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Angela Bassett
Angela Bassett is a well known African American actress and director. She was born in New York in August 1958 to Betty Jane and Daniel Benjamin Bassett. Her ancestors adopted the name of Bassett after William Henry Bassett, who was a slave who adopted the name of his former master. Shortly after
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Source: Black History Resources
Fort, Syvilla (1917-1975)
Syvilla Fort, born on July 3, 1917 in Seattle, was a professional dancer in the 1930s and early 1940s and prominent dance instructor in New York City for three decades between 1948 and 1975.  Her dance style, which combined African, Caribbean, and American rhythms, influenced hundreds of
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Source: Black Past
Nov
8
1975
Johnnie Cochran
Johnnie Cochran was a lawyer, who handled several high profile celebrity cases. He was born on October 2, 1937 in Shreveport, Louisiana. He received his Bachelors’ degree from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1959. Initially selling insurance policies for a living, Cochran soon began
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Source: Black History Resources
Sponsored by Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE) Boston Professional Chapter
Mar
29
2005
(1995) Louis Farrakhan, “A Million Men Marching On"
In 1995 Minister Louis Farrakhan was the leader of the Nation of Islam.  That year his organization became the driving force in the Million Man March, a call for African American men to come to Washington D.C. on October 17, 1995, in what was billed as “a day of atonement.”  Although
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Source: Black Past
Singer Roberta Flack born
b. 10 February 1937, Asheville, North Carolina, USA. Born into a musical family, Flack graduated from Howard University with a BA in music. She was discovered singing and playing jazz in a Washington nightclub by pianist Les McCann, who recommended her talents to Atlantic Records. Two classy
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Sponsored by Center for Critical Race and Digital Studies
Feb
10
1940
Nicodemus, Kansas (1877- )
Nicodemus, Kansas was founded in 1877 at the end of the Reconstruction Period. It soon became one of the most famous mostly black communities in the country formed by freedpeople migrating west.  Nicodemus is located on the plains in the northwest corner of the state along the Solomon River in
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Source: Black Past
Moore, Amzie (1911–1982)
Amzie Moore was a prominent figure in the Mississippi civil rights movement and voter registration campaign. He was born on September 23, 1911, on the Wilkins plantation near Greenwood, Mississippi, to black sharecropper parents. When Moore was fourteen, his mother died leaving him to care for
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Source: Black Past
Feb
1
1982
(1993) William J. Clinton, “The Freedom to Die"
On November 13, 1993, President Bill Clinton traveled to Memphis to address 5,000 African American ministers at the national headquarters of the Church of God in Christ.  Speaking from the pulpit where in 1968 Dr. Martin Luther King delivered his last sermon, Clinton used the occasion to urge the
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Source: Black Past
Nov
13
1993
The Moynihan Report (1965)
The Negro
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Source: Black Past
Jan
4
1965
O’Ree, Willie (1935- )
Willie O’Ree, the National Hockey League’s (NHL) first black player, is an African-Canadian, born on October 15, 1935, in Fredricton, New Brunswick. He began skating at an early age and quickly developed into one of the best players in eastern Canada.  O’Ree joined the Quebec Frontenacs, a junior
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Source: Black Past
Jan
18
1958
Farley, James Conway (1854- 1910?)
James Conway Farley, the first African American to achieve prominence in the photography industry, was born on August 10, 1854 to slave parents in Prince Edwards County, Virginia. After his father died, he and his mother moved to Richmond in 1861. The sources are unclear as to whether Farley and
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Source: Black Past
Dec
10
1876
Brandy Norwood
Brandy Rayana Norwood (better known as Brandy) is a Grammy award winning singer, actress and model. She was born in McComb, Mississippi, in 1979 and was the eldest child of a church pastor named William Ray Norwood Sr. and his wife Sonja Norwood. Her younger brother Ray J is also a singer and
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Source: Famous African Americans
The New Negro Theater is founded in Los Angeles
The New Negro Theater is founded in Los Angeles, California by Langston Hughes.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Mar
19
1939
Grambling State University (1901-- )
Grambling State University was founded in 1901 in Grambling, Louisiana. In the post- Civil War effort to build schools for former African American slaves, several colleges were established in Louisiana.  All of them were concentrated in the more populous southern portion of the state including
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Source: Black Past
Arthur Ashe
Born: 7/10/1943 Richmond, VirginiaDied: 2/6/1993 New York City, New YorkArthur Ashe was an American World No. 1 professional tennis player. He won three Grand Slam titles, ranking him among the best tennis players from the United States.Ashe was the first black player selected to the United States
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Sponsored by Concerned Black Men of Massachusetts
