• In 1890, the General Assembly approved plans to create North Carolina Agricultural and Mechanical College for Negroes -- now North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University in greensboro.
 
• In Wilmington, on Nov. 10 and 11 in 1898, a white militia headed by local Democratic leaders terrorized the black community, killing and wounding dozens, banishing much of the city's black leadership, and burning the offices of several black businesses.

• St. Philip's Moravian Church, the oldest standing African-American church in the state, was built in Winston-Salem in 1861. Today, the church is part of Old Salem.

• The Supreme Court, in Swann vs. the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education, upheld busing as a legitimate means for achieving integration of public schools in 1971. Although largely unwelcome -- and sometimes violently opposed -- in local school districts, court-ordered busing plans in cities such as Charlotte, Boston and Denver continued until the late 1990s.

• John Merrick founded the North Carolina Mutual and Provident Association in Durham in 1898. The company grew to become the largest and most successful black-owned business in the United States.

• Edenton, N.C. provided slaves a means of escape with the maritime underground railroad before emancipation. Edenton was also the home of the escaped slave, abolitionist and writer Harriet Jacobs, who hid there for seven years before fleeing to freedom.

• North Carolina Central University in Durham opened as a private school in 1910. In the 1920s, it became the nation's first state-supported four-year liberal arts college for blacks.

• John Hope Franklin was a U.S. historian best known for his work "From Slavery to Freedom," first published in 1947. He held teaching appointments at Duke, UNC and St. Augustine's during his extensive career in higher education. The John Hope Franklin Center for Interdisciplinary and International Studies opened at Duke University in his honor in 2000.

• Four black students in Greensboro begin a sit-in at a segregated Woolworth's lunch counter on Feb. 1, 1960. Six months later, the "Greensboro Four" are served lunch at the same Woolworth's counter.

• On Feb. 3, 1870, the 15th Amendment granted blacks the right to vote, including former slaves.

• Basketball legend Michael Jordan has a rich North Carolina history. The Wilmington native was a standout with the University of North Carolina and is the owner of the Charlotte Bobcats and a member of the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame.

• The Brevard Street Library opened to serve black residents in Charlotte in 1905. At the time, segregation was the law, and black and white people attended separate schools and churches.

• Fayetteville native Hiram Revels, a clergyman and educator, became the first black citizen to be elected to the U.S. Senate during reconstruction in 1870.

• Jesse Jackson was born in Greenville, S.C., in 1941. The civil rights leader, minister and politician became a leading national spokesperson and advocate for African-Americans.

• Protestant clergyman and educator Archibald Alexander was born near Lexington, Va., in 1772. The evangelist became a professor at Princeton Theology Seminary in 1812, where his series of published essays and sermons widely influenced Presbyterians of his time.

• David Nelson Crosthwait Jr., born in Nashville in the late 1890s, was a black pioneer in the field of heating, ventilating and air conditioning. In 1971, he was the  first black honored as a Fellow of the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Engineers.

• The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was shot on April 4, 1968 as he was standing on the balcony outside his room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis. Escaped convict and committed racist James Earl Ray was convicted of the crime.

• Educator and activist of civil and women's rights Mary McLeod Bethune was a child of former slaves in South Carolina. She believed education was the key to racial advancement and served as an adviser in the Roosevelt administration.

• Henderson, N.C.-native and educator Charlotte Hawkins Brown established the Palmer Memorial Institute, a preparatory school for African-Americans, in Sedalia, N.C., in 1902. The site of the Palmer Memorial Institute is now a museum, honoring Brown's work to help black students.

• Pioneer and philanthropist Clara Brown was born a slave in Virginia in 1800. After her family members were sold separately at a slave auction, she traveled west to look for them. It is believed she was the first black woman to make it to Colorado's gold rush region.

• Cell biologist Ernest Everett Just was born in Charleston, S.C. He was a pioneer for embryology of marine organisms and also demonstrated carcinogenic effects of UV radiation on cells.

