Granted, he’s half African American, but that’s me being nit picky because I’m half Asian. Great mashup, though.

i don’t very often comment here, but i remember that while you were making this i kept thinking ‘what an incredible idea’.. seeing it completed.. it’s definitely ‘wow’ worthy. soo much data.. and you always make such things have this ‘impact’.. great work darling.

What a knack for showing the pertinent info that the common public would never research on their own.
You have enabled us to see the real timeline of the black movement in America. Kudos on such a job well done. You answer the questions that we all have but are too lazy to research. Thank you so much!

Jess, I think you just invented the “timeline cloud.” Heh. Great work!

Forgot Gov. Doug Wilder, First African American governor ( I mean, if you are going to hit the first DNC chairman, you should at least mention the first Governor….)

[...] 389 Years Ago [...]

Yeah I missed a lot, but it was really only a survey of black history, I will leave the details to others. You’re right though, I don’t know how Doug Wilder slipped though the cracks though.

Not trying to be a spelling nazi, but you misspelled declares at “54 years ago”.

I loved the picture, I never knew alot of that stuff.

Why does EVERYONE use ‘african american’ to depict a skin color?! ‘african american’ doesnt ALWAYS have to be dark-skinned. My family happens to be from Africa and i was born in America and I’m very much ‘white’. Do I need to change my skin color or something?!

138 years ago, black MEN were given the right to vote - it would not be until 1920 that the 19th amendment to the constitution was ratified and women could vote.

Thats a really inspiring one. Stumbled!

@ Al

Very true. I updated the graphic. It is quite shameful that it took another half century to extend that right to women.

@Jason,

Thanks, I crowdsource my spelling. Fixed it!

This is absolutely gorgeous. Mind if I ask what font you used?

And oddly 70% of African American voters choose separate but equal by voting for Proposition 8 in California.

With any sense of history, in a state where we could not even have interracial marriages until 1959, you’d think the percentage would not be so high.

Religion and Christianity breed fear. Also remember, that the true pioneers of this country never waited for someone to say yes. They just did what they knew was right in their hearts.

Also, Obama is the first recognized Black president. Check Jackson, Coolidge and Lincoln.

Great typograhic piece on the history of it all

Hi, t
This is awesome. I think it would have even more impact with some dates to help anchor perceptions, rather than just “XX years ago”. Maybe it’s just me, but “389 years ago” doesn’t immediately conjure up the point in history when this event occurred - 1619, and it also suffers from the fact that it will no longer be accurate come next year. Both of these issues could be eliminated by alternating the “years ago” descriptor with the actual year.

I guess that’s all a bit nit-picky, but I wouldn’t have bothered commenting if I didn’t really like it to begin with!

wow very few things have had this kind of effect on me. I applaud you this is amazing and really puts things into perspective.

On Nov 4th 2008, 70% of Blacks in California decide to vote for Proposition 8. which unfairly denies marriage rights to another minority.

Did 389 years of injustice not teach you anything ?

This made me tear up. What a wonderful way to trace history.

It is amazing to read that and feel the progress speed up faster and faster as it goes.
It gives me hope about where our common culture is headed. I hope that hate and discrimination will be pushed to marginal fringe populations in our lifetime.

You forgot about the Irish slaves.

Respect, beautiful work.

Slavery isn’t history!

Contrary to popular belief, slavery didn’t end with Abraham Lincoln in 1865. Experts estimate that today there are 27 million people enslaved around the world. It’s happening in countries on all six inhabited continents. And yes, that includes the United States. The CIA estimates 14,500 to 17,000 victims are trafficked into the “Land of the Free” every year.

http://www.iabolish.org/

great work!

Obama is our first multiracial president.

It would help everyone a lot to learn about the “one drop rule” and how it affects our concept of race.

Someone may have said this, but I would go back and change the amount of years to the dates and years. That will give this a longer shelf life. Next year all of your years will be wrong!

Colin Powell was made National Security Adviser under Ronald Reagan 21 years ago. Condi was not the first.

It’s worth pointing out that yes, while great progress has been made on the part of “African Americans” or better yet, Americans of color, the progress made by white/caucasian Americans is equally profound.

Changing attitudes of tolerance, acceptance, and equality, as put forward by African Americans, were listened to, evaluated, and accepted by many not in their situation, and judged corrected. I think that common decency eventually overrides culturally-accepted biases, and this has become an example of that.

Let’s not forget that a vast number of these Americans (including myself) voted for Obama in the hope of a world in which race is immaterial.

I think that ALL Americans should share in this as a victory for common human decency, compassion, and fairness.

This is a great piece of work…After reading all that, the last part seriously gave me chills to read, it was a great feeling. Progress indeed, I believe that Obama can truly turn this country around and bring respect to its name for the first time in over 60 years.

The thing that struck me the most is exactly how long its been and how little has changed. In our supposed age of enlightenment, its considered an “amazing” thing that an african american has been elected president, that ANYONE other than an old caucasian male has been elected as president. So many other countries have had women, minorities as thier leaders it really makes you wonder just how “advanced” the good ole US of A is. Maybe its time to stop calling europe the old country and adopting the term for america, home of the hopelessly old ideas.

Max Robinson anchored ABC World News Tonight starting in 1978, 30 years ago, being the first african american network news anchor.