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Jim Beckwourth, Afro-American Pioneer
on this day Jim Beckwourth discovered a path through the Sierra Nevada Mountains that now bear his name. Beckwourth Pass on U.S. Alt 40 between Reno, Nevada and Sacramento, California made overland travel to the gold fields of California possible.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Sponsored by Christo Rey New York High School
Apr
26
1844
Malin Akerman
Malin Akerman is a Canadian actress who plays Miss Jupiter (Silk Spectre II) in the 2009 film version of Alan Moores graphic novel, Watchmen (also starring Billy Crudup). Born in Sweden, Akerman was raised in Canada and started her career in front of the camera as a model. She moved to California
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Source: Fact Monster - Black History
Sponsored by Museum of African American History in Massachusetts
Dakar, Senegal (1857- )
Dakar was the political center of French West Africa and is the capital of modern Senegal. Located on Cape Verde, the westernmost point of the African mainland, Ndaxaru, known by its French name, Dakar, has been occupied at least since Europeans began to explore the area. The French, attracted by
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Source: Black Past
Sponsored by Museum of African American History in Massachusetts
Keyes, Alan L. (1950- )
A controversial and conservative Republican, Alan Lee Keyes has perhaps one of the most extensive resumes to date in public and political
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Source: Black Past
Sponsored by Christo Rey New York High School
Florence Griffith Joyner
Florence Dolorez Griffith Joyner was an American athlete, who is considered to be one of the fastest women of all time. She was also known for being a trend setter on the field, with her fashionable outfits and long nails. She was born in Los Angeles, California on December 21, 1959 and raised in
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Source: Black History Resources
Dec
21
1959
Waldon, Alton Ronald, Jr. (1936–)
Alton Ronald Waldon Jr. was the first African American Congressman elected from Queens, New York.  Waldon was born in Lakeland, Florida on December 21, 1936. He attended Boys High School in Brooklyn, New York and after graduation in 1954 joined the United States Army.  Discharged in 1959 Waldon
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Source: Black Past
Williams, Sidney (1942- )
Former professional football player, businessman, and diplomat, Sidney Williams was born in Shreveport, Louisiana on March 24, 1942. Raised in Houston, Texas, he attended the city’s Phillis Wheatley High School and upon graduation in 1959 enrolled at Southern University in Baton
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Source: Black Past
Sponsored by Greater Boston Veterans Collaborative
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
Williams, Vanessa (1963- )
Vanessa Lynn Williams was born in Tarrytown, New York on March 18, 1963. She is the daughter of Helen and the late Milton Williams who were music teachers. She has a younger brother, Christopher, who is also an actor.  Williams was the first African American woman to win the Miss America title on
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Source: Black Past
Sponsored by Christo Rey New York High School
Wheat, Alan Dupree (1951 - )
Alan Dupree Wheat, the first black Congressman from Kansas City, Missouri, was born in San Antonio, Texas, on October 16, 1951. He attended schools in Wichita, Kansas, and in Seville, Spain, before graduating from Airline High School in Bossier City, Louisiana, in 1968. In 1972 Wheat received
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Source: Black Past
Grose, William (1835-1898)
Before the Civil War, when he was 18, William Grose left his home in Washington, D.C. and enlisted in the U.S. Navy. Assigned to the USS Vincennes in 1853, he went to South Africa, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Russia and the Arctic during his tour of duty.  Grose, who was honorably discharged in San
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Source: Black Past
(2015) President Barack Obama's Eulogy for Rev. Clementa Pinckney
VIDEO OF SPEECH
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Source: Black Past
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
Hackley, Emma Azalia (1867-1922)
Emma Azalia Smith Hackley was an African American singer and Denver political activist born in Murfreesboro, Tennessee in 1867.  Her parents, business owners Henry and Corilla Smith, moved to Detroit where she attended Washington Normal School, graduating in 1886.  Smith, a child prodigy learned to
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Source: Black Past
Dec
13
1922
Gish, Adam, Seattle, Washington
Adam Gish teaches language arts at Garfield High School in Seattle, Washington and has taught for seventeen years. He holds National Board Certification and is a co-chairman of Garfield’s building leadership team. Email: algish@seattleschools.org Copyright 2007-2017 - BlackPast.org v3.0 NDCHost -
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Source: Black Past
Rice, Norm (1943- )
