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Seacole, Mary Jane (1805 –1881)
Mary Jane Grant Seacole was an early nurse in the British Empire during the 19th Century. Born in Kingston, Jamaica as Mary Grant, she was the daughter of a Scottish officer and a black mother. Mary’s mother ran a hospital/boarding house in Kingston and she, after a brief period as
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Source: Black Past
May
14
1881
Naomi Campbell
Best Known
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Source: Fact Monster - Black History
Sponsored by Christo Rey New York High School
Callioux, Andrew (1820-1863)
Andrew Callioux, Captain of the First Louisiana Native Guards Regiment, Union Army, became a hero while leading his troops at the Battle of Port Hudson in 1863. Callioux was born a free man in New Orleans.  A cigar maker with an elite clientele, Callioux was a Catholic creole of color that had
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Source: Black Past
Sponsored by Christo Rey New York High School
Zambia
On Oct. 28, 2014, President Sata died while being treated in London for an undisclosed illness. Rumors about him being seriously ill had been going on for weeks, especially after he missed a speech at the United Nations General Assembly. Vice President Guy Scott became acting president until an
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Source: Fact Monster - Black History
Waldon, Alton Ronald, Jr. (1936–)
Alton Ronald Waldon Jr. was the first African American Congressman elected from Queens, New York.  Waldon was born in Lakeland, Florida on December 21, 1936. He attended Boys High School in Brooklyn, New York and after graduation in 1954 joined the United States Army.  Discharged in 1959 Waldon
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Source: Black Past
Lane, William Henry/Master Juba (1825-c. 1852)
William Henry Lane is credited as one of the most influential figures in the creation of American tap dance. Lane developed a unique style of using his body as a musical instrument, blending African-derived syncopated rhythms with movements of the Irish jig and reel. Lane’s melding of these
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Source: Black Past
Hawkins, Gordon (1959- )
Gordon Hawkins was born in Clinton, Maryland, in 1959, into a family with six older brothers and sisters. He graduated from the University of Maryland’s School of Music. He is a baritone opera singer and considered one of the very best in the world. Baritone is the second deepest tone of voice for
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Source: Black Past
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Mercer, Mabel Alice Wadham (1900-1984)
Mabel Mercer was one of the most important jazz cabaret singers of the 20th Century. Her personal singing style emphasizing interpretation, diction, lyrics, and projection over vocal proficiency influenced numerous leading singers including Billie Holiday, Frank Sinatra, Nat
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Source: Black Past
Angolan Civil War (1975-2002)
The Angolan Civil War, beginning at the time of the countrys independence from Portugal in 1975, was a 27-year struggle involving the deaths of over 500,000 soldiers and civilians.  Initiated at the height of the Cold War, pro- and anti-communist forces in Angola set the stage for a proxy fight
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Source: Black Past
Apr
25
1974
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
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Elba, Idrissa Akuna “Idris” (1972– )
Idrissa Akuna “Idris” Elba is a British actor best known for his roles in The Wire and Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom. He has been nominated four times for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in miniseries or Television Film which he won one and was nominated five times for a Primetime
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Source: Black Past
Sep
6
1972
Al-Shabaab (2006- )
Harakat al-Shabaab al-Mujahideen, more commonly known as Al-Shabaab (meaning youth), is a clan-based jihadist terrorist group in East Africa. Originating as the militant youth wing of the Somali Council of Islamic Courts (ICU), which took over southern Somalia in June 2006, the group splintered off
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Source: Black Past
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was inaugurated as the first democratically elected St
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was inaugurated as the first democratically elected State President of South Africa.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
May
10
1994
Hendrix, Jimi (1942-1970)
Legendary self-taught, left-handed guitarist Jimi Hendrix was born and raised in Seattle, Washington, the son of Lucille Jeter Hendrix and Al Hendrix.  Jimi grew up in poverty but he loved science fiction, art, nearby Lake Washington and music, especially the R&B masters, Chuck Berry and Ray
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Source: Black Past
Sep
18
1970
Richmond, Bill (1763 – 1829)