• Booker T. Washington was born in Franklin County, Va., in 1856. He was the most influential spokesman for black Americans between 1895 until his death in 1915 and the first president and principal developer of Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute, now Tuskegee University.

• On May 8, 1961, Joe Perkins with the civil rights group Freedom Riders tried to get a shoe-shine from a Charlotte bus station's white-only barber shop. He was jailed -- the first of numerous arrests during the quest of the Freedom Riders.

• Virginia native, historian and publisher Carter G. Woodson was the son of freed slaves and began high school in his late teens. He proved to be an excellent student, becoming one of the first black students to earn a PhD.

• President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 on July 2, 1964. The most sweeping civil rights legislation since reconstruction, the Civil Rights Act prohibited discrimination of all kinds based on race, color, religion or national origin.

• Asheville native civil rights leader Floyd McKissick was the first black recipient of a law degree from the University of North Carolina's Law School in 1951. From his practice in Durham, McKissick specialized in hundreds of civil rights cases in the courts in the 1960s.

• Slave-turned-social activist Dred Scott was born into slavery in Virginia in 1795. He made history by suing to gain his freedom.

• Nat Turner, a leader among slaves in Virginia, was convicted and executed, along with 16 of his followers, for enlisting dozens of other slaves in a disorganized insurrection.

• Harriet Tubman escaped from slavery in the South to become a leading abolitionist. She went on to assist hundreds gain freedom through the Underground Railroad.

• Black evangelist and reformer Sojourner Truth was key in abolitionist and women's rights movements. The daughter of slaves had childhood visions that she attributed to God, spending much of her life traveling and spreading the gospel while fighting for freedom and equality for slaves and women.

• John Coltrane, who was born in Hamlet, was a world-renowned jazz musician praised for his exceptional skills as a saxophonist and composer.

• In Loving vs. Virginia, the Supreme Court ruled that prohibiting interracial marriage was unconstitutional on June 12, 1967. Sixteen states that still banned interracial marriage at the time were forced to revise their laws.

• Thousands of worshipers from throughout the country took to the streets on Sept. 13, 1959, as a parade with Bishop C.M. "Sweet Daddy" Grace, the founder of the United House of Prayer for all People, made its way through Charlotte's largest black neighborhood, Second Ward.

• Writer and activist Maya Angelou spent her early years as a dancer. Her five-volume autobiography launched her into literary stardom. Angelou went on to read poetry at President Bill Clinton's inauguration, only the second poet ever asked to read at an inauguration. She now teaches at Wake Forest University, where she has a lifetime position as the Reynolds Professor of American Studies.

• Harvey Gantt, the first black student at South Carolina's Clemson College, became the first black mayor in Charlotte in 1982.

• Playwright Lorraine Hansberry's "A Raisin in the Sun" was the first drama by an African-American woman to be produced on Broadway. It won the New York drama critics' Circle Award and the 1961 film version received a special award at the Cannes Festival.

• Alice Walker, of Georgia, is one of the most admired African-American writers working today. A Spelman College graduate, she is best known for her novel "The Color Purple," for which she won a Pulitzer Prize for fiction.

• On Nov. 3, 1979, an armed confrontation in Greensboro between members of the Maoist Communist Workers Party and several Klansmen and Nazis ended with four CWP members and one supporter being shot dead.

• Founded in 1865, Shaw University is the oldest HBCU in the South and established the nation's first four-year medical school.

• On Nov. 3, 1992, Mel Watt of Charlotte and Eva Clayton of Warrenton became the first blacks from North Carolina elected to the U.S. Congress since the era that followed the Civil War more than 100 years earlier.

• The North Carolina Teachers Association was formed by African-American educators in 1881. It promoted education as an avenue toward racial progress.

• In the 1770s, New Bern became known as a popular town for both slaves and free blacks in colonial America. In 1860, free blacks composed 13 percent of the city's population.