Norman B. Rice was born in Denver, Colorado.  He migrated to Seattle in 1970 to attend college.  In 1972 he earned a bachelor’s degree in communications and two years later a master’s degree in public administration both from the University of
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Source: Black Past
Sponsored by National Association of Black Accountants (NABA) Boston Metropolitan Chapter
Jul
28
1989
Chuck Berry
Charles Anderson Edward Berry, better known as Chuck Berry, is popularly considered the father of Rock ‘n’ Roll. He was born on October 18, 1926 in St. Louis, Missouri to Martha and Henry Berry, who were grandchildren of slaves. His ancestors had migrated from the rural south to Missouri to look
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Source: Black History Resources
Sponsored by Greater Boston Veterans Collaborative
Oct
18
1926
Zhou Enlai's African "Safari" (1963-1964)
Zhou Enlai’s first tour of Africa, popularly known as Zhou’s “Safari,” was a series of state visits to ten independent African countries, undertaken between December 1963 and February 1964 by the Chinese Premier. These visits, which occurred during a period when many countries were
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Source: Black Past
National Equal Rights League (1864–1921)
Founded in Syracuse, New York in 1864, the National Equal Rights League (NERL) promoted full and immediate citizenship for African Americans. Created during the Civil War, the League based its call for full citizenship as compensation for military service in the Revolutionary and Civil Wars. They
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Source: Black Past
Pitre, Clayton (1924- )
Clayton Pitre is a long time Seattle, Washington-based community activist, former Chief Housing Developer for the Central Area Motivation Project (CAMP), and a retired Montford Point
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Source: Black Past
Black Panther Party Founder Born
Black Panther Party Founder Huey P. Newton born. An illiterate high-school graduate, Newton taught himself how to read before attending Merritt College in Oakland and the San Francisco School of Law, where he met Seale. In Oakland in 1966 they formed the Black Panther group in response to
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Feb
17
1942
Political Upset
Lt. Gov. Mervyn Dymally defeated in California election. Senator Edward W. Brooke defeated in Massachusetts election.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Nov
7
1978
Norma Merrick Sklarek
Norma Merrick Sklarek was the first black woman to become a licensed architectin the state of New York and California.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Sponsored by Eastern Bank
Jan
0
1966
Toomer, Jean (1894-1967)
Jean Toomer was born into an elite black family in Washington, D.C. in 1894. Abandoned by his father as a newborn and losing his mother to appendicitis as a teenager, Toomer spent his formative years in the home of his grandparents, P.B.S. and Nina Pinchback. P.B.S. Pinchback served as a state
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Source: Black Past
1st Rhode Island Regiment
The 1st Rhode Island Regiment was a Continental Army regiment during the American Revolutionary War. The 1st Rhode Island Regiment became known as the Black Regiment due to its allowing the recruitment of African Americans in 1778.  This decision, designed to help fill dwindling ranks among the
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Source: Black Past
Sponsored by Illinois Math and Science Academy
Dinkins, David N. (1927- )
In 1989, David N. Dinkins defeated his challenger, former federal prosecutor Rudolph (Rudy) Giuliani, to become the first African American mayor of New York
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Source: Black Past
Reynolds, Melvin Jay “Mel” (1952- )
Politician, scholar and professor, Mel Reynolds was born on January 8, 1952, in Mound Bayou, Mississippi, to parents J.J. and Essie May Reynolds.  Reynolds attended John Marshall High School on the Westside of Chicago where he developed impressive academic credentials.  He then enrolled in Chicago
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Source: Black Past
Oct
1
1995
St. Philip’s Protestant Episcopal Church, New York City (1809- )
St. Philip’s Protestant Episcopal Church was the first African American Episcopal parish in New York City, New York.  It was also one of the largest Christian congregations in the United States at one
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Source: Black Past
Scott, Timothy (1965- )
U.S. Senator from South Carolina, Timothy Eugene Scott is the first black Republican elected to the Senate from the South since Senator Blanche Kelso Bruce served in that body representing Mississippi from 1876 to 1881. He is also the first Republican Senator elected since Edward Brooke represented
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Source: Black Past
Sponsored by Greater Boston Veterans Collaborative
Dec
17
2012
Seattle in Black and White: The Congress of Racial Equality and the Fight for Equal Opportunity
Singler, Joan, et al, Seattle in Black and White: The Congress of Racial Equality and the Fight for Equal Opportunity
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Source: Black Past
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