Time line of the Twentieth Century
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1909
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Matthew Henson becomes the first person in the world to reach the North Pole.
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1913
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Underground Railroad conductor, Union spy and nurse, Harriet Tubman dies
in New York.
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1930
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Blanche Calloway (Cab Calloway's older sister) is the first female to head
a successful all-male band.
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1948
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The Baltimore County Medical Society is the first American Medical Association
affiliate in a Southern state to drop its bars against black membership.
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1948
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Blacks are given the right to study law at state institutions by the United
States Supreme Court.
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1950
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Juanita Jackson Mitchell is the first African-American graduate of the University
of Maryland Law School.
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1954
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Thurgood Marshall serves as Linda Brown's lawyer during the famous Brown
vs. Board of Education Trial.
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1957
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The Civil Rights Act is passed by the United States Congress.
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1958
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Irma Dixon and Verda Welcome Freeman become the first African-American women
to be elected to the Maryland House of delegates.
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1962
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Verda Freeman Welcome becomes the first African-American woman to be elected
to the state Senate.
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1967
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Frederick Douglass becomes the first civil rights leader to be honored on
a postage stamp.
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1967
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Thurgood Marshall becomes the first African-American to sit on the Supreme
Court.
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1967
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A Supreme Court ruling ensures school districts must end all forms of segregation
immediately.
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1970
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Milton B. Allen is the first African-American elected states attorney for
the city of Baltimore.
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1971
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Roland Nathaniel Patterson is the first African-American appointed superintendent
of schools in Baltimore.
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1976
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Oprah Winfrey becomes co-anchor and reporter for WJZ-TV in Baltimore, becoming
the first African-American woman in the country to hold that position.
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1977
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Aris T. Allen is the first African-American chair of the state Republican
party.
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1978
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Harriet Tubman becomes the first African-American woman honored on postage
stamp.
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1978
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Aris T. Allen is the first African-American to run for state office.
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1984
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Bishop Robinson is the first African-American commissioner of the Baltimore
police.
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1987
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Kurt Lidell Schmoke becomes the first African-American elected mayor of
Baltimore.
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1991
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Vera Hall becomes the first African-American woman chair of the Democratic
Party of Maryland.
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