Prep action updates -

Jordan, Michael Jeffrey

Jordan, Michael Jeffrey, 1963–, American basketball player, b. Brooklyn, N.Y. As a freshman at the Univ. of North Carolina, he made the shot that won the 1982 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) tournament final over Georgetown. Joining the Chicago Bulls of the National Basketball

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Source: Fact Monster - Black History

Denzel Washington

Washington was the first African-American to win a best actor Oscar since Sidney Poitier in 1963… 2002 was the first year that African-Americans won both the best actor and best actress Oscars; Washington won for Training Day and Halle Berry won for her role in Monster’s Ball… Washington has

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Source: Fact Monster - Black History

Vanessa Williams

Vanessa Lynn Williams is a Grammy nominated singer, former beauty queen and television and film actress. She was born on March 18, 1963 in Bronx, New York but soon moved to a more fashionable neighborhood. Her parents, Milton and Helen Williams, both worked as music teachers and so Williams and her

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Source: Black History Resources

Mar

18

1963

Wilma Rudolph

Wilma Rudolph was an African American Olympic Athlete who competed in the Olympic Games of 1956 and 1960. She was also the first American Woman to win three gold medals in track and field events during a single Olympic

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Source: Black History Resources

Nov

12

1994

Birthday of basketball great, Patrick Ewing.

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Source: Blackfacts.com

Aug

5

1962

Sentamu, John (1949- )

In 2005, John Tucker Mugabi Sentamu was installed as the Anglican Church’s Archbishop of York. Sentamu was born on June 10, 1949, the sixth of 13 children of Rev. John and Ruth Walakira in a village outside Kampala, Uganda. Taught by British missionaries and expatriates who encouraged his

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Source: Black Past

Jun

10

1949

Smalls, Robert (1839-1915)

Robert Smalls was born in Beaufort, South Carolina, on April 5, 1839 and worked as a house slave until the age of 12. At that point his owner, John K. McKee, sent him to Charleston to work as a waiter, ship rigger, and sailor, with all earnings going to McKee. This arrangement continued until

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Source: Black Past

May

13

1862

Sophomore tackle Paul Robeson is excluded from the Rutgers football team when Wa

Sophomore tackle Paul Robeson is excluded from the Rutgers football team when Washington and Lee University refused to play against and African American. The exclusion will be temporary and the young Robeson will go on to be named a football All-American twice.

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Source: Blackfacts.com

Oct

14

1916

Shaquille O’Neal

Name at birth: Shaquille Rashaun ONeal

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Source: Fact Monster - Black History

LeBron James

LeBron James is an American basketball superstar who currently plays for the National Basketball Association (NBA) team “Cleveland Cavaliers”. He is six feet, eight inches tall and weighs 250 pounds. He was born to a 16 year old single mother named Gloria Marie James on December

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Source: Black History Resources

Washington Redskins quarterback Doug Williams

Washington Redskins quarterback Doug Williams, the first African American quarterback to play in a Super Bowl game, is named MVP in Super Bowl XXII.

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Source: Blackfacts.com

Jan

31

1988

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

Albany State University (1903- )

Albany State University is a historically black university in Albany, Georgia. It was founded in 1903 by Joseph Winthrop Holley, a native of South Carolina. This son of former slaves was inspired by the writings of W.E.B. DuBois to try to improve conditions for the South’s African American

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Source: Black Past

Condoleezza Rice

Condoleezza Rice, one of the most influential women in the world, was born on November 14, 1954, in Birmingham, Alabama. She was the first black woman to serve as the United States’ National Security Adviser, as well as the first black woman to serve as U.S. Secretary of State from 2005-2009. Rice

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Source: Black History Resources

Nov

14

1954

Burkina faso

In October 2014, President Compaoré, who served as president for 27 years, attempted to push a bill through parliament to allow him to serve another term. Violent protests broke out in the capital, and demonstrators set the parliament building on fire. Compaoré stepped down on October 31 and fled

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Source: Fact Monster - Black History

Liberia

In a Nov. 2005 presidential runoff election, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, a Harvard-educated economist who had worked at the World Bank, defeated George Weah, a former world-class soccer star. In Jan. 2006 she became Africas first female president.

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Source: Fact Monster - Black History

Andre Ware of the University of Houston becomes the first African American quart

Andre Ware of the University of Houston becomes the first African American quarterback to win the Heisman Trophy.

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Source: Blackfacts.com

Dec

2

1989

Oscar Robertson

Oscar Palmer Robertson is a retired professional basketball player. He was born on November 24, 1938 in Charlotte, Tennessee. He lived in a segregated housing project and attended a segregated high school called Crispus Attucks High School. He learned to play basketball at a very young age. His

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Source: Black History Resources

Nov

24

1938

Magic Johnson

Name at birth: Earvin

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Source: Fact Monster - Black History

African American History in the West Bibliography Authors & Editors

Abajian, James de T. Blacks and Their Contributions to the American West: A Bibliography and Union List of Library Holdings Through 1970 Yes

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Source: Black Past

1st Black Pro basketball team -- "The Renaissance"

The first Black professional basketball team The Renaissance organized.

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Source: Blackfacts.com

Feb

13

1923

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

Top 10 Richest African Americans

No one can understand the value of freedom as the African Americans do. They were led into slavery by whites and kept as petty slaves by land owners deprived of any rights. It took some time for the black to fathom their true potential as human beings deserving of equal respect, rights and social

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Source: Black History Resources

In the Land of Czars and Commissars: African Americans in Russia, the Soviet Union, and Post-Soviet Russia, 1824-2015

It was in May 1824 that Nancy Gardner Prince, rescued from alife of poverty and hardship in Massachusetts through a recent marriage, foundherself in a most surreal circumstance unlike any previously experienced by anAfrican American in this region of the world. After recently arriving in

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Source: Black Past

Gale Sayers

Gale Sayers was born on May 30, 1943, in Kansas to a family whose only bread winner was an auto mechanic. In 1951, Sayers and his family moved to Omaha where he grew up to an athletic child and showed natural ability in a number of sports, especially American

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Source: Black History Resources

May

30

1943

Lisa Leslie, basketball star born

Lisa Leslie

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Source: Blackfacts.com

Jul

7

1972

Le Moyne-Owen College (1862- )

Le Moyne-Owen College is a private, historically black, four year, co-educational, liberal arts institution located in Memphis, Tennessee. It is affiliated with the United Church of Christ. The institution can trace its roots back to 1862, when the American Missionary Association (AMA) sent

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Source: Black Past

Football player and actor Charles Aaron "Bubba" Smith was born in Orange, Texas.

Football player and actor Charles Aaron Bubba Smith was born in Orange, Texas. Smith began his professional football career with the Baltimore Colts. He later played for the Houston Oilers and Oakland Raiders before retiring and making a name for himself in movies.

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Source: Blackfacts.com

Jan

29

1945

Forest Whitaker

Forest Whitaker is an acclaimed American actor, producer and director. He was born on July 15, 1961 in Longview, Texas to an insurance salesman named Forest Steven Jr. and a special education teacher named Laura Francis. The family moved to California when Whitaker was four years old. He attended

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Source: Black History Resources

Jul

15

1961

Walt Frazier

Walter Frazier is a retired professional NBA player who played for the New York Knicks and Cleveland Cavaliers. He was born on March 29, 1945 in Atlanta, Georgia and was the eldest of nine children. An exceptional athlete since childhood, Frazier was the star of the football, baseball and

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Source: Black History Resources

Mar

29

1945

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