Rhodes, J. Steven (1951- )
J. Steven Rhodes, U.S. Ambassador to Zimbabwe, was born in New Orleans, Louisiana on September 29, 1951.  After graduating from high school he attended Loyola Marymount University (LMU) in Los Angeles, California where he was a member of the LMU 1969 Hall of Fame football
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Source: Black Past
Sponsored by Concerned Black Men of Massachusetts
(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
Sponsored by Eastern Bank
Feb
13
1905
Sugar Ray Leonard
Sugar Ray Leonard is a retired professional boxer who has a boxing record of 36 wins, 3 losses, and 1 draw. Leonard was the first ever boxer to win more than a hundred million dollars in purses, owing to his world titles in five separate weight divisions and high profile fights with Wilfred
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Source: Black History Resources
Sponsored by National Black MBA Association (NBMBAA) Boston Professional Chapter
May
17
1956
Dash, Julie (1952- )
Filmmaker Julie Dash was born on October 22, 1952 in Queens, New York. She received her B.A. in film production from City College of New York in 1974 and went on to earn a two-year fellowship to the Center for Advanced Film Studies at the American Film Institute (AFI) in Los Angeles.  At AFI, Dash
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Source: Black Past
Oct
22
1952
(1974) Congresswoman Barbara Jordan's Statement: The Richard Nixon Impeachment Hearings
Texas Congresswoman Barbara Jordan was selected to give the Opening Statement to the House Judiciary Committee on July 25, 1974, as it began its momentous proceedings on the Impeachment of President Richard Nixon. Her statement appears
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Source: Black Past
Sponsored by BARBinc
(1948) Henry A. Wallace, “Radio Address”
Former Vice President Henry A. Wallace, Jr., in 1948 became the Presidential nominee of the Progressive Party.  Wallace ran a spirited campaign which unlike almost any before, took on the question of racial discrimination and segregation against African Americans in the South.  What follows is his
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Source: Black Past
Sep
13
1948
A Chicago Picketing
Dont Buy Where You Cant Work campaign began in Chicago with picketing of Chain stores on South Side, fall. The campaign spread to New York, Cleveland, Los Angeles and other cities and continued throughout the Depression.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Sponsored by New York University
Dec
30
1929
Hotel Robinson (1897-1921)
The Hotel Robinson, built in 1897, was one of the first businesses in San Diego County, California to be owned and operated by an African American, and the oldest continuously operated hotel in Southern California. The hotel is now a part of the National Register of Historic Places and is a Point
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Source: Black Past
Jun
10
1915
(2008) Senator Barack Obama, "A More Perfect Union"
Controversial remarks drawn from the sermons of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, an unpaid campaign advisor to Democratic Presidential Candidate Barack Obama, and his pastor at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, emerged as a lingering issue in the 2008 presidential campaign.  On March
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Source: Black Past
Sponsored by National Association of Black Accountants (NABA) Boston Metropolitan Chapter
Mar
18
2008
Côte d'Ivoire
Côte dIvoire (also known as the Ivory Coast), in western Africa on the Gulf of Guinea, is a little larger than New Mexico. Its neighbors are Liberia, Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso, and Ghana. The country consists of a coastal strip in the south, dense forests in the interior, and savannas in the
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Source: Fact Monster - Black History
Williams, Sidney (1942- )
Former professional football player, businessman, and diplomat, Sidney Williams was born in Shreveport, Louisiana on March 24, 1942. Raised in Houston, Texas, he attended the city’s Phillis Wheatley High School and upon graduation in 1959 enrolled at Southern University in Baton
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Source: Black Past
Sponsored by Greater Boston Veterans Collaborative
Singer Billy Daniels dies
Jazz and ballad singer Billy Daniels dies in Los Angeles.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Sponsored by Greater Boston Veterans Collaborative
Oct
7
1988
Death of Ferdinand
Death of Ferdinand (Jelly Roll) Morton (56), pioneer jazz pianist, in Los Angeles.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Sponsored by National Association of Asian American Professionals (NAAP) Boston Chapter
Jul
10
1941
(1896) Hugh M. Browne, “The Higher Education of the Colored People of the South”
Hugh M. Browne, educator, Presbyterian minister, and college professor in Liberia, positioned himself between the advocates of industrial and higher education for African Americans.  In the speech below he describes his educational philosophy and the forces and experiences that shaped
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Source: Black Past
Azusa Street Revival (1906-1909)
The Azusa Street Revival, beginning in the spring of 1906, largely spawned the worldwide Pentecostal movement. It commenced in a former African Methodist Episcopal church building located at 312 Azusa Street in Los Angeles, California. The primary leader was evangelist William J. Seymour, who came
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Source: Black Past
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