Robert N.C. Nix, first African American rep

Marian Anderson

Marian Anderson was a highly renowned classical singer who became the first African American to perform at the Metropolitan Opera. She was born on February 27, 1897 to John and Annie Anderson in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her father ran an ice and coal business and his mother was a babysitter. She

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Source: Black History Resources

Feb

27

1897

Williams, George Washington (1849-1891)

George Washington Williams was a 19th century American historian most famous for his volumes, History of the Negro Race in America from 1619 to 1880; as Negroes, as Slaves, as Soldiers, and as Citizens (1882), and A History of the Negro Troops in the War of the Rebellion (1887).Williams was born in

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Source: Black Past

William "Willie the Pro" Thrower (1930-2002)

William ‘Willie the Pro” Thrower was the first African American to play as a quarterback in the National Football League (NFL). Thrower was born on March 22, 1930, in New Kensington, Pennsylvania. Although his statistics as a college and high school football player are good, and his pro

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Source: Black Past

Mar

22

1930

Turner, Henry McNeal (1834-1915)

Black Nationalist, repatriationist, and minister, Henry M. Turner was 31 years old at the time of the Emancipation. Turner was born in 1834 in Newberry Courthouse, South Carolina to free black parents Sarah Greer and Hardy Turner. The self-taught Turner by the age of fifteen worked as a janitor

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Source: Black Past

May

8

1915

Williams, Franklin Hall (1917-1990)

Longtime civil rights organizer and later U.S. Ambassador, Franklin Hall Williams was born on October 22, 1917, in Flushing, New York. His mother died in 1919. Williams was raised by his maternal grandparents. He graduated from Lincoln University in Chester County, Pennsylvania in 1941. After

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Source: Black Past

May

22

1990

Opera singer Marian Anderson born

Opera singer Marian Anderson was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Anderson was entered in the New York Philharmonic Competition at age 17 by her music teacher, and placed first over 299 other singers. Awarded a Rosenwald Fellowship in 1930, Anderson went to Europe for a year of study. She

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Source: Blackfacts.com

Feb

27

1902

Congo, Republic of

The Congo is situated in west-central Africa astride the equator. It borders Gabon, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and the Angola exclave of Cabinda, with a short stretch of coast on the South Atlantic. Its area is nearly three times that of

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Source: Fact Monster - Black History

Mar

18

1977

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

Feb

14

1936

Price, Florence Beatrice Smith (1887-1953)

Florence Beatrice Smith, the first black woman composer to garner an international reputation, was born in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1887, to James H. Smith, a dentist, and Florence Gulliver Smith, a former school teacher and private lesson piano teacher who also managed several local

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Source: Black Past

History of Slavery in America

Follow the timeline to learn more about the history of slavery in the United States, including the arrival of the first African slaves to America, the federal banishment of slave importation, and the abolishment of slavery in the United

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Source: Fact Monster - Black History

Madam C.J. Walker

Madam C. J. Walker was born on December 23, 1867 in Delta, Louisiana, the daughter of Owen and Minerva Breedlove. Her parents were former slaves working as sharecroppers and both died when Sarah was a child. As a result, Sarah was forced to move from one household to another. At age seven, she

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Source: Black History Resources

Segars, Joseph Monroe (1938–2014)

Ambassador Joseph Monroe Segars was born in Hartsville, South Carolina on November 6, 1938. He remained with his aunt and uncle in South Carolina while his parents moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania during the Great Migration to the North in search for better job opportunities. Upon graduating

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Source: Black Past

Gray, William Herbert, III (1941–2013)

William Herbert Gray III was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on August 20, 1941. His mother, Hazel Yates Gray, was a high school teacher. His father, William Herbert Gray Jr. was a Baptist Minister and over his career, the president of two Florida colleges. Upon taking a job as pastor of Bright

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Source: Black Past

Aug

20

1941

Frances Watkins Harper, writer born

Frances Ellen Watkins Harper

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Source: Blackfacts.com

Sep

24

1825

Fishburne, Lillian E. (1949- )

Lillian E. Fishburne, the first African American woman to become a Rear Admiral in the United States Navy, was born on March 25, 1949 in Patuxent River, Maryland. Fishburne was raised in Rockville, Maryland where she attended Richard Montgomery High School. In 1971, she graduated from Lincoln

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Source: Black Past

Feb

1

1998

Thomas-Greenfield, Linda (1952- )

Born in Baker, Louisiana circa 1952, Linda Thomas-Greenfield graduated from a segregated high school in 1970. The first in her family to graduate from high school, Thomas-Greenfield saw the local Peace Corps training center, which trained volunteers for work in Somalia and Swaziland, as influencing

