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
Charles Mitchell, Slavery, and Washington Territory in 1860
Few people connect Washington Territory with slavery.  However one incident in 1860 was a reminder that the peculiar institution reached the pre-Civil War Pacific Northwest.  In the account below, historian Lorraine McConaghy describes the saga of Charles Mitchell whose attempted escape from
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Source: Black Past
Sep
24
1860
Agrippa Hull: Revolutionary Patriot
In the following article, University of California at Los Angeles historian Gary B. Nash describes little-known Revolutionary War soldier who was attached by General George Washington to serve with Polish military engineer Tadeuz Kosciuszko. This account is part of a larger history of three
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Source: Black Past
Sponsored by Center for Critical Race and Digital Studies
May
21
1848
Rhue, Sylvia (1947- )
Sylvia Rhue is a distinguished writer, religious scholar, documentarian, and public speaker. She has engaged in significant work in religious communities around lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender (LGBT) rights and sexuality as well as co-produced an award-winning
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Source: Black Past
Sponsored by Christo Rey New York High School
Johnson, Charles V. (1928- )
Charles Vernon Johnson was an influential member of the Seattle African American community from the moment he moved out west in 1954 to attend law school at the University of Washington.  Johnson, originally from Little Rock, Arkansas, was one of a few black graduate students at the University of
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Source: Black Past
Sponsored by Prospanica Boston Professional Chapter
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
Balewa, Sir Abubakar Tafawa (1912-1966)
Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa was the first Prime Minister ofNigeria before and after Nigerian independence from Great Britain in
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Source: Black Past
Wilson Riles elected superintendent of Public
Wilson Riles elected superintendent of Public instruction in California. Richard Austin elected secretary of state in Michigan.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Sponsored by NSBE Boston
Nov
3
1970
Hyman, John Adams (1840-1891)
John Adams Hyman was born into slavery on July 23, 1840 in Warren County, North Carolina. Hymans thirst for knowledge resulted in him being sold away from his family for attempting to read a spelling book that was given to him by a sympathetic white jeweler. He continued to seek knowledge at his
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Source: Black Past
Sponsored by Center for Critical Race and Digital Studies
Sep
14
1891
(1865) Abraham Lincoln, “Second Inaugural Address”
On Saturday March 4, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated and began his second term as President.  His address to the audience of thousands of spectators was brief, one of the shortest inaugural addresses on record.  The Civil War was drawing to a close as Union Armies were bearing down
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Source: Black Past
The Zong Massacre (1781)
The slave ship Zong departed the coast of Africa on 6 September 1781 with 470 slaves. Since this human chattel was such a valuable commodity at that time, many captains took on more slaves than their ships could accommodate in order to maximize profits.  The Zong’s captain, Luke
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Source: Black Past
Rhodes, J. Steven (1951- )
J. Steven Rhodes, U.S. Ambassador to Zimbabwe, was born in New Orleans, Louisiana on September 29, 1951.  After graduating from high school he attended Loyola Marymount University (LMU) in Los Angeles, California where he was a member of the LMU 1969 Hall of Fame football
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Source: Black Past
Sponsored by Concerned Black Men of Massachusetts
Tubman, Harriet Ross (c. 1821-1913)
Dubbed “The Moses of Her People,” escaped slave Harriet Tubman assisted hundreds of slaves on the Underground Railroad, leading them from Maryland to safety in Pennsylvania.  Born enslaved and raised in Dorchester County, Maryland to Benjamin and Harriett Greene Ross, Harriett was both
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Source: Black Past
Jun
2
1863
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
Morial, Ernest Nathan (1929-1989)
Born in New Orleans, Ernest Morial grew up in the city’s Seventh Ward.  His father was a cigar maker and his mother was a seamstress.  Graduating from Xavier University, a historically black Catholic institution, he became the first African American to receive a law degree from Louisiana State
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Source: Black Past
First African Methodist Episcopal Church, Los Angeles, California, (1872- )
