Losing faith in 119

Zephaniah, Benjamin (1958 - )

Benjamin Zephaniah, poet, playwright, novelist and activist, was born on April 15, 1958, the first of eight children, in Birmingham, England. Zephaniah grew up in Wandsworth until the age of nine when his mother, a Jamaican nurse, fled his father, a postman from Barbados. Leaving behind his twin

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Source: Black Past

Apr

15

1958

Bo Diddley is born.

Bo Diddley was born Ellas Bates on Sunday December 30th 1928 on a small farm near the town of McComb, Mississippi, USA, in rural Pike County, close to the Louisiana border, the only child of Ethel Wilson and Eugene Bates. He had 3 half-brothers and

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Source: Blackfacts.com

Dec

30

1928

Brooks, Gwendolyn Elizabeth

Brooks, Gwendolyn Elizabeth, 1917–2000, American poet, b. Topeka, Kans. She grew up in the slums of Chicago and lived in that city until her death. Brookss poems, technically accomplished and written in a variety of forms including quatrains, free verse, ballads, and sonnets, deal with the

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Source: Fact Monster - Black History

Wells, Nathaniel (1779 – 1852)

Nathaniel Wells, a former slave, plantation owner, and businessman who lived during the 18th and 19th centuries, was also the first person of African ancestry to become a High Sheriff in England. Wells was born on September 10, 1779 on the island of St. Kitts in the Caribbean to William

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Source: Black Past

May

13

1852

(1880) P.B.S. Pinchback, “Campaign Speech for GOP Presidential Candidate James G. Garfield."

Pinckney Benton Stewart Pinchback, the son of a white Mississippi planter and a former slave, was the first African American to serve as governor of a state when after the governor of Louisiana was impeached, he as Lt. Governor completed the 34 days left in his term (December 9, 1872 to January

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Source: Black Past

(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

(1963) Josephine Baker, “Speech at the March on Washington”

Josephine Baker is remembered by most people as the flamboyant African American entertainer who earned fame and fortune in Paris in the 1920s. Yet through much of her later life, Baker became a vocal opponent of segregation and discrimination, often initiating one-woman protests against racial

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Source: Black Past

Guinea-Bissau

U.S. Department of State Background Note

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Source: Fact Monster - Black History

(1981) Audre Lorde, “The Uses of Anger: Women Responding to Racism”

Racism. The belief in the inherent superiority of one race over all others and thereby the right to dominance, manifest and

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Source: Black Past

Castries, St. Lucia (1650 - )

Castries, capital of St. Lucia, is also the largest city on the island. The latest estimates show its population as about 20,000. St. Lucia with a total population of 163,362 (July 2014 est.) is part of the Windward Islands chain which forms the boundary between the Atlantic Ocean and the

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Source: Black Past

Feb

22

1979

Madagascar

Madagascar măd˝əgăs´cär [key], officially Republic of Madagascar, republic (2005 est. pop. 18,040,000), 226,658 sq mi (587,045 sq km), in the Indian Ocean, separated from E Africa by the Mozambique Channel. Madagascar is the worlds fourth largest island. The country also claims several small

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Source: Fact Monster - Black History

Marcus Garvey arrives in US from Jamaica

Marcus Mosiah Garvey arrives in America from Jamaica.

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Source: Blackfacts.com

Mar

23

1916

Ragsdale, Marguerita (1948- )

Marguerita Dianne Ragsdale was born in April 1948 in Richmond, Virginia to Lillie and Vernon Ragsdale and raised alongside her five sisters on a farm in McKenney, Dinwiddie County, Virginia. After starting her undergraduate work at Virginia State University in Petersburg, she transferred to

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Source: Black Past

Marcus Garvey

Born: 8/17/1887 Saint Anns Bay, JamaicaDied: 6/10/1940 London, United KingdomMarcus Garvey was a Jamaican political leader, publisher, journalist, entrepreneur, and orator who was a staunch proponent of the Black Nationalism and Pan-Africanism movements, to which end he founded the Universal Negro

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Source: Blackfacts.com

(1905) Theodore Roosevelt, “Lincoln and the Race Problem”

On February 13, 1905, President Theodore Roosevelt gave a speech at the New York City Republican Club as a tribute to Abraham Lincoln. The speech, which also allowed Roosevelt to expound on his contemporary views of race in the United States, appears

