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African American - Immigrant Historical Timeline
The timeline below highlights the history of domination and the pursuit of work and opportunity across races and nations.
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1600s – 1800s – Middle Passage/African Slave Trade – Over 20 million Africans forcibly removed from the continent, shipped across the Atlantic and sold into slavery. |
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1845 – Potato crop fails in Ireland, sparking the Potato Famine; kills one million and prompts almost 500,000 to immigrate to America over five year period. 1857 – Supreme Court rules on Dred Scott case. The Court decided that an African-American could not be a citizen of the U.S., and thus had no rights of citizenship. The decision sharpened national debate over slavery. |
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1860 – Poland’s religious and economic conditions prompt immigration of approximately two million Poles by 1914. 1880 – Italy’s troubled economy, crop failures, and political climate begin the start of mass immigration with nearly four million Italian immigrants arriving in the United States. |
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| 1881 – The assassination of Czar Alexander II in 1881 prompts civil unrest and economic instability throughout Russia. A year later, Russia’s May Laws severely restrict the ability of Jewish citizens to live and work in Russia. Both prompt more than three million Russians to immigrate to the United States over three decades. |  |
| 1882 – The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 suspends immigration of Chinese laborers under penalty of imprisonment and deportation. 1898 – The Spanish-American War begins with a naval blockade of Cuba and attacks on the island. The four-month conflict ends with Cuba’s independence and the U.S. acquisition of Puerto Rico and Guam. |
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1911 – The Dillingham Commission identified Mexican laborers as the best solution to the Southwest labor shortage. Mexicans are exempted from immigrant “head taxes” set in 1903 and 1907.
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1924 – Immigration Act of 1924 establishes fixed quotas of national origin and eliminates Far East immigration (Japanese). 1941 – Japan’s surprise attack on Pearl Harbor galvanizes American’s War effort. More than 1,000 Japanese-American community leaders are incarcerated because of national security. |
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1959 – Fidel Castro’s revolution prompts mass exodus of more than 200,000 people within three years (Cubans and Puerto Ricans). 1961 – Cuban Refugee program takes in 300,000 immigrants during the next two decades. 1965 – The Bracero Program ends after temporarily employing almost 4.5 million Mexican nationals. |
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>> page 3 - History of Alliance Building
