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(2001) Diahann Carroll, “Keeping Up the Good Fight, Winning the Crusade Against Cancer”
On February 9, 2001, actress and vocalist Diahann Carroll addressed the World Summit Against Cancer meeting in Paris, France.  Carroll addressed the audience of scholars and activists as a breast cancer survivor.  Her speech appears
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Source: Black Past
Feb
9
2001
Murphy, John Henry, Sr. (1840-1922)
Born on December 25, 1840, in Baltimore, Maryland, John Henry Murphy grew up as a slave and freed by the Emancipation Act of 1863. He enlisted in the military at age 24, during the Civil War and quickly progressed to the rank of Sergeant by the end of the conflict.  When he returned home to
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Source: Black Past
Dec
25
1840
Rawles, George Washington (1845–1922)
George Rawles was born in South Carolina to a young slave mother owned by Benjamin Rawles II.  At the age of 17 and now living in Perry County, Mississippi, he was given to his master’s son, Benjamin Rawles III to be his body servant during the Civil War. Both men enlisted in the Confederate Army
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Source: Black Past
May
22
1922
Boxer Sugar Ray Leonard born
Sugar Ray Leonard
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Source: Blackfacts.com
May
17
1956
Cecil Fielder
Cecil Fielder (b. 21 September 1963) is a professional baseball player who was noted for being a power hitter in the 1980s and 1990s.  Fielder played with several teams during his career such as The Hershin Tigers (1989), the Toronto Blue Jays (1985-88) and the Detroit Tigers (1990-96). In 1990, he
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Source: Black History Resources
Sponsored by Intellitech
Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1957, the
Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1957, the first federal civil rights legislation since 1875. The bill established a civil rights commission and a civil rights division in the Justice Department. It also gave the Justice Department authority to seek injunctions against voting rights
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Sponsored by NSBE Boston
Aug
29
1957
Watkins, Dr. Levi, Jr. (1944-2015)
Dr. Levi Watkins, Jr. was a cardiac surgeon who, in 1980, performed the first implantation of an automatic defibrillator into a human heart. He was also a professor of cardiac surgery and associate dean at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in
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Source: Black Past
Apr
18
2015
Saint Francis Xavier Church
The first exclusively Black parish in the United States was Saint Francis Xavier Church in Baltimore, Maryland. It was purchased on this day and dedicated months later.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Oct
10
1863
Hawkins, Gordon (1959- )
Gordon Hawkins was born in Clinton, Maryland, in 1959, into a family with six older brothers and sisters. He graduated from the University of Maryland’s School of Music. He is a baritone opera singer and considered one of the very best in the world. Baritone is the second deepest tone of voice for
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Source: Black Past
Sponsored by APEX Museum
Brown, Jill E. (1950- )
Jill Elaine Brown became the first African American woman to serve as a pilot for a major U.S airline when she was hired by Texas international Airlines at the age of 28. Her passion for flying began as a teenager, leading her into the U.S. Navy flight training program where she became its first
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Source: Black Past
Garrison, William Lloyd
Garrison, William Lloyd, 1805–79, American abolitionist, b. Newburyport, Mass. He supplemented his limited schooling with newspaper work and in 1829 went to Baltimore to aid Benjamin Lundy in publishing the Genius of Universal Emancipation. This led (1830) to his imprisonment for seven weeks
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Source: Fact Monster - Black History
Jul
4
1854
Smith, Charles Z. (1927-2016)
On July 18, 1988, Charles Z. Smith became the first African American to serve on the Washington Supreme Court.  He was appointed to the court by Washington’s then Governor Booth Gardner and was subsequently elected to his position on the court for a two-year term in 1988.  Justice Smith was elected
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Source: Black Past
Cole, Nat “King” (1919–1965)
Jazz pianist and popular singer Nathaniel Adams Coles was born into a musical family in Montgomery, Alabama on March 17, 1919.  His mother Perlina was a choir director in his father Edward’s Baptist church.  His three brothers, Edward, Ike, and Freddy, became professional musicians.  Cole also had
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Source: Black Past
Sponsored by National Association of Black Accountants (NABA) Boston Metropolitan Chapter
Feb
15
1965
Henry McNeal Turner Born
Henry McNeal Turner was born on what is now Hannah Circuit, near Newberry, which was then in Abbeville County, South Carolina. Young Turner was bound out to the hardest king of labor in the cotton fields and the blacksmiths trade in Abbeville until his manhood at age
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Feb
1
1834
Daniel A. P. Murray born
Born in Baltimore on March 3. Murray, an African-American, was assistant librarian of Congress, and a collector of books and pamphlets by and about black Americans.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Sponsored by NSBE Boston
Mar
3
1852
Merriwether, Raymond (1924–2011)
Raymond (Ray) Merriwether, prominent Seattle, Washington African American architect, real estate developer, and newspaper owner, was born in Taylor, Texas on June 19, 1924 to Colie and Annie Merriwether.  After graduating from high school Merriwether attended barber school and served a short time
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Source: Black Past
Sponsored by BARBinc
May
23
2011
Majette, Denise L. (1955- )
Denise Majette, former member of Congress, attorney, judge, and politician, was born in Brooklyn, New York on May 18, 1955 to Voyd Lee and Olivia (Foster) Majette.  In 1976, Majette graduated from Yale University.  She earned her law degree from Duke University, Durham, North Carolina in
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Source: Black Past
Sponsored by National Black MBA Association (NBMBAA) Boston Professional Chapter
May
18
1955
Prologue: Selected Articles | National Archives
Prologue: Selected Articles
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Source: Archives Library Information Center (ALIC)
Sponsored by Diversity In Action
Simpson, O. J.