• John H. Baker served as North Carolina's first black sheriff. He was the sheriff of Wake County for 24 years.

• In 1957, Gus Roberts was the first black student at all-white Central High School. He went on to become one of Charlotte's desegregation pioneers.

• The holiday of Kwanzaa, based on African harvest festivals, was created in the U.S. in 1966 by an activist scholar Maulana Ron Karenga.

• The Equal Employment Opportunity Act was passed in 1972, prohibiting job discrimination on the basis of, among other things, race, and laying the groundwork for affirmative action.

• Nina Simone was born Eunice Waymon in Tryon, N.C. in 1933. She took to music at a young age, eventually winning a scholarship to Julliard to train as a classical pianist. She began recording music in the 1950s, and landed a top 40 hit with "I Loves You Porgy" from the Gershwin music "Porgy and Bess."

• Arthur Mitchell, an African-American dancer with the New York City Ballet, founded the Dance Theatre of Harlem, the first African-American classical dance company. It is now considered a cultural institution and a world-class company.

• Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat at the front of the "colored section" of a bus in Montgomery, Ala., to a white passenger, defying a Southern custom of the time, on Dec. 1, 1950.

• Levi Coffin, born in New Garden, N.C. was an organizer of the Underground Railroad. The abolitionist said his income as a business owner allowed him to assist the expensive fight for freedom.

• Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale founded the Black Panther Party, a radical black power group, in Oakland in 1966. Although it developed a reputation for militant rhetoric and clashes with the police, the group also became a National Organization that supports food, education and healthcare programs in poor African-American communities.

• Hattie McDaniel became the first African-American to win an Academy Award with the supporting role of Mammy in the 1939 film "Gone with the Wind." During the 1930s, she played the role of maid or cook in nearly 40 films. Her film opportunities declined at the end of World War II, when Hollywood was asked to end stereotyped roles.

• Sidney Poitier became the first black actor to win an Oscar for best actor in 1963 for his role in "Lilies of the Field."

• Althea Gibson became the first black tennis player to win a major title by winning both the women's singles and doubles championships at Wimbledon in 1957.

• Eartha Kitt sang her way to stardom in the 1950s. Born in South Carolina in 1927, Kitt was known for her sultry vocal style and went on to play the role of Catwoman in the late 1960s series "Batman."

• Rocky Mount's own "Sugar" Ray Leonard won 36 of 40 professional matches and several national titles, as well as an Olympic gold medal. After his retirement from boxing, he served as a boxing commentator and television host.

• Civil rights activist and baseball player Jackie Robinson was born in Georgia in 1919. He broke the color barrier by becoming the first African-American to play in Major League Baseball.

• Charlotte-born Charles Sifford is considered the Jackie Robinson of golf. He became the first black athlete to compete in the PGA Tour in 1961. In 1967, he was the first black golfer to win a fully-sanctioned PGA event, the Greater Hartford Open.

• In 1944, a secret basketball game held between a white team from Duke University and a black team from North Carolina Central University was one of the first integrated sports events in the South. Central won it 88-44.

• More than 250,000 people join in the March on Washington on Aug. 28, 1963. Congregating at the Lincoln Memorial, participants listened as Martin Luther King delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech.

• Basketball legend Michael Jordan has a rich North Carolina history. The Wilmington native was a stand-out with the University of North Carolina, is the owner of the Charlotte Bobcats and is a member of the North Carolina sports hall of fame.

• The Brevard Street Library opened to serve black residents in Charlotte in 1905. At the time, segregation was the law, and black and white people attended separate schools and churches.

• Fayetteville native Hiram Eevels, a clergyman and educator, became the first black citizen to be elected to the U.S. Senate during reconstruction in 1870.

• Jesse Jackson was born in Greenville, S.C. in 1941. The Civil Rights leader, minister and politician became a leading national spokesperson and advocate for African-Americans.