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 prominent example is Jackie Robinson, who became the first African American of the modern era to become a Major League Baseball player in 1947. This was the beginning of the end of some 60 years of racial segregation, during which African American players were confined to the Negro leagues. == 16th century == === 1500s === ==== 1528 ==== Estevanico becomes the first black person to explore what would become the continental United States in the Narváez expedition. ==== 1539 ==== Estevanico becomes the first black person and first non-Native American person to explore what would become New Mexico. == 17th century == === 1600s === ==== 1604 ==== First black person to arrive in what is now Maine: explorer and interpreter Mathieu Da Costa ==== 1624 ==== First African American who was born in the British colonies that later became the United States: William Tucker (Virginia colony) ==== 1651 ==== First African American to own land in the United States, July 24, 1651: Anthony Johnson (colonist) === 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 enslaved African American person 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 Cheswill, town constable and justice of the peace in Newmarket, New Hampshire. ==== 1770 ==== First African American known for protesting publicly against British control of the American colonies: Crispus Attucks, Boston, Province of Massachusetts Bay. He was killed in the Boston Massacre, March 5, 1770. ==== 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. ==== 1794 ==== First African Episcopal Church established: Absalom Jones founded African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania First African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church founded: Mother Bethel A.M.E. Church, Philadelphia, was founded by Richard Allen ==== 1799 ==== First African American to attend college (Washington and Lee University): John Chavis; later went on to be a preacher and educator for both black and white students. == 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 formerly 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 First African American theatre, the African Grove Theatre, was founded in New York City by: William Alexander Brown ==== 1822 ==== First African-American captain to sail a whaleship with an all-black crew: Absalom Boston There were six black owners of seven 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) ==== 1826 ==== First African American to graduate from Bowdoin College: Future governor of the Republic of Maryland, John Brown Russwurm First African American to graduate from Amherst College: Edward Jones (missionary) ==== 1827 ==== First African-American-owned-and-operated newspaper: Freedom's Journal, founded in New York City by Rev. Peter Williams Jr., Samuel Cornish, John Brown Russwurm and other free blacks ==== 1828 ==== First African American to graduate from Dartmouth College: Edward Mitchell ==== 1829 ==== First African American to attend Princeton Theological Seminary (and any United States theological seminary) and graduate: Theodore S. Wright === 1830s === ==== 1832 ==== First governor of African descent in what is now the United States: Pío Pico, an Afro-Mexican, was the last governor of Alta California before it was ceded to the U.S. Like all Californios, Pico automatically became a U.S. citizen in 1848. ==== 1836 ==== First African American elected to serve in a state legislature: Alexander Twilight, Vermont (See also: 1823) First African American to found a town and establish a planned community: Free Frank McWorter (New Philadelphia, Illinois) First African American governor of the Republic of Maryland or any other colony in Africa: John Brown Russwurm ==== 1837 ==== First formally trained African-American medical doctor: Dr James McCune Smith of New York City, who was educated at the University of Glasgow, Scotland, and returned to practice in New York. (See also: 1783, 1847) === 1840s === ==== 1844 ==== First African American approved to practice law: Macon Bolling Allen from the bar association of Portland, Maine ==== 1845 ==== First African American to practice law: Macon Bolling Allen from the Boston bar ==== 1847 ==== First African American to graduate from a U.S. medical school: Dr. David J. Peck (Rush Medical College) (See also: 1783, 1837) ==== 1848 ==== First African-American president of any nation: Joseph Jenkins Roberts, Liberia ==== 1849 ==== First African-American college professor at a predominantly white institution: Charles L. Reason, New York Central College === 1850s === ==== 1850 ==== First African-American woman to graduate from a college (graduated with a Literary Degree from the Ladies' Literary Course of Oberlin College): Lucy Stanton ==== 1851 ==== First African-American member of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits): Patrick Francis Healy (See also: 1866, 1874) ==== 1852 ==== First African-American student at the Female Medical College of Pennsylvania: Sarah Mapps Douglass ==== 1853 ==== First novel published by an African American: Clotel; or, The President's Daughter, by William Wells Brown, then living in London. First African American to build and serve as captain of his own ship: Joseph P. Taylor of Portland, Maine ==== 1854 ==== First African-American Catholic priest: James Augustine Healy (see 1875 and 1886) First institute of higher learning created to educate African-Americans: Ashmun Institute in Pennsylvania, renamed Lincoln University in 1866. (See also firsts in 1863) First African-American physician to be admitted as a member of a medical society in the United States (the Massachusetts Medical Society): John van Salee de Grasse ==== 1858 ==== First published play by an African American: The Escape; or, A Leap for Freedom by William Wells Brown First African-American woman college instructor: Sarah Jane Woodson Early, Wilberforce University First African-American Missionary Bishop of Liberia: Francis Burns of Windham, New York; of the Methodist Episcopal Church. === 1860s === ==== 1861 ==== First North American military unit with African-American officers: 1st Louisiana Native Guard of the Confederate Army First African-American US federal government civil servant: William Cooper Nell ==== 1862 ==== First African-American woman to earn a B.A.: Mary Jane Patterson, Oberlin College First recognized U.S. Army African-American combat unit: 1st South Carolina Volunteers ==== 1863 ==== First college owned and operated by African Americans: Wilberforce University in Ohio (See also: 1854) First African-American president of a col