Timeline of African-American firsts

African Americans are an ethnic group in the United States. The first achievements by African Americans in diverse fields have historically marked footholds, often leading to more widespread cultural change. The shorthand phrase for this is "breaking the color barrier".

One commonly cited example is that of Jackie Robinson, who became the first African American of the modern era to become a Major League Baseball player in 1947, ending 60 years of segregated Negro leagues.

17th century

1670s

1670

First African American to own land in Boston: Zipporah Potter Atkins

18th century

1730s–1770s

1738

First free African-American community: Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose (later named Fort Mose) in Spanish Florida

1746

First known African American (and slave) to compose a work of literature: Lucy Terry with her poem "Bars Fight", composed in 1746 and first published in 1855 in Josiah Holland's "History of Western Massachusetts

1760

First known African-American published author: Jupiter Hammon (poem "An Evening Thought: Salvation by Christ with Penitential Cries", published as a broadside)

1767

First African-American clockmaker, Peter Hill, was born.

1768

First known African American to be elected to public office: Wentworth Cheswell, town constable in Newmarket, New Hampshire.

1773

First known African-American woman to publish a book: Phillis Wheatley (Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral) First separate African-American church: Silver Bluff Baptist Church, Aiken County, South Carolina

1775

First African American to join the Freemasons: Prince Hall

1778

First African-American U.S. military regiment: the 1st Rhode Island Regiment

1780s–1790s

1783

First African American to formally practice medicine: James Derham, who did not hold an M.D. degree. (See also: 1847)

1785

First African American ordained as a Christian minister in the United States: Rev. Lemuel Haynes. He was ordained in the Congregational Church, which became the United Church of Christ

1792

First major African-American Back-to-Africa movement: 3,000 Black Loyalist slaves, who had escaped to British lines during the American Revolutionary War for the promise of freedom, were relocated to Nova Scotia and given land. Later, 1,200 chose to migrate to West Africa and settle in the new British colony of Settler Town, which is present-day Sierra Leone.

1793

First African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church founded: Mother Bethel A.M.E. Church, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania was founded by Richard Allen

1794

First African Episcopal Church established: Absalom Jones founded African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

19th century

1800s

1804

First African American ordained as an Episcopal priest: Absalom Jones in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

1807

First African-American Presbyterian Church in America: First African Presbyterian Church founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania by John Gloucester a former slave.

1810s

1816

Richard Allen founded the first fully independent African-American denomination: African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME), based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and mid-Atlantic states

1817

The First African Baptist Church was the first African-American church west of the Mississippi River. It had its beginnings in 1817 when John Mason Peck and the former enslaved John Berry Meachum began holding church services for African Americans in St. Louis. Meachum founded the First African Baptist Church in 1827. Although there were ordinances preventing blacks from assembling, the congregation grew from 14 people at its founding to 220 people by 1829. Two hundred of the parishioners were slaves, who could only travel to the church and attend services with the permission of their owners.

1820s

1821

First African American to hold a patent: Thomas L. Jennings, for a dry-cleaning process

1822

First African-American captain to sail a whaleship with an all-black crew: Absalom Boston There were 6 black owners of 7 whaling trips before Absalom Boston's in 1822.

1823

First African American to receive a degree from an American college: Alexander Twilight, Middlebury College (See also: 1836)

1827

First African-American owned-and-operated newspaper: Freedom's Journal, founded in New York City by Rev. Peter Williams Jr. and other free blacks.