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Henrietta Lacks and the Debate Over the Ethics of Bio-Medical Research
In the article below Clarence Spigner, DrPH., Professor of Health Services in the School of Public Health, University of Washington, Seattle, briefly describes the saga of Henrietta Lacks whose cells have been used without her family’s permission for over sixty years of bio-medical
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Source: Black Past
Sponsored by NSBE Boston
Oct
4
1951
Taylor, Francis Xavier (1948 – )
Francis Xavier Taylor is a senior military leader, intelligence and security expert, and American diplomat.  Born in Washington, D.C., on October 22, 1948, Taylor was raised by his mother Virginia Taylor, who worked as an administrator in the Department of the Army. When he later enrolled at the
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Source: Black Past
Ba, Mariama (1929-1981)
Writer and political activist Mariama Ba was born in1929 in Dakar, Senegal to a well-to-dofamily.  Her father worked in the Frenchcolonial administration and in 1956 became the Minister of Health ofSenegal.  Her mother died when she wasyoung.  Ba was raised by her maternalgrandparents who
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Source: Black Past
(1867) Thaddeus Stevens, “Reconstruction”
In 1867 Pennsylvania Congressman Thaddeus Stevens and Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner led the campaign for full voting rights for African Americans across the nation.  In the speech below which Stevens gave in the U.S. House of Representatives on January 3, 1867 supporting the Reconstruction
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Source: Black Past
Jan
3
1867
Angola
U.S. Department of State Background Note
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Source: Fact Monster - Black History
Sponsored by NSBE Boston
True Reformers Bank, The (1888-1910)
The Savings Bank of the Grand Fountain United Order of True Reformers was the first bank owned by African Americans in the United States. It was founded on March 2, 1888 by Reverend William Washington Browne and opened on April 3, 1889. Although the True Reformers bank was the first black-owned
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Source: Black Past
Virginia legislature enacts a law declaring that thestatus of the mother deter
Virginia legislature enacts a law declaring that the status of the mother determines whether children are slaves or free; Christians who fornicate with blacks are to pay double fines.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Jan
0
1662
(1884) William H. Crogman, “Negro Education: Its Helps and Hindrances”
? William Henry Crogman, a native of the West Indian island of St. Martin, was educated at Pierce Academy in Massachusetts immediately after the Civil War. In 1868 he was named to the English faculty of newly organized Claflin College in South Carolina. By 1870 Crogman returned to college, ente
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Source: Black Past
Jul
16
1884
An American Family's Multigenerational Rise from Slavery to Harvard University
In the account below, attorney and historian James H. Johnston describessix generations of descendants of Yarrow Mamout, a Muslim slave made famous by Charles Willson Peales 1819 painting of him in Georgetown in the District of Columbia.  Johnstons discussion of the evolution of hisbook, From Slave
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Source: Black Past
Virginia enacts statue that denies equality before the law to freed blacks.
Virginia enacts statue that denies equality before the law to freed blacks.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Jan
0
1668
Virginia passes a fugitive slave order penalizing those who assistrunaway slav
Virginia passes a fugitive slave order penalizing those who assist runaway slaves.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Jan
0
1642
Freedom To Male Slaves
Lord Dunmore, deposed royal governor of Virginia, issued proclamation which promised freedom to male slaves who joined the British army.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Nov
7
1775
A Virginia statue requires all masters to cut the hairof captured runaways "cl
A Virginia statue requires all masters to cut the hairof captured runaways close above the ears.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Sponsored by National Black MBA Association (NBMBAA) Boston Professional Chapter
Jan
0
1658
Dred Scott
Dred Scott was a slave who lived during the early 19th century and was the first slave who sued his master for freedom in a court of law. He was born into slavery in Virginia and was the property of the Peter Blow family. His birth name was Sam, but he changed it to Dred after his dead brother. The
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Source: Black History Resources
Cain, Herman (1945- )
Herman Cain, Republican Party activist and 2012 Presidential candidate is also a newspaper columnist, popular radio talk show host in Atlanta, and former chairman and CEO of Godfather’s Pizza, a Pillsbury subsidiary.  Cain was born on December 13, 1945 in Memphis, Tennessee, the son of Luther and
