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Arthur Ashe
Arthur Ashe makes history by becoming the first African American male to win the mens single title at Wimbledon, defeating Jimmy Connors.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Jul
5
1975
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Uncle Toms Cabin, a novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe, published in Boston.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Mar
20
1852
Katherine Dunham, dancer/anthropologist born
Katherine Dunham
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Jun
22
1912
Pulitzer Prize and Spingarn Medal given
Charles Gordone awarded Pulitzer Prize for his play, No Place To Go. Painter Jacob Lawrence awarded Spingarn Medal in tribute to the compelling power of his work which has opened to the world...a window on the Negros condition in the United States and in salute to his unswerving commitment to the
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Nov
26
1970
Benjamin Banneker
Benjamin Banneker writes letter to then secretary of state Thomas Jefferson. The letter showed the hypocrisy of slavery. Banneker challenged the idea of freedom for whites as the ascribed it to be the same freedom that should be granted to Africans.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Aug
19
1791
On this day, Lorraine Hansberry's 'A Raisin in the Sun'opened at the Ethel Bar
On this day, Lorraine Hansberrys A Raisin in the Sun
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Mar
11
1959
1849 Benjamin Roberts.
Benjamin Roberts filed the first petition to abolish segregated schools. Roberts filed the school integration suit on behalf of his daughter against the city of Boston, which had a local ordiance requiring separate schools. The Massachusetts Supreme Corut in Roberts v. Boston rejected the
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Sponsored by BARBinc
Jan
0
1855
Larry Doby
Larry Doby is born. He will become the first African American in baseballs American League, playing for the Cleveland Indians. He will be the 1954 RBI leader.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Dec
13
1924
First African American Intercollegiate football
Livingstone and Biddle College (now Johnson C. Smith) play the first African American intercollegiate football game
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Dec
27
1892
South Carolina constitutional convention
South Carolina constitutional convention, the first official assembly in the West with a Black majority, met in the Charleston Clubhouse with seventy-six Black delegates and forty-eight white delegates. Two-thirds of the Black delegates were former slaves. A New York Herald reporter wrote: Here in
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Sponsored by Christo Rey New York High School
Jan
14
1868
Rev. George Leile
Rev. George Leile was the first African American to be ordained a Baptist minister in America. He was an early pastor of the First African Baptist Church of Silver Bluf, South Carolina. Curiously, he supported the British during the American Revolutionary war because of the Britishs promise to free
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Jan
0
1770
W Wilson Goode becomes the 1st African American mayor of Philadelphia
W Wilson Goode becomes the 1st African American mayor of Philadelphia
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Sponsored by Eastern Bank
Oct
9
1984
Compensation For States
President Lincoln, in message to Congress, recommended the use of federal bonds to provide compensation for states that abolished slavery before 1900.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Dec
1
1862
Etta Moten sings for President
Etta Moten sings for President and Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt at a White House Dinner. It is the first time an African American actress performs at the White House.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Sponsored by Center for Critical Race and Digital Studies
Jan
31
1934
Debbye Turner is crowned Miss America. She is the third African American to win
Debbye Turner is crowned Miss America. She is the third African American to win the crown since the inception of the pageant in 1921.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Sep
16
1989
Second annual report of the NAACP
Second annual report of the NAACP listed total receipts from May through December, 1911, of $10,317.43. Organization had local chapters in Chicago, Boston and New York.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Sponsored by New York University
Jan
1
1912
Did You Know That In...
1751 - A South Carolina law prohibits slaves from learning about poisons and other medicines, it also prohibits them from becoming doctors.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Sponsored by Christo Rey New York High School
Jan
0
1751
Gladys Ross dies
Gladys Merritt Ross, co-founder of Phi Delta Kappa sorority for African American teachers, dies in Stockton, California.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Sponsored by Pride Academy
May
6
1985
First Black American woman aviator
First Black American woman aviator, Bessie Coleman was born, 1893
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Jan
26
1893
Imhotep
Imhotep was the royal advisor to King Zoser during the Third Dynasty
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Jan
0
2630
John C. Freemont
John C. Fremont issued proclamation freeing slaves of Missouri rebels. Lincoln revoked the proclamation.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Aug
30
1854
Did You Know That In...
1669 - A Virginia act rules that slave owners will not be held liable for killing their slaves.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Jan
0
1669
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
Jump Start premieres in 40 newspapers in the U.S. It is created by 26 year old R
Jump Start premieres in 40 newspapers in the U.S. It is created by 26 year old Robb Armstrong, the youngest African American to have a syndicated comic strip. He follows in the footsteps of Morrie Turner, the creator of Wee Pals, the first African American syndicated comic strip.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Sponsored by NSBE Boston
Oct
2
1989
Death of William Monroe Trotter
William Monroe Trotter dies, at age sixty-two in Boston.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Apr
7
1934
Naval Frigate named after African American
The Navy frigate USS Jesse L. Brown was commissioned. The ship was named for Ensign Jesse L. Brown, the first African American naval aviator killed in combat over Korea.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Feb
17
1973
African American Shakespearean actor Morgan Smith
African American Shakespearean actor Morgan Smith dies in Sheffield, England. Smith had emigrated to England in 1866.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Mar
22
1882
Selma March begins
The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. leads thousands of people on a 54 mile march from Selma to Montgomery Alabama to call for voting rights for African Americans.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Mar
21
1965
James Gladden 1st certified orthopedic surgeon
January 22, 1949 - James Robert Gladden becomes first African American certified in orthopedic surgery.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Jan
22
1949
Ride-ins on Virginia Streetcars
Black demonstrators staged ride-ins on Richmond, Va., streetcars. Troops were mobilized to restore order.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Apr
24
1867
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