BlackPast.Org - Academic Advisory Board

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Oct

30

1966

The TransPacific Struggle over Citizenship: Seeking Welfare Rights in Kawasaki City, Japan and Los Angeles, California,1962-1982

Historians rarely compare the mostly working-class and poor Korean population in Japan and African Americans seeking economic justice in the United States. Japanese scholar Kazuyo Tsuchiya of Kanagawa University takes on that task in her new book, Reinventing Citizenship: Black Los Angeles, Korean

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Source: Black Past

Sammy Davis Jr., dies

Sammy Davis Jr., actor, dancer, singer and world class entertainer dies in Beverly Hills, California at age 64. Davis, born in Harlem, was a member of the popular and notorious Hollywood Rat Pack. He also held starring roles in a host of Broadway musicals and motion pictures.

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Source: Blackfacts.com

May

16

1990

Jordan, Barbara (1936-1996)

Barbara Charline Jordan was born in Houston Texas’s Fifth Ward on February 21, 1936. She received her education in public schools in Texas and graduated from Texas Southern University in 1956 with a B.A. in political science and history. Jordan then received her LL.B. from Boston University School

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Source: Black Past

Jan

17

1996

U.S. Rep. Floyd Flake born

U.S. Rep. Floyd Flake, D-New York, was born in Los Angeles, California. A businessman and minister, Flake established the Allen Christian School and Allen Home Care Agency.

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Source: Blackfacts.com

Jan

30

1945

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

First African Baptist Church, Savannah, Georgia (1773– )

First African Baptist Church, located in the historic district of Savannah, Georgia, is recognized as one of the nations oldest African American Baptist Churches. Although the church was not officially established until 1788, the original congregation of mostly enslaved individuals had been formed

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Source: Black Past

Jan

20

1788

Arthur Allen Fletcher, “The Father of Affirmative Action”

Arthur Allen Fletcher is known to many as the father of affirmative action. In the following account historian David Hamilton Golland describes the career of Fletcher, a Republican civil rights activist during the last half of the 20th

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Source: Black Past

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

Streeter, Mel (1931-2006)

Mel Streeter was born in Riverside, California in 1931. He attended the University of Oregon on a basketball scholarship and was the second African-American basketball player at Oregon after declining an offer by legendary basketball coach John Wooden to attend UCLA, because UCLA did not have an

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Source: Black Past

Jun

15

2006

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

Walker, Darren (1959– )

Philanthropist Darren Walker is the tenth president of the seventy-seven-year-old Ford Foundation, the second largest philanthropy in the world. Walker was born August 28, 1959, at a charity hospital in Lafayette, Louisiana, to a single mother and was raised in East Texas. He received two degrees

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Source: Black Past

Aug

28

1959

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

Florence Griffith Joyner, track legend born

Delorez Florence Griffith Joyner

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Source: Blackfacts.com

Dec

21

1959

Franks, Gary (1953- )

When Gary Franks was elected to Congress in 1990, he was the first black representative from Connecticut and the first black Republican in Congress in nearly 50 years. Son of a brass factory worker and a dietary specialist, education was a high priority in Franks’s Waterbury family. In fact, Gary

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Source: Black Past

Faith Congregational Church [Hartford] (1819- )

The Faith Congregational Church in Hartford, Connecticut began in 1819 as a place for African Americans to worship on their own since they were previously only able to worship in the backs of churches and in church galleries in that city. A group of African Americans began worshipping in the

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Source: Black Past

Fudge, Marcia (1952 - )

Democrat Marcia Fudge is a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, representing the 11th Congressional District of Ohio since November 2008. She was the first female African American mayor of Warrensville Heights, a predominantly middle-class black suburban city outside of Cleveland. She

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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

Dec

17

2012

Watson, Diane Edith (1933- )

Diane Edith Watson was born November 12, 1933 in Los Angeles, California and has spent the majority of her life in the Los Angeles area. Her father was a Los Angeles policeman and her mother worked nights at a post office after her parents divorced when Watson was

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Source: Black Past

Nov

12

1933

Winkfield, Jimmy (1882-1974)

Jimmy Winkfield, born on April 12, 1882, became famous as an early 20th Century horse jockey. Winkfield, the youngest of 17 children, was born in Chilesburg, Kentucky, a town just outside of Lexington. As a child, he had a routine that included performing chores on the farm where his father was

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Source: Black Past

Young, Coleman A. (1918-1997)

Born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, Coleman Young arrived in Detroit, Michigan with his family when he was five. The Colemans settled in the working class neighborhood of Black Bottom (East Detroit), where his father operated a dry cleaning business and his mother was a schoolteacher. Early in his life

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Source: Black Past

James, Charles A. (1922- )

Ambassador Charles A. James was born in 1922 in Washington, D.C. and grew up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania where he attended public schools. After high school, James enrolled at Westchester State Teachers College in Pennsylvania (now Westchester University) where he studied for one year before

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Source: Black Past

Sep

16

1976

Moore, Kermit (1929-2013)

Over a long distinguished career Kermit Moore has been a cellist of outstanding acclaim, an orchestra conductor, composer, teacher, and mentor. Through these activities in classical music he has been successful in breaking down racial and social

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Source: Black Past

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

May

6

1985

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

Jul

28

1989

Shorter AME Church, Denver, Colorado (1868- )

Shorter AME Church was organized in 1868. Two women, Mary Smith and Mary Randolph founded the church. The original members met on the South Platte River in 1863 until the Church was given land located at 19th and Holiday (now Market Street) by a major Fillmore, an officer in the Union Army during

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Source: Black Past

Bill Russell

Bill Russell is a celebrated African-American retired basketball player. He played center for the National Basketball Association’s the Boston Celtics team. His relentless effort earned him a twelve-time All-Star title and the NBA Most Valuable Player title. Russell’s remarkable victories made him

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Source: Black History Resources

Feb

12

1934

Educator Joseph Charles Price was born

Few Individuals have made the impact on their times or left the legacy to their beneficiaries as did Joseph Charles Price, founder and first president of Livingstone

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Source: Blackfacts.com

Feb

10

1854

Price, Mary Violet Leontyne (1927- )

Born to James and Kate Price on February 10, 1927, in Laurel, Mississippi, Leontyne Price became one of the world’s leading opera sopranos and among the first African Americans to gain prominence in major performance halls in that musical genre. Her parents were amateur musicians and instilled in

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Source: Black Past

Feb

10

1927

Mae Jemison: Astronaut, Physician

Born: October 17, 1956

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Source: Blackfacts.com

Oct

17

1956

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