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Source: Black Past
Dec
13
1945
Sweatt v. Painter (1950)
SWEATT v. PAINTER, 339 U.S. 629
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Source: Black Past
Four national chain stores announced
Four national chain stores announced on October 17 that counters in about 150 stores in 112 cities in North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Texas, Tennessee, Missouri, Maryland, Florida and Oklahoma had been integrated.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Mar
1
1960
(1867) The Reconstruction Acts
Chap. CLIII - An Act to provide for the more efficient Government of the Rebel States [Passed over President Johnsons veto March
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Source: Black Past
Virginia statue imposes reduced import duties on merchants who bring slaves in
Virginia statue imposes reduced import duties on merchants who bring slaves into the colony.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Sponsored by Eastern Bank
Jan
0
1659
Jewel Plummer Cobb, cancer research biologist
Jewel Plummer Cobb, cancer research biologist, President of California State University, Fullerton, the first African American to hold such as position in the CSU system, born.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Sponsored by Association of Latino Professionals For America (ALPFA) Boston Professional Chapter
Jan
17
1924
Alexander, Archer (ca. 1810-1879)
Archer Alexander was born into slavery on a Virginia plantation around the year 1810.  His likeness, in face and figure, immortalizes all American slaves on a monument to emancipation that stands in Lincoln Park in Washington, D. C. The bronze monument Emancipation, also known as the Freedmens
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Source: Black Past
The Emancipation Proclamation
On January 1, 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation issued by U.S. President Abraham Lincoln went into effect.  The Proclamation, written the previous September, declared free all enslaved people in the Confederate States (or portions of those states) who resided in territory still in rebellion
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Source: Black Past
Jan
1
1863
(1920) Archibald Grimke, “The Shame of America, or the Negro’s Case Against the Republic”
Archibald Grimke was born enslaved in Charleston, South Carolina in 1849.  After the Civil War, Archibald and his younger brother Francis, enrolled at Lincoln University.  Archibald graduated in 1872 and then entered Harvard Law School.  After graduation he practiced in Boston.  By the 1880s Grimke
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Source: Black Past
Race, Gender, Jazz & Local 493: Black Women Musicians in Seattle: 1920-1955
During its brief and rocky tenure from 1918 to 1924, pianist Gertrude Harvey Wright was one of four women in Seattle’s first black musicians’ union, the American Federation of Musicians’ Local 458.  Wright,  Virginia Hughes, a “Mrs. Austin,” and (Edythe) “Turnham,” all
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Source: Black Past
History of Slavery in America
Follow the timeline to learn more about the history of slavery in the United States, including the arrival of the first African slaves to America, the federal banishment of slave importation, and the abolishment of slavery in the United
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Source: Fact Monster - Black History
Scott, Robert “Bobby” (1947- )
Congressman Robert Cortez “Bobby” Scott was born on April 30, 1947 in Washington, D.C. but later resided in Newport News, Virginia.  Scott attended Harvard University and later graduated from the Boston College School of
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Source: Black Past
Sponsored by Eastern Bank
Apr
30
1947
(1865) Abraham Lincoln, “Abraham Lincoln’s Last Public Address”
? F.A.Q. On April 11, 1865, two days after Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered his army to Union General Ulysses S. Grant, President Abraham Lincoln addressed a jubilant crowd that had gathered outside the White House in Washington, D.C.  While the crowd expected an address celebrating t
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Source: Black Past
Patricia Bath
When Patricia Era Bath was born on November 4, 1942, she could have succumbed to the pressures and stresses associated with growing up in Harlem, New York. With the uncertainty present because of World War II and the challenges for members of Black communities in the 1940′s, one might little expect
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Source: Black History Resources
Nov
26
2012
Sommersett, James (c1741-c1772)
James Sommersett was the subject of a landmark legal case in Great Britain, which was the first major step in imposing limits on Trans-Atlantic African slavery. Sommersett entered the pages of history when in 1771, he fled his North American owner, Charles Stewart, while both were living in
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Source: Black Past
Jun
22
1772
(1905) Roscoe Conkling Bruce, “Freedom Through Education”
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Source: Black Past
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