Blaks Declare Segregation a Violation

(1904) Mary Church Terrell, “The Progress of Colored Women”

Mary Church Terrell, the daughter of former slaves, became by the beginning of the 20th century one of the most articulate spokespersons for womens rights including full suffrage. In 1896 she was elected president of the National Association of Colored Women and by 1910 she was a charter member of

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Source: Black Past

Wheatley, Phillis

Wheatley, Phillis, 1753?–1784, American poet, considered the first important black writer in the United States. Brought from Africa in 1761, she became a house slave for the Boston merchant John Wheatley and his wife Susanna, who, recognizing her intelligence and wit, educated her and encouraged

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Source: Fact Monster - Black History

Abbott, Anderson Ruffin (1837-1913)

Anderson Ruffin Abbott, Canada’s first black doctor, was born April 7, 1837 in Toronto, Ontario. He was the son of free black property owners William Ruffin Abbott and his wife Ellen (Toyer) Abbott who left Alabama after their store had been destroyed. They settled briefly in New York until

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Source: Black Past

Dec

29

1913

Mott, Lucretia Coffin

Mott, Lucretia Coffin, 1793–1880, American feminist and reformer, b. Nantucket, Mass. She moved (1804) with her family to Boston and later (1809) to Philadelphia. A Quaker, she studied and taught at a Friends school near Poughkeepsie, N.Y. After 1818 she became known as a lecturer for

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Source: Fact Monster - Black History

Trotter, William Monroe (1872-1934)

WilliamMonroe Trotter was a major early twentieth century civil rights activist knownprimarily for launching the first major challenge to the political dominance ofTuskegee Institute founder Booker T. Washington and as an inspiration for the formation of theNational Association for the Advancement

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Source: Black Past

Apr

7

1934

Walker, Alice M. (1944- )

The first African American to win the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, Alice Walker was born the eighth child of sharecroppers Willie Lee and Minnie Lou Grant Walker, on February 9, 1944, in Eatonton, Georgia. Walker became the valedictorian of her segregated high school class, despite an accident at

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Source: Black Past

Feb

9

1944

Marvelous Marvin Hagler

Marvelous Marvin Hagler was a world middleweight boxing champion and is known as one of the greatest boxers of the 1970s and 1980s. He was born Marvin Nathaniel Hagler on May 23, 1954 in New Jersey. His family’s property was destroyed in the 1967 Newark Riots, after which they relocated to

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Source: Black History Resources

May

23

1954

(1857) Frances Ellen Watkins, “Liberty For Slaves”

Frances Ellen Watkins was born of free parents in Baltimore in 1825. After teaching in New York and Pennsylvania Watkins became a full-time abolitionist speaker for the Maine Anti-Slavery Society. By the 1850s she was one of the most noted speakers on that subject as well as a highly acclaimed

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Source: Black Past

May

23

1857

Hayes, Roland (1887-1976)

The son of former slaves, Roland Hayes, born June 3, 1887 in Curryville, Georgia, became the first African American male to become an internationally acclaimed concert vocalist. As a youth, he sang in his Baptist church and on street corners for tips before attending Fisk University in

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Source: Black Past

Dec

31

1976

(1965) Lyndon B. Johnson, "The Voting Rights Act"

In early March 1965 much of the nations attention was focused on civil rights marches in and around Selma, Alabama. Activists led by Dr. Martin Luther King used these demonstrations to urge the federal government to act to end the denial of voting rights to tens of thousands of African Americans

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Source: Black Past

The Black Past: Remembered and Reclaimed | An Online Reference Guide to African American History by Professor Quintard Taylor, University of Washington

Home

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Source: Black Past

(1849) Sarah C. Roberts v. The City of Boston

SUPREME COURT OF MASSACHUSETTS, SUFFOLK

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Source: Black Past

Ball, Jr. Joseph T. (1804-1861)

Joseph T. Ball, Jr. was born Feb. 21, 1804 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. His mother Mary Montgomery Drew of Cambridge, Massachusetts, was white while his father was Jamaican-born Joseph T. Ball, Sr who came to Massachusetts in 1790. The elder Ball founded a society to help African American widows

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Source: Black Past

54th Massachusetts Infantry (1863-1865)

The Fifty-fourth Massachusetts Infantry was the first Northern black volunteer regiment enlisted to fight in the Civil War. Its accomplished combat record led to the general recruitment of African-Americans as soldiers. They ultimately comprised ten percent of Union Army and Navy. The