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Source: Black Past

Aug

6

2013

Boxer Jersey Joe Walcott born

Boxer Jersey Joe Walcott was born Arnold Raymond Cream in Merchantville, New Jersey. Walcott won the World Heavyweight Championship from Ezzard Charles, whom he knocked out in the 7th round of their 1951 title bout in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Walcott had 69 professional fights. He won 30 of them

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Source: Blackfacts.com

Jan

31

1914

Smythe, Hugh Heyne (1913-1977)

Diplomat, scholar and author Hugh Heyne Smythe was born on August 19, 1913 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His mother was a housemaid and his father, who died when Smythe was three years old, was a mailman. One of five siblings, at age six Smythe was forced to start work as a paperboy to help support

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Source: Black Past

Colonies give Statutory Recognition

Massachusetts became the first colony to give statutory recognition to slavery. Other colonies followed: Connecticut 1650; Virginia, 1661; Maryland, 1663; New York and New Jersey, 1664; South Carolina, 1682; Rhode Island and Pennsylvania, 1700; North Carolina. 1715; Georgia, 1750.

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Source: Blackfacts.com

Dec

1

1641

Tubman, Harriet Ross (c. 1821-1913)

Dubbed “The Moses of Her People,” escaped slave Harriet Tubman assisted hundreds of slaves on the Underground Railroad, leading them from Maryland to safety in Pennsylvania. Born enslaved and raised in Dorchester County, Maryland to Benjamin and Harriett Greene Ross, Harriett was both

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Source: Black Past

Jun

2

1863

Top 10 Most Famous Black Actors of All Time

Hollywood is a giant industry which provides work to hundreds of actors. At the advent of this industry only white actors ruled the silver screen and the blacks were given only minor roles. As the time progressed, blacks were given the voice in the society and eventually allowed white collar

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Source: Black History Resources

Blackwell, Lucien E. (1931- )

Lucien E. Blackwell, U.S. Congressman and labor official, was born in Whitset, Pennsylvania. He attended West Philadelphia High School, but left before obtaining his diploma. Blackwell also served in the United States Armed Forces during the Korean War, and received the National Defense Service

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Source: Black Past

Nov

5

1991

King, Martin Luther, Jr. (1929-1968)

One of the most visible advocates of nonviolence and direct action as methods of social change, Martin Luther King, Jr. was born in Atlanta, Georgia on January 15, 1929. As the grandson of the Rev. A.D. Williams, pastor of Ebenezer Baptist church and a founder of Atlantas NAACP chapter, and the son

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Source: Black Past

(2000) Harold Ford, “Keynote Address at the Democratic National Convention"

In 2000 at the National Democratic Convention in Los Angeles where Vice President Al Gore, Jr., won the Democratic Nomination for President, fellow Tennessean, Congressman Harold Ford of Memphis, gave the Keynote Address. That address appears

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Source: Black Past

George Washington Williams, the first major Black

George Washington Williams, the first major Black historian, born in Bedford Springs, Pennsylvania.

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Source: Blackfacts.com

Oct

16

1849

Cuba

The largest island of the West Indies group (equal in area to Pennsylvania), Cuba is also the westernmost—just west of Hispaniola (Haiti and the Dominican Republic), and 90 mi (145 km) south of Key West, Fla., at the entrance to the Gulf of Mexico. The island is mountainous in the southeast and

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Source: Fact Monster - Black History

Williams, Daniel Hale (1856-1931)

Daniel Hale Williams III was a pioneeringsurgeon best known for performing in 1893 one of the world’s first successfulopen heart surgeries. Williams was born on January18, 1856, in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania toSarah Price Williams and Daniel Hale Williams II . Following the death of his

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Source: Black Past

Prigg v. Pennsylvania (1842)

Home

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Source: Black Past

Mar

1

1842

Rock, John S. (1825-1866)

John S. Rock was born to free black parents in Salem, New Jersey in 1825. He attended public schools in New Jersey until he was 19 and then worked as a teacher between 1844 and 1848. During this period Rock began his medical studies with two white doctors. Although he was initially denied

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Source: Black Past

Dec

3

1866

Stanford, John (1938-1998)

John Stanford was the superintendent of Seattle Public Schools from 1995 until his untimely death from leukemia in 1998. He was born in Darby, Pennsylvania on the outskirts of Philadelphia and graduated from Pennsylvania State University with a bachelor’s degree in political science. He joined

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Source: Black Past

Nov

28

1998

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