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Source: Black Past

Feb

13

1905

(1901) William Hannibal Thomas on the American Negro

Nineteenth Century black conservative William Hannibal Thomas was a Civil War veteran, Reconstruction era South Carolina politician, and U.S. counsel to Portuguese Southwest Africa (Angola). He is most famous however as the author of the 1901 book, The American Negro: What He Was, What He Is, and

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Source: Black Past

(1875) Congressman James T. Rapier, “Half Free, Half Slave”

On February 4, 1875, Congressman James T. Rapier of Alabama, rose on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives to support the Civil Right bill then before Congress which when enacted later that year became the Civil Rights Act of 1875. His speech appears

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Source: Black Past

Feb

4

1875

Browder v. Gayle (1956)

June 5, 1956

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Source: Black Past

Zora Neale Hurston

Zora Neale Hurston was an American author and anthropologist of the 19th century. She was born on January 7, 1891, in Notasulga, Alabama. Her parents John and Lucy Ann Hurston were former slaves. John Hurston was a pastor and he moved his family to Florida when Zora was still a young child. He

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Source: Black History Resources

Jan

7

1891

(1997) Kweisi Mfume, “A Shining and Powerful Dream”

Kweisi Mfume, born Frizzel Gray in Baltimore, Maryland, represented that city in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1986 to 1996 and rose to become Chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus. On February 15, 1996, he stepped down to become President of the National Association for the

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Source: Black Past

(1841) Charles Lenox Remond, “Slavery As It Concerns The British”

Charles Lenox Remond (1810-1878), was one of the earliest black abolitionist speakers. Born in Salem, Massachusetts to free black parents, John and Nancy Remond, Charles became an agent of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society in 1838 and traveled with William Lloyd Garrison to the World

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Source: Black Past

Jul

9

1841

Garvey, Marcus

Garvey, Marcus, 1887–1940, American proponent of black nationalism, b. Jamaica. At the age of 14, Garvey went to work as a printers apprentice. After leading (1907) an unsuccessful printers strike in Jamaica, he edited several newspapers in Costa Rica and Panama. During a period in London he took

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Source: Fact Monster - Black History

(1899) Rev. D. A. Graham, “Some Facts About Southern Lynchings,”

Little is known about Reverend D. A. Graham, the A.M.E. minister who delivered the speech that appears below. However the ministers words were recorded as part of a nationwide protest in 1899 against lynchings of African Americans across the nation. In May of 1899 the newly formed African

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Source: Black Past

Jan

1

1892

Dred Scott v. Sandford

Dred Scott v. Sandford, United States Supreme Court, 1857

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Source: Black Past

Malcolm X born in Omaha, Nebraska

Malcolm X was born Malcolm Little on May 19, 1925 in Omaha, Nebraska. His mother, Louis Norton Little, was a homemaker occupied with the familys eight children. His father, Earl Little, was an outspoken Baptist minister and avid supporter of Black Nationalist leader Marcus Garvey. Earls civil

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Source: Blackfacts.com

May

19

1925

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

Elijah Muhammad

Elijah Muhammad was an African American religious leader of the Nation of Islam, a religious movement based on the principles of Islam, focused specifically on black Muslims. His birth name was Elijah Robert Poole and he was the seventh of thirteen children born to William and Mariah Poole. His

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Source: Black History Resources

Feb

25

1975

Campbell, Clive/DJ Kool Herc (1955- )

DJ Kool Herc was the earliest major figure to emerge from the mid-70s Bronx, New York music scene that would eventually come to be known as Hip-Hop. Born Clive Campbell in Kingston, Jamaica, Herc immigrated to New York City and was exposed at an early age to both American and Jamaican musical

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Source: Black Past

Belizean Kriols

By the 1500s, black slaves had been distributed through much of the Caribbean. Slavery, however, began much later in Central America. By 1724 the British were transporting slaves from Jamaica to Belize to cut logwood, particularly Mahogany. These slaves became known as

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Source: Black Past

The Notorious B.I.G.

The Notorious B.I.G. was an iconic East Coast rapper who released only one album during his lifetime, but rose to fame after his untimely death in a shooting incident. He was born Christopher George Latore Wallace on May 21, 1972 to Voletta Wallace and George Latore and raised in Brooklyn, New

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Source: Black History Resources

May

21

1972

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