BillRichmond, a.k.a. The Black Terror, the first black boxer to gaininternational recognition, was born in Cuckolds Town (now Richmondtown), on Staten Island, NewYork, on August 5, 1763. In 1777 when the Englishtroops held New Yorkduring the revolutionary war, he served their General Earl
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Source: Black Past
Aug
5
1763
A Quena woman was shown in Europe as a circus
A Quena woman was shown in Europe as a circus
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Jan
0
1815
Taylor, Ruth Carol (1931- )
Journalist and nurse Ruth Carol Taylor became the first African American airline flight attendant in the United States when she joined Mohawk Airlines in 1958. While she is most commonly known for her achievement in the airline industry, she spent much of her career as an activist for minority and
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Source: Black Past
Feb
11
1958
African National Congress
African National Congress (ANC), the oldest black (now multiracial) political organization in South Africa founded in 1912. Prominent in its opposition to apartheid , the organization began as a nonviolent civil-rights group. In the 1940s and 50s it joined with other groups in promoting strikes
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Source: Fact Monster - Black History
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Angola
Angola, more than three times the size of California, extends for more than 1,000 mi (1,609 km) along the South Atlantic in southwest Africa. The Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of Congo are to the north and east, Zambia is to the east, and Namibia is to the south. A plateau
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Source: Fact Monster - Black History
Remembering Brown: Silence, Loss, Rage, and Hope
In the following article, James A. Banks, the Kerry and Linda Killinger Professor and Director of the Center for Multicultural Education at the University of Washington, Seattle, describes his Arkansas communitys reaction to the U.S. Supreme Courts Brown v. Board of Education decision when it was
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Source: Black Past
May
17
1954
Border Love on the Rio Grande: African American Men and Latinas in the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas (1850-1940)
The area of South Texas known as the Lower Rio Grande Valley became in the period between the U.S. Civil War and World War I one of the few regions south of the Mason-Dixon Line where racial miscegenation laws were frequently challenged.  As a consequence a small but significant number of prominent
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Source: Black Past
(1968) Martin Luther King, Jr., “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop”
The following speech, a sermon Dr. Martin Luther King gave at Mason Temple in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 3, 1968, was the last public appearance before his assassination the next day.  King, in Memphis to support a strike by garbage workers, gives a poignant vision of the victorious future of the
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Source: Black Past
Apr
3
1968
Sean Combs
In 2001 Combs announced that he was changing his nickname from Puff Daddy to P. Diddy, earning him comparisons to fellow name-changing musician Prince… His romance with singer/actress Jennifer Lopez was closely followed in gossip columns; the two broke up in 2001. That same year Combs went on trial
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Source: Fact Monster - Black History
Burroughs, Jr., John Andrew (1936–2014)
John Andrew Burroughs, Jr. was an equal opportunity advocate and diplomat who was born in Washington, D.C. on July 31, 1936. He spent his youth in Washington, D.C. before moving to the Midwest to attend the University of Iowa in Iowa City, Iowa.  While there he played on the varsity football
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Source: Black Past
Sharpesville Massacre
Sharpesville Massacre in apartheid South Africa in which white police killed 67 Blacks and wounded 186.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
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Mar
21
1960
Arthur Ashe is born
Arthur Ashe, Born July 10, 1943 in
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Jul
10
1943
South Africa was suspended from the U.N. General Assembly over its racial polici
South Africa was suspended from the U.N. General Assembly over its racial policies.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Nov
12
1974
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
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
African Company / African Grove Theatre
The African Company was the first known black theatre troupe. In 1816, William Henry Brown (1815-1884), a retired West Indian steamship steward, acquired a house on Thomas Street in lower Manhattan, New York. He offered a variety of instrumental and vocal entertainments on Sunday afternoons in his
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Source: Black Past
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