The First African Methodist Episcopal (FAME) Church is today the oldest and one of the largest African American congregations in Los Angeles, California. It was founded in 1872 by Bridget (Biddy) Mason who arrived as a slave in Los Angeles with her owner in 1856. However, since California was
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Source: Black Past
McFerrin, Robert Keith, Sr. (1921–2006)
In 1953 baritone Robert McFerrin Sr. made history as the first African American to win the Metropolitan Opera House’s Auditions of the Air radio contest.  On January 27, 1955, in the role of Ethiopian King Amonasro in Verdi’s Aida, McFerrin made history again by becoming the first African American
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Source: Black Past
Huey P. Newton
Huey Percy Newton was an African American leader and co-founder of the Black Panther Party. He was the youngest of seven children born to Armelia Johnson and Walter Newton on February 17, 1942 in Monroe, Louisiana and named after the former Governor of Louisiana, Huey Long. His family was not very
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Source: Black History Resources
Sponsored by Pride Academy
Aug
22
1989
Maxine Waters birth
Maxine Waters was born this day. Congresswoman Waters is a Democrat fromCalifornia.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Aug
15
1938
Fort Pillow Massacre (1864)
On April 12, 1864, some 3,000 rebels under the command of Nathan Bedford Forrest overran Fort Pillow, a former Confederate stronghold situated on a bluff on the Tennessee bank of the Mississippi, some 40 miles north of Memphis. The garrison consisted of about 600 Union soldiers, roughly evenly
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Source: Black Past
Apr
12
1864
(1993) William J. Clinton, “The Freedom to Die"
On November 13, 1993, President Bill Clinton traveled to Memphis to address 5,000 African American ministers at the national headquarters of the Church of God in Christ.  Speaking from the pulpit where in 1968 Dr. Martin Luther King delivered his last sermon, Clinton used the occasion to urge the
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Source: Black Past
Nov
13
1993
Black Panther Party emerges
Huey Newton and Bobby Seale students at a California college create the Black Panther Party for Self Defense.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Nov
30
1966
Congo
Congo kŏng´gō [key] or Zaïre zī´ēr, zäēr´ [key], great river of equatorial Africa, c.2,720 mi (4,380 km) long, formed by the waters of the Lualaba River and its tributary, the Luvua River, and flowing generally N and W through Congo (Kinshasa) to the Atlantic Ocean. Sections in this article:
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Source: Fact Monster - Black History
Sponsored by Intellitech
Documentary Films on Blackpast.org - African American History in the West - Director
Films - By Director | Films - By Title | Films - Year | Films - By Subject | Entire Site Bibliography
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Source: Black Past
Sponsored by National Association of Black Accountants (NABA) Boston Metropolitan Chapter
Bumbry, Grace (1937- )
Grace Bumbry is considered one of the foremost mezzo-sopranos of the opera world. She and several of her African American contemporaries, including Leontyne Price, Martina Arroyo, Shirley Verrett, and Reri Grist, are credited with following Marian Anderson, a pioneer in paving the way for African
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Source: Black Past
Negro Repertory Company (Seattle) 1936-1939
The Negro Repertory Company (NRC) was established in 1936 by Florence and James Burton, directors of the Seattle Repertory Playhouse (SRP), as the Negro unit of the Federal Theatre Program, a part of the WPA. In its short life it produced ambitious and controversial plays that reached a wide
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Source: Black Past
Oct
27
1936
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
A. Philip Randolph Institute (1965- )
The A. Philip Randolph Institute was founded by and named for labor leader Asa Philip Randolph, who was the longtime president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters union. Randolph and his friend and fellow activist Bayard Rustin founded APRI in 1965 after their successful 1963 March on
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Source: Black Past
Fort Lawton (Seattle) “Riot” and POW Lynching, 1944
On August 14, 1944, African American soldiers “rioted” against Italian prisoners of war at Seattle’s Fort Lawton, an Army staging area for combat in the Pacific. American officers and POWs under their guard were severely beaten. The next morning one of the POWs, Guglielmo Olivotto, was
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Source: Black Past
Aug
14
1944
Stephanie Ellis-Smith, Seattle, Washington
Stephanie Ellis-Smith has lived in Seattle for nearly 20 years and has a diverse background in the arts and civic engagement. Stephanie has degrees in English and biochemistry from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and studied retroviruses at the University of
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Source: Black Past

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