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Source: Black Past

(1854) William Lloyd Garrison, “No Compromise with the Evil of Slavery”

By 1854 William Lloyd Garrison was the most prominent abolitionist in the United States. Beginning with his newspaper, the Liberator, which he established in Boston in 1831, Garrison led the effort to end slavery in the nation. In this 1854 speech which appears below, Garrison called for complete

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Source: Black Past

Malcolm X

Malcolm X was a civil rights leader, spokesman for black nationalism and leader of the Nation of Islam, and had a major influence on the political and social thinking of African Americans. His birth name was Malcolm Little and he was born on May 19, 1925 in Omaha, Nebraska to Louise and Earl

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Source: Black History Resources

Feb

21

1965

Sissieretta Jones 1869-1933-Opera Singer

Sissieretta Jones born Matilda Joyner, enrolled in Providence Academy of Music at age fourteen and reported tohave completed training at New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. With her rich soprano voice she was applauded as the first Negro prima donna. She was compared to Adelina Pattie an

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Source: Blackfacts.com

Jan

0

1869

(1832) Maria W. Stewart, “Why Sit Ye Here and Die?”

Maria W. Stewart (1803-1879) was one of the first American women to leave copies of her speeches. The address below is her second public lecture. It was given on September 21, 1832 in Franklin Hall in Boston, the meeting site of the new England Anti-Slavery Society. Although as an abolitionist, she

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Source: Black Past

Sep

21

1832

(1844) Charles Lenox Remond, “For the Dissolution of the Union”

In a speech before the New England Anti-Slavery Society at its convention on May 7, 1844, Charles Lenox Remond adopted a theme increasingly popular among many anti-slavery activists, arguing that Northern states such as Massachusetts should secede from the Union then dominated by

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Source: Black Past

May

7

1844

Fugitive slave arrested in Boston

Anthony Burns, a fugitive slave, was arrested in Boston. His master refused an offer of $1200 made by Boston citizens for his freedom.

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Source: Blackfacts.com

Jun

3

1854

(1863) Frederick Douglass, Men of Color, To Arms!

? For the first two years of the Civil War black and white abolitionists urged both the liberation of the slaves and the recruitment of African American men in defense of the Union. Barely three months after Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation went into effect, Frederick Douglass gave a speech in R

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Source: Black Past

National Negro Business League organized in Boston

National Negro Business League organized at Boston meeting. Booker T. Washington was elected president. (8/23-24).

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Source: Blackfacts.com

Aug

23

1900

(1797) Prince Hall Speaks To The African Lodge, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Five years after his presentation at Charles Town, Prince Hall again addresses his fellow Masons. In an address delivered to the African Lodge at West Cambridge, Massachusetts on June 24, 1797, Hall challenges those Masons to work for the elimination of slavery and the establishment of full civil

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Source: Black Past

Jun

24

1797

A school for black students is established in the homeof Primus Hall, a free b

A school for black students is established in the home of Primus Hall, a free black, Boston, MA.

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Source: Blackfacts.com

Jan

0

1798

Dix, Dorothea Lynde

Dix, Dorothea Lynde, 1802–87, American social reformer, pioneer in the movement for humane treatment of the insane, b. Hampden, Maine. For many years she ran a school in Boston. In 1841 she visited a jail in East Cambridge, Mass., and was shocked at conditions there, especially the indiscriminate

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Source: Fact Monster - Black History

LeMelle, Wilbert J., Sr. (1931-2003)

Wilbert J. LeMelle, Sr., was a scholar, development specialist, and ambassador to Kenya and the Republic of Seychelles between 1977 and 1980. In both his academic and diplomatic work, LeMelle urged the United States to become more engaged in Africa, focusing on economic development and human

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Source: Black Past

(1966) Stokely Carmichael, “Definitions of Black Power”

On July 31, 1966, Stokely Carmichael, the newly appointed Chairman of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), describes black power to a mostly African American audience at Cobo Auditorium in Detroit. Part of the address appears

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Source: Black Past

Jul

31

1966

Hank Aaron

Hank Aaron is a popular retired African American professional baseball player. He is known for playing in the Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1954 to 1976 and was ranked fifth in 100 Greatest Baseball Players list. He made his reputation by hitting over 24 home runs every

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Source: Black History Resources

Feb

5

1934

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

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

Jan

1

1912

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