James Weldon Johnson resigned
James Weldon Johnson resigned as executive secretary of the NAACP, citing health reasons.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Sponsored by APEX Museum
Dec
19
1930
Congress passed the first Enforcement Act which
Congress passed the first Enforcement Act which provided stiff penalties for public officials and private citizens who deprived citizens of the suffrage and civil rights. The measure authorized the use of the U.S. Army to protect the rights of Blacks.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Sponsored by New York University
May
31
1870
Congressman William H. Gray is elected chairman
Congressman William H. Gray is elected chairman of the House Budget Committee, the highest congressional post held by an African American.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Sponsored by Illinois Math and Science Academy
Jan
4
1985
Fifty-fifth Congress (1897-99) Convened
Fifty-fifth Congress (1897-99) convened. One Black congressman: George H. White, North Carolina.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Mar
15
1911
Spingarn Medal Given to Carl Murphy
Carl Murphy, publisher of the Baltimore Afro-American, awarded Spingarn Medal for his contributions as a publisher and civil rights leader.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Sponsored by Museum of African American History in Massachusetts
Dec
5
1955
Anti-Lynching Bill proposed
Black Congressman George H. White, North Carolina, introduced a bill to make lynching of Americans a federal offense. The bill died in committee. One report contends that in 1900, 105 Africans were lynched in the United States.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Jan
20
1773
Cowboy Willie "Bill" Pickett dies
World famous African American cowboy Willie Bill Pickett died in Ponca, Oklahoma, hospital of injuries sustained after he was kicked in the head by a horse on the Millers Brothers Fabulous 101 Ranch.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Sponsored by Prospanica Boston Professional Chapter
Apr
2
1932
COINTELPRO Memorandum
A memorandum sent to field offices of the FBI set goals for what was termed as a new counterintelligence program against African American Nationalist groups. The objective was to block attempts by targeted groups to coalesce, grow and exist. The agencey believed unity was the first step toward
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Mar
3
1968
Journalist Ralph Waldo Tyler born
Birthday of Ralph Waldo Tyler, journalist, Auditor-General of the Navy and World War I foreign correspondent. Te oldest of 12 children, Tyler is believed to have been born in Ohio. He attended elementary and high schools in Columbus, Ohio, studied a year in Baldwin,Missouri, and began teaching
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Sponsored by New York University
Mar
18
1860
Violette Neatley Anderson
Violette Neatley Anderson is the first African American woman admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Jan
29
1926
W.E.B. Du Bois
W.E.B. Du Bois resigned from his position at the NAACP in a disagreement over policy and racial strategy.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Jun
26
1934
A commemorative stamp of Martin Luther King, Jr. is issued by the U.S. Postal Se
A commemorative stamp of Martin Luther King, Jr. is issued by the U.S. Postal Service as part of its Black Heritage USA commemorative series. The stamp of the slain civil rights leader is the second in the series.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Jan
13
1979
Arthur Ashe
22 year old Arthur Ashe becomes the first African American to make the U.S. Davis Cup tennis team.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
May
14
1963
Lawrence Douglas Wilder of Virginia is inaugurated as the first African American
Lawrence Douglas Wilder of Virginia is inaugurated as the first African American to be elected governor in the U.S. Wilder won the election in Virginia by a mere 7,00 votes in a state once the heart of the Confederacy.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Sponsored by BARBinc
Jan
13
1990
Blanche Kelso Bruce sworn in as a U.S. Senator.
Blanche Kelso Bruce was a US Senator from Mississippi; the first black man to serve a full term in the senate, and the first person born into slavery to preside over the senate. While serving in the senate, he was an advocate for civil rights for blacks, native Americans, Chinese immigrants and
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Source: Blackfacts.com
May
21
1881
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
A Black Holocaust In America
The Tulsa Riot of 1921
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Source: Blackfacts.com
May
31
1921
North American Slave Narratives
North American Slave Narratives documents the individual and collective story of the African American struggle for freedom and human rights in the eighteenth, nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The project received a two-year grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to fund the
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Sponsored by Greater Boston Veterans Collaborative
Jan
0
0
White Democrats attacked demonstrators
White Democrats attacked demonstrators, who were marching from Albany to Camilla, Ga., and killed nine Blacks. Several whites were wounded.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Sponsored by National Association of Asian American Professionals (NAAP) Boston Chapter
Sep
19
1868
Confederate Flag Protest
In Montgomery, Alabama, Thomas Reed, president of the Alabama chapter of the NAACP, was arrested after he and 11 others attempted to strike a Confederate flag flying atop the state capitol building.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Sponsored by Museum of African American History in Massachusetts
Feb
3
1988
METCO
METCO (Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity), is Americas longest running voluntary school desegregation
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Sponsored by Massachusetts Black Lawyers Association (MBLA)
Dec
13
1960
Spingarn Medal
Spingarn Medal presented to Thurgood Marshall, director of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, for his distinguished service as a lawyer before the Supreme Court.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Dec
5
1946
Thomas W. Turner
Thomas W. Turner founder of the Federation of Colored Catholics and charter member of the NAACP dies at age 101
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Apr
15
1978
James Weldon Johnson, born
Author, lyricist, poet and educator James Weldon Johnson, also the first Black executive of the NAACP, is born in Jacksonville, Florida.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Sponsored by Christo Rey New York High School
Jun
17
1871
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
The Great Blacks in Wax Museum.
In 1983, Doctors Elmer and Joanne Martin opened a wax museum, the first of its kind in the nation, as well as, Baltimore, Maryland of African Americans leaders that were made of
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Sponsored by Center for Critical Race and Digital Studies
Jan
0
1983
Spingarn Medal : Medar Evers
Medgar Wiley Evers awarded Spingarn Medal posthumously for his civil rights leadership.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Sponsored by APEX Museum
Dec
12
1963
Executive Order 9808
In the aftermath of World War II, mob violence and lynching of Black Americans, in conjunction with the continuing controversy about segregation in American society, led President Harry S. Truman to issue Executive Order 9808 on this day which set up a committee to study the protection of civil
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Dec
5
1946
Col Frederick D Gregory becomes the first African American to lead a space missi
Col Frederick D Gregory becomes the first African American to lead a space mission.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Nov
22
1989
Oscar DePriest elected to Seventy-first Congress
Oscar DePriest elected to Seventy-first Congress from Illinois First Congressional District (Chicago). He was the first congressman from the North and the first Black in Congress since the departure of George H. White in 1901.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Nov
6
1928

Conservative Amy Holmes Scorches Discriminatory 'Stop-And-Frisk'

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