United Nations founding conference opens in San Francisco

The third congress opens in London before continuing in Lisbon. Delegates address colonial rule and racial discrimination and press for political voice, labor rights and self-government. These...

The fourth congress meets in New York and includes delegates from Africa, Europe, the Caribbean and the United States. It renews demands for self-government and equal rights while revealing tensions...

Italy invades Ethiopia, one of the few African states to retain formal independence. The invasion provokes protests and diaspora solidarity campaigns; it exposed the weakness of the League of...

Italian forces enter Addis Ababa after the invasion. Ethiopia’s government-in-exile and resistance continued to contest occupation; the date marks an imperial conquest, not the end of Ethiopian...

Young African activists form the ANC Youth League to challenge the slow pace and cautious methods of the parent organization. Their program emphasized mass action and African leadership and helped...

The Manchester congress brings together activists, trade unionists and future political leaders from Africa, the Caribbean, Britain and the United States. It shifts emphasis toward mass struggle and...

Kwame Nkrumah and supporters found the CPP after breaking with more cautious nationalist leaders. It built a mass base among workers and young people and made immediate self-government a popular...

At its annual conference the ANC adopts a program calling for boycotts, strikes and civil disobedience. Influenced by the Youth League, the program helped move the organization toward mass...

Twenty-nine Asian and African governments meet in Bandung to oppose colonialism and racism and to expand cooperation among recently independent and still-colonized peoples. Bandung was not a...

The Gold Coast becomes independent Ghana under a government led by Kwame Nkrumah. Independence gave Pan-African organizing a sovereign base, and Ghana supported liberation movements and hosted...