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315,000 Years Ago
The earliest known humans emerge and live on the African continent.
All human beings today belong to the Homo sapiens species, and it is widely accepted amongst researchers, historians, and scientists, that all of human history began on the continent of Africa. The exact location in Africa is a topic of constant debate as remains have been found in various locations throughout the continent, such as Ethiopia, Kenya, and Morocco, though researchers suggest it was most likely in the Horn of Africa. The oldest known remains of our species to date has been found in Jebel Irhoud, Morocco and dated about 315,000 years ago.
250,000 Years Ago
Modern humans begin to disperse and migrate out of Africa.
Early modern humans expanded to Western Eurasia and Central, Western and Southern Africa from the time of their emergence. Evidence of migration out of Africa, via a partial skull, was discovered in the Apidima Cave in southern Greece and is dated more than 210,000 years old. There were several waves of migrations, many via northern Africa and the Arabian Peninsula about 130,000 YA (Years Ago), though most of these early waves appear to have mostly died out or retreated by 80,000 YA.
c. 200,000 - 130,000 Years Ago
Mitochondrial Eve, the most recent woman from whom all living humans descend, lives in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Mitochondrial Eve (the name alludes to the biblical Eve) is the matrilineal most recent common ancestor of all living humans. In other words, she is defined as the most recent woman from whom all living humans descend in an unbroken line purely through their mothers and through the mothers of those mothers, back until all lines converge on one woman. In 1987, geneticists compared the mitochondrial DNA (genetic information passed from mothers to their offspring) of people from different populations around the world and find that they all link in an unbroken line to Mitochondrial Eve. This does not mean that she was the first woman, nor the only living female of her time, nor the first member of a "new species." It only means that she is the most recent female ancestor to which all living humans are linked. She was believed to have lived in either East Africa or Botswana.
c. 10,000 BC - 6,000 BC
Due to a tilt in the Earth’s axis, the Sahara transforms from a humid region rich with grasslands and water, to an arid desert, prompting Saharan Africans to migrate to the Nile Valley.
The earliest Egyptians were indigenous Africans who were drawn to the Sahara when it was a humid region rich in grasslands and with plentiful water. There was a widespread Saharan Neolithic culture. However, during this same period (c. 10,000 - c. 6,000 BC), the Earth's axis tilted, causing the Saharan climate to slowly transform from humid to arid, prompting Saharan Africans to migrate to the Nile Valley to take advantage of its fertile floodplains.
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Home / Full timeline / Demonstrations held in Dekalb County, Georgia in protest of racist school system.

Demonstrations held in Dekalb County, Georgia in protest of racist school system.; ?> Demonstrations held in Dekalb County, Georgia in protest of racist school system.

1975 (Jan 16 - Feb 22)

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Black Americans in DeKalb County, Georgia, staged a number of demonstrations protesting what they called “the racist” DeKalb school system. On January 15 (the anniversary of the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.), sixty Black parents and pupils picketed at the Columbia High School in Decatur. They accused the school system of, among other things, dishonoring the memory of Martin Luther King, Jr., by refusing to declare a holiday on his birthday. However, Joe Renfroe, an assistant superintendent of schools, said that special programs, rather than a holiday, would “make all students more aware of [King's] contributions better than closing down which we do not do for the birthdays of other great men.” On February 20, about one hundred Black American students at Columbia High School were arrested after they refused to obey an order from school authorities to leave the campus. The arrested students were part of a group of 170 Black Americans who had been suspended the previous week for staging a sit down and walkout because the school failed to hold an assembly during Black History Week. On February 22, more than one hundred Black students and parents marched from Columbia High School to the DeKalb County Courthouse in the continuing protest. According to one parent: “Our children have been coming home all this time telling us how bad the situation is and some of the things that the school officials up there do to them. ... We see what they've been telling us is true." Also on February 22, Columbia High School readmitted nearly all of the Black students suspended during earlier demonstrations. DeKalb County, whose seat is the city of Decatur, is a part of the Metropolitan Atlanta area.

References:

  •  • Hornsby, Alton. Chronology of African-American History: Significant Events and People from 1619 to the Present. Detroit: Gale Research, 1995.
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