Simpson, O. J. (Orenthal James Simpson), 1947–, American football player, b. San Francisco. As a running back for the Univ. of Southern California, he won the Heisman Trophy as the best college player of 1968. The Juice played with the Buffalo Bills (1969–77) and San Francisco 49ers (1978–79) and
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Source: Fact Monster - Black History
Death of Ida B.Wells-Barnett
Ida Bell Wells-Barnett
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Jul
16
1862
Winfrey, Oprah (1954 - )
Repeatedly on Time magazine’s list of the 100 most influential people in the world, Oprah Winfrey is a television host, media mogul – in television, radio, film, and print – and philanthropist.  Forbes magazine included her in its 2003 list of America’s billionaires, the first African American
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Source: Black Past
Jan
30
1954
(1970) Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm, “I Am For the Equal Rights Amendment.”
Shirley Anita St. Hill Chisholm became in 1968 the first African American woman elected to Congress.  Four years later in 1972, she launched a bid to become the Democratic nominee for President of the United States, another first for an African American woman.  Throughout her career in Congress
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Source: Black Past
Aug
10
1970
Bowie State University (1865- )
Founded in 1865, Bowie State University is Maryland’s oldest historically black university, and one of the ten oldest African American institutions of higher education in the United States.  It is also one of eleven senior colleges and universities in the University of Maryland system.  The
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Source: Black Past
Sponsored by Eastern Bank
Slavery in Oregon: The Reuben Shipley Saga
Few Americans realize that the institution of slavery reached the Pacific Northwest in the two decades before the Civil War.  A small number of the white settlers who followed the Oregon Trail from Independence, Missouri to Oregon City brought bondservants.  Oregon historian R. Gregory
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Source: Black Past
Sponsored by Prospanica Boston Professional Chapter
Jul
13
1853
Dominique Wilkins
Jacques Dominique Wilkins is a retired professional basketball player who is known as one of the best dunkers in NBA history. He was born on January 12, 1960 in Paris, France as his father was an Air Force Officer who was stationed there at the time of his birth. His family moved back to the United
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Source: Black History Resources
Jan
12
1960
Foxx, Anthony Renard (1971- )
Anthony Foxx, the seventeenth United States Secretary of Transportation, was born April 30, 1971 in Charlotte, North Carolina, and raised by his mother, Laura Foxx, and grandparents James and Mary Foxx. He graduated from West Charlotte High School in 1989, and four years later received
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Source: Black Past
Sponsored by Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE) Boston Professional Chapter
Jul
2
2013
Maynard, Robert C. (1937-1993)
Robert C. Maynard, the first African American editor and owner of a major daily newspaper in the United States, was known as a trailblazing journalist who led efforts to desegregate newsrooms and educate minority students to pursue careers in
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Source: Black Past
Sponsored by Greater Boston Veterans Collaborative
Aug
19
1993
Southwestern Christian College (1948- )
Southwestern Christian College, a junior college with a four year Bible degree program, was largely the brainchild of George P. Bowser (1874-1950), an influential African American preacher in Churches of Christ. A former Methodist minister, Bowser received biblical and ministerial training at
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Source: Black Past
Goode, Wilson (1938- )
Best known as the first African American Mayor of Philadelphia, Woodrow Wilson Goode was born in 1938 into a family of tenant farmers near the town of Seaboard, North Carolina.  Goode moved to Philadelphia with his family in
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Source: Black Past
Atkinson, Kelvin (1969- )
A Democratic member of the Nevada Senate, Kelvin Atkinson made history in April 2013 by becoming the fifth openly LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) member, and the first black gay member of the Nevada legislature.  He revealed his sexual orientation during a legislative debate surrounding
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Source: Black Past
Oct
9
2014
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