Olney Street). Ten men are indicted; four are tried; none convicted

1826: With the backing of the American Colonization Society, Newport Gardner and two dozen others leave Newport to resettle in Liberia

1831: White thugs destroy Snowtown, another black community in Providence (currently, Charles and Gaspee Streets, near the Providence Marriott), rioting for three days until the state militia fires on the crowd, killing four men

1842: Black men regain the right to vote under a new state constitution

1856: Thomas Howland, a Providence grocer, is elected 3rd Ward warden, the first black to hold elected office in the city. The next year, he and his family emigrate to Liberia

1861: The Civil War begins

1862: Gov. William Sprague issues an order for the enlistment of black soldiers, drawing more than 600 eager recruits from as far away as New York, which had not yet begun to enlist blacks

1863: President Lincoln signs the Emancipation Proclamation

1864: The R.I Association of Freedmen offers work to freed slaves from the South, eventually finding jobs in Rhode Island for 900 men

1865: General Robert E. Lee surrenders, ending the Civil War

1866: The General Assembly passes a statute banning racial segregation in Rhode Island public schools

1876: Edward Bannister, a landscape artist living in Providence, wins the Gold Medal at the Centennial Exposition, Philadelphia, becoming the first black to win a national art award. Upon meeting Bannister, the judges are surprised to learn that he is a black man

1881: A Rhode Island law forbidding interracial marriage, on the books since 1701, is repealed, but by only an 8-vote margin in the Senate tally

1885: Following a U.S. Supreme Court ruling restricting the 14th Amendment, Rhode Island becomes one of 11 states to pass laws banning discrimination in public accomodations such as hotels and theaters

1892: Sissieretta (Black Patti) Jones, a concert singer raised in Providence, performs at Madison Square Garden

1916: Frederick "Fritz" Pollard, a Brown University halfback, is named a football All American and becomes the first black to play in the Rose Bowl

1917: The Providence chapter of the N.A.A.C.P. stages New England's first protest march, as 1,200 parade against racial violence in the South

1932: Rudolph Fisher, raised in Providence and an influential figure in the Harlem Renaissance, publishes the first detective novel by a black writer, The Conjure-Man Dies

1935: Rhode Island native Nancy Elizabeth Prophet, one of the first black expatriot artists, wins a sculpture award at the Whitney Biennial

1948: Racial segregation is banned in the U.S. armed forces

1954: The U.S. Supreme Court strikes down "separate but equal" education

l965: After long debate, the General Assembly passes a bill banning housing discrimination and Governor Chafee signs it into law

l967: Providence, using busing, desegregates its predominantly black public schools

1981: Paul L. Gaines becomes the first black mayor of Newport

Compiled by Journal-Bulletin Staff Writer Elliot Krieger.