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Blacks organize a National Steamboat Company
Blacks organized the National Steamboat Company in Washington, D.C. The company sailed a steamboat, the George Leary, between DC and Norfolk, Virginia. The luxury boat held a capacity of 1,500 passengers and included three decks, sixty-four state rooms, on hundred berths, and a dining room.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Jan
14
1895
Innovative and famed jazz musician, John Coltrane dies, 1967
Innovative and famed jazz musician, John Coltrane dies, 1967
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Jul
17
1967
COINTELPRO Memorandum
A memorandum sent to field offices of the FBI set goals for what was termed as a new counterintelligence program against African American Nationalist groups. The objective was to block attempts by targeted groups to coalesce, grow and exist. The agencey believed unity was the first step toward
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Mar
3
1968
Boxer Sugar Ray Leonard born
Sugar Ray Leonard
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Source: Blackfacts.com
May
17
1956
Death of Carter G. Woodson
Death of Carter G. Woodson (74), father of Black history, Washington, D.C.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Sponsored by Diversity In Action
Apr
3
1950
Charles C. DiggsJr.
Charles C. Diggs Jr. of Detroit elected Michigans first Black congressman.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Sponsored by Concerned Black Men of Massachusetts
Nov
2
1954
1921 : Billy Taylor, jazz musician, born
1921 : Billy Taylor, jazz musician, born
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Sponsored by Prospanica Boston Professional Chapter
Jul
24
1921
John H. Johnson, Editor and Publisher of JET
1918 : John H. Johnson, Editor and Publisher of JET and Ebony magazines, founder of Johnson Publishing Company, the most successful African American publishing company in the U.S., owner of Fashion Fair cosmetics, and the first African American owned radio station in Chicago, born
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Sponsored by Greater Boston Veterans Collaborative
Jun
19
1918
Samuel L. Gravely is born
Samuel Gravely was appointed captain of the Navy Destroyer Escort, U.S.S. Falgout, the first African American to command a United States warship. He later received the rand of Rear Admiral, a first for an African American navyman.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Jun
4
1922
30 million people worldwide joined in pop singer Bob Geldof's "Race Against Time
30 million people worldwide joined in pop singer Bob Geldofs Race Against Time to raise money for the starving in Africa.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
May
25
1986
Lionel Hampton is born
Lionel Hampton, musician and bandleader, Born April 12, 1913. He recorded with Louis Armstrong and worked with Benny Goodman and was also responsible for introducing the vibraphone into jazz.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Apr
12
1913
Death of Bishop R. C. Lawson
Bishop R. C. Lawson died July 2, 1961 in New York
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Sponsored by Concerned Black Men of Massachusetts
Jul
2
1961
Cab Calloway recorded "Minnie the Moocher"-the first jazz album to sell a millio
Cab Calloway recorded Minnie the Moocher-the first jazz album to sell a million copies.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Mar
31
1931
Josephine Baker dies
Born Freda Josephine McDonald in St. Louis, Missouri, she later took the name Baker from her stepfather. Surviving the 1917 riots in East St. Louis, Illinois, where the family was living, she ran away a few years alter at age thirteen and began dancing in vaudeville and on Broadway. In 1925, she
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Apr
12
1975
Grover Cleveland Wins Election
Grover Cleveland won election and became the first Democratic president of the United States since the Civil War.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Sponsored by Eastern Bank
Nov
4
1884
William R. "Cozy" Cole, jazz drummer, dies.
William R. Cozy Cole, jazz drummer, dies. His recording of Topsy became the only drum solo to sell more than one million records
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Sponsored by Christo Rey New York High School
Jan
29
1981
Walter E. Washington
President Lyndon B. Johnson named Walter E. Washington commissioner and unofficial mayor of Washington, D.C.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Sep
6
1967
Louis Armstrong influenced direction of jazz
Louis Armstrong recorded the first of Hot Five and Hot Seven recordings that influenced the direction of jazz.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Nov
11
1925
Betty Shabazz, born
Betty Shabazz, activist and widow of Malcolm X was born in Detroit, Michigan.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
May
28
1940
Death of P.B.S. Pinchback
Death of P.B.S. Pinchback (84), major Reconstruction politician, Washington, D.C.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Dec
21
1921
Reginald F. Lewis
Lewis was born on this day in Baltimore, Maryland. He received his law degree from Harvard Law School in 1968. He was a partner in Murphy, Thorpes & Lewis, the first black law firm on Wall Street. In 1989 he became president and CEO of TLC Beatrice International food Company, Lewis became the
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Feb
3
0
Race Riot, Washington, D.C
Race Riot, Washington, D.C. Triggered by raids on Black residential areas by white soldiers. Six persons killed and more than one hundred wounded.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Jul
24
1919
Jan Earnest Matzeliger
Jan Earnest Matzeliger was born on September 15, 1852 in
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Sep
15
1852
Andre Watts, classical pianist, born
Andre Watts, classical pianist, born
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Jun
20
1946
The Bethune Museum & Archives, a depository and center for AfricanAmerican wom
The Bethune Museum & Archives, a depository and center for African American womens history, is established in Washington, DC
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Sponsored by Massachusetts Black Lawyers Association (MBLA)
Nov
11
1979
The Brooklyn Excelsiors is the first black baseballteam to tour the United Sta
The Brooklyn Excelsiors is the first black baseball team to tour the United States.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Jan
0
1860
Poet Jupiter Hammon born
Birthday of Jupiter Hammon, a writer and self-educated Calvinist, who was born a slave. Hammon is believed to be the first black poet published in the United States.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Oct
17
1720
Max Robinson
The first Black network anchor, Max Robinson, who joined ABCs World News Tonight died on this day of complication from Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), in Washington, DC.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Sponsored by Pride Academy
Dec
20
1986
Clifford Brown dies
Jazz trumpeter Clifford Brown dies in an auto accident on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Founder of the Brown-Roach Quintet with Max Roach two years earlier, Brown had built a reputation as one of the finest jazz trumpeters of his day as a major proponent of hard bop.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Jun
26
1956
Evelyn Boyd Granville is born
Evelyn Boyd Granville, Born May 1, 1924 in Washington, D.C. and attended Dunbar High School, a segregated high school at the time. Her interest in mathematics was encouraged by two mathematics teachers. Granville worked with Einar Hille, a distinguished mathematician in the field of functional
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Sponsored by Museum of African American History in Massachusetts
May
1
1924
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