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The Atlantic Slave Trade in America: 1528-1807 - From the end of slavery to America's first Black president, BET.com counts down the the most influential moments in Black history. — BET Staff The importation of slaves is outlawed in the United States, ending the brutal and exploitive system that forcibly moved more than half a million slaves from Africa to the United States. (Photo: Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

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The Origins of the Black Church: 1780-1925 - The Black Church is born on two plantations — one in South Carolina and the other in Virginia — creating a formal structure for Black religion and worship that remains the most powerful organizing force for Blacks Americans today. (Photo: PBS)

Photo By Photo: PBS

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Vermont Abolishes Slavery - Vermont becomes the first state to abolish slavery in 1777. (Photo: Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

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First Black U.S. Military Regiment Established - The 1st Rhode Island Regiment, the first African-American U.S. Military Regiment is established. It remained active until 1783. (Photo: Wikicommons)

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The Abolitionist Movement: 1830-1870 - The abolitionist movement begins, giving birth to the Underground Railroad (pioneered by Harriet Tubman) that transported more than 30,000 Black Americans from Southern slavery to Northern freedom. (Photo: wikicommons)

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Wilberforce University Established - Wilberforce University, the first university owned and operated by African-Americans, is established just above the Mason-Dixon line in 1856, creating a blueprint for Historically Black Colleges and Universities all around the country. (Photo: Wilberforce University)

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Mr. Revels Goes to Washington - Hiram Revels of Mississippi becomes the first African-American elected to the U.S. Senate in 1870. (Photo: wikicommons)

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Pinchback Runs Things in Louisiana - In 1871, P.B.S. Pinchback becomes the first African-American lieutenant governor in Louisiana. (Photo: wikicommons)

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Niagara Plants the Seeds for the NAACP - The Niagara Movement, pre-cursor to the NAACP, is formed in 1905. (Photo: Library of Congress)

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The Harlem Renaissance - The Harlem Renaissance between 1918–1937 becomes the most influential artistic and intellectual movement in Black History, disproving stereotypes through literature and packaging the sweetness and subtleties of the Black Experience in ways that inspire similar creative movements across Black America. (Photo: Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

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Jackie Robinson Crosses the Color Line - In 1947, Jackie Robinson changes the game in professional sports when he signs with the Brooklyn Dodgers, ending decades of segregation in baseball, and goes on to be voted MVP.  (Photo: Mark Rucker/Transcendental Graphics, Getty Images)

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Thurgood Breaks Down Barriers - Thurgood Marshall leads a strategic and disciplined effort that ends segregation in American schools and hammers a nail in the coffin of the doctrine of ‘Separate but Equal’ in American education in 1954. (Photo: Keystone/Getty Images)

Photo By Photo: Keystone/Getty Images

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The World Gets Down to the Motown Sound - Motown Records is founded in 1959, creating one of the most recognizable sounds in the history of American music and the most successful Black-owned record company to date. (Photo: Detroit Free Press/MCT /Landov)

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Malcolm X Challenges Racial Constraints - Malcolm X rises to prominence with fiery, agitating rhetoric that encourages self-respect and understanding within Black Americans and challenges notions of white supremacy. He was assassinated as he prepared to speak at the Audubon Ballroom in New York City on Feb. 21, 1965. (Photo: FPG/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

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Martin Luther King Jr. Spreads Message of Peace - Martin Luther King Jr. breaks down walls of hatred with his transformative speeches and hopeful vision for racial harmony in the US. He becomes one of the most honored and recognizable symbols of social change in U.S. history. Tragically, he was killed by an assassin's bullet on April 4, 1968. (Photo: Landov)

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The March on Washington - Close to 500,000 gather at the Lincoln Memorial to witness Martin Luther King Jr. deliver his historic "I Have a Dream" speech on Aug. 28, 1963. Supporters were taking a stand for civil and voting rights for minorities. (Photo: National Archive/Newsmakers)

Photo By Photo: National Archive/Newsmakers/Getty Images

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Civil Rights Act of 1964 - The Civil Rights Act, introduced by President John F. Kennedy and legally ending discrimination in schools, public places and offices, passes. Sadly, Kennedy's assassination in 1963 would prevent him from seeing the measure come to fruition. It was signed into law on July 2, 1964, by President Lyndon Johnson. (Photo: National Archive/Newsmakers)

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Voting Rights Act of 1965 - The Voting Rights Act is signed on August 6, 1965, outlawing routine voting fraud and discrimination against African Americans. (Photo: National Archive/Newsmakers)

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The Rise of Hip Hop - Hip hop takes its first solid steps in the early 1980s, paving the way for the culture to spread across the globe and to become a multi-billion dollar industry that has more influence on the world at-large than any other cultural movement created by Blacks in modern history. (Photo: Frank Micelotta/ImageDirect)

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Oprah on Fire - In the 1980s and '90s, Oprah Winfrey rises in the Nielsens and on the Forbes lists to become the world’s most popular talk show host and the richest female media mogul in history. (Photo: Alan Singer/NBCU Photo Bank)

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Michael Jackson Rocks the World - Michael Jackson reaches un-paralleled prominence in the music biz, earning him hundreds of millions of adoring fans around the world and setting the bar for album sales and artist-related merchandise. Fans around the world mourned his untimely death on June 25, 2009, at age 50. (Photo: Dave Hogan/Getty Images)

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Meet the Huxtables - The Cosby Show debunks many long-held negative stereotypes about Black families as it defies conventional wisdom to become the most successful sitcom of its era. The show ran from Sept. 20, 1984, until April 30, 1992. (Photo: dpa/Landov)

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Like Mike - Michael Jordan becomes the most recognizable, most celebrated and most accomplished basketball player and all-around athlete of all time. After 15 years in the NBA, he retired for good in 2003. (Photo: JEFF HAYNES/AFP/Getty Images)

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Hail to the Chief - After a campaign that included playing the saxophone in sunglasses on The Arsenio Hall Show in 1992 and dodging multiple allegations of sexual misconduct not long after the Marion Barry scandal, Bill Clinton found himself affectionately dubbed the “First Black President” of the United States. (Photo: CBS)

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Million Man March - Minister Louis Farrakhan and Benjamin Chavis made good on their plans to bring one million Black men to the National Mall in Washington on Oct. 16, 1995, marking a clear victory for positive change during a decade riddled by Black-on-Black violence, unemployment and drug abuse in Black communities nationwide. (Photo: Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post/Getty Images)

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Black CEOs on the Rise - In 1999, Franklin Raines crashes through the glass ceiling to become the first African-American CEO of a Fortune 500 Company and ushers in an era of African-American executive prominence (including Richard Parsons, former CEO of Time Warner) that climaxes with at least five major companies being headed by Blacks at the same time. (Photo: Graham Morrison/Getty Images)

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Changing the Game - Bob Johnson, the founder of Black Entertainment Television, becomes the first African-American billionaire in 2001. (Photo: REUTERS/Chris Keane)

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Barack Obama Makes History - Barack Obama strolls onto the national scene, sidesteps attacks from opponents, inspires the nation and leads a disciplined and straight-talking effort to become the 44th president of the United States on Nov. 4, 2008. (Photo:  Xinhua /Landov)