During the 1940s and 1950s, many African Americans from the South migrated to the North to work in industry there, in what is called the Great Migration.

• (January 26) Brigadier General Sherian Grace Cadoria born, to become the highest ranking African American woman officer in the USA in 1990.

• (May 28) Betty Shabazz born (married Malcolm X)

•  (June 23) Wilma Rudolph born

• Hattie McDaniel won an Academy Award as best supporting actress in Gone With the Wind, the first African American to win an Oscar.

• (November 25) Tina Turner born (singer)

• (December 12) Dionne Warwick born (singer)

• Lucinda Dawson and Lillian Evanti established the National Negro Opera Company in Pittsburgh.

• (January 1) Margaret Walker born (poet)

• (February 27) Charlayne Hunger-Gault born (journalist)

• (February 28) race riot in Detroit at Sojourner Truth homes

• (March 25) Aretha Franklin born (singer, Queen of Soul)

• (October 2) Bernice Johnson Reagon born (singer, composer, historian)

• Margaret Walker published For My People.

• (July 8) Faye Wattleton born (nurse, head of Planned Parenthood Federation)

• (January 26) Angela Davis born (activist, philosopher)

• (February 9) Alice Walker born (writer, Pulitzer Prize winner)

• Mahalia Jackson recorded Move On Up a Little Higher which sold more than 8 million copies

• (August 16) Carol Mosely-Braun born (politician, lawyer)

• Alice Coachman wins an Olympic gold in the high jump for women, becoming the first African American woman to win a gold medal at the Olympics.