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Young, Coleman A. (1918-1997)
Born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, Coleman Young arrived in Detroit, Michigan with his family when he was five.  The Colemans settled in the working class neighborhood of Black Bottom (East Detroit), where his father operated a dry cleaning business and his mother was a schoolteacher.  Early in his life
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Source: Black Past
Entebbe Raid (June 28, 1976)
The city of Entebbe, Uganda, is located on the shores of Lake Victoria about 22 miles south of Kampala, the nation’s capital.  In addition to being the official residence of the president of Uganda, Entebbe is the site of the nations only international airport.  On June 28, 1976 Air France flight
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Source: Black Past
Sponsored by NSBE Boston
Jun
28
1976
Jean-Michel Basquiat
Jean-Michel Basquiat was a famous twentieth century Haitian-American artist. He earned his reputation being part of an informal graffiti group called SAMO. He drew graffiti and wrote enigmatic epigrams in the lower east side of Manhattan known as a cultural hotbed. Later in his career he earned
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Source: Black History Resources
Dec
22
1960
Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong was the most famous jazz trumpeter of the 20th century. Like Jelly Roll Morton, Armstrong began playing in New Orleans clubs and saloons in his early teens. By the 1920s Armstrong was touring the country and leading his own band, the Hot Five (later the Hot Seven). He continued to
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Source: Fact Monster - Black History
Sponsored by National Association of Asian American Professionals (NAAP) Boston Chapter
Harare, Zimbabwe (1890- )
Harare (formerly known as “Fort Salisbury” or “Salisbury”) is the largest city in Zimbabwe with a population of 1.6 million. It serves as Zimbabwe’s seat of government and Zimbabwe’s commercial and industrial center.  The city is located in Northern Zimbabwe in the region of
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Source: Black Past
Sep
12
1890
Arvarh E. Strickland, 1930-2013: An Historian’s Life
In the article that follows, Richard S. Kirkendall, the Scott and Dorothy Bullitt Professor Emeritus of American History at the University of Washington, Seattle, pays tribute to fellow historian Arvarh E. Strickland.  Kirkendall was chairman of the History Department of the University of
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Source: Black Past
Sponsored by Greater Boston Veterans Collaborative
Oct
19
2007
Spingarn Award: George Washington Carver
Spingarn Medal awarded to George Washington Carver, head of the department of research, Tuskegee Institute, for his pioneering work in agricultural chemistry.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Jan
17
1923
Firefight: The Century-Long Battle to Integrate the New York City Fire Department
In the following article Ginger Adams Otis, a staff writer at the New York Daily News and a longtime city reporter, describes her more-than-decade-long research following the evolution of a landmark civil rights case brought by the Vulcan Society, a determined group of activist black New York City
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Source: Black Past
O’Neal, Adrienne S. (1954- )
In 2011, Adrienne S. O’Neal, career Foreign Service officer with the rank of Minister Counselor, was appointed by President Barack Obama to serve as ambassador to the Republic of Cabo Verde (or Cape Verde). O’Neal was born in Durham, North Carolina in 1954 to Samuel and Vernese Boulware ONeal. Her
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Source: Black Past
Scarborough, Danny (1947-1989)
Danny Lyon Scarborough made his mark in the world in two arenas, as an innovative, Emmy Award-winning choreographer/dancer, and as one of the first well-known African Americans to go public about having AIDS.  Born on July 27, 1947, he grew up on a farm near Wake Forest, North Carolina.  He was
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Source: Black Past
Watson, Barbara Mae (1918-1983)
Barbara M. Watson, businesswoman, lawyer, government executive, and diplomat, was born in New York City, New York on November 5, 1918. She was the daughter of James S. Watson, the first black judge elected in New York State, and his wife, Violet Lopez Watson, one of the founders of the National
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Source: Black Past
Rare Video Footage of Historic Alabama 1965 Civil Rights Marches, MLK's Famous Montgomery Speech
To see much more from the film, King: A Filmed Record, on Democracy Now!, visit http://owl.li/i1B3S. In a Black History Month special, Democracy Now! airs excerpts of the 1970 documentary, King: A Filmed Record... Montgomery to Memphis, a rarely seen Oscar-nominated feature about Dr. Martin Luther
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Source: Smithsonian Black History Teaching Resources
Sponsored by Massachusetts Black Lawyers Association (MBLA)
Mar
7
1965
(1867) Thaddeus Stevens, “Reconstruction”
In 1867 Pennsylvania Congressman Thaddeus Stevens and Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner led the campaign for full voting rights for African Americans across the nation.  In the speech below which Stevens gave in the U.S. House of Representatives on January 3, 1867 supporting the Reconstruction
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Source: Black Past
Jan
3
1867
Egypt
Unrest spread throughout the Middle East in January 2011. First, Tunisias president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali stepped down amid widespread protests against corruption, unemployment, and the repressive police state. Demonstrations followed in Yemen and Algeria. In Egypt, opposition groups and
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Source: Fact Monster - Black History
Dawson, William Levi (1898-1990)
William Levi Dawson was an African Americancomposer, choir director, and professor specializing in black religious folkmusic.  He was born on September 26,1899, in Anniston, Alabama to Eliza Starkey and George Dawson, thefirst of their seven children.  His father, a former slave, was an
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Source: Black Past
May
2
1990
Georgia Infirmary (1832 - )
The Georgia Infirmary was the first hospital for African Americans built in the United States. Chartered on December 24, 1832 “for the relief and protection of aged and afflicted Africans,” it was established by the Georgia General Assembly and funded by a $10,000 grant from the estate
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Source: Black Past
Dec
24
1832
Brown, Ruth (1928-2006)
Known as the Queen of R&B, Ruth Brown was a rhythm and blues singer and actress who crusaded for musicians’ rights. Brown was born Portsmouth, Virginia, on January 12, 1928. After a string of unfortunate events, Brown ended up in Washington, D.C. There, important people backed her such as
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Source: Black Past
Nov
17
2006
Obama Immigration Reform 2014 Speech: Announcing Executive Action [FULL]
Immigration Reform 2014 News: In an address from the White House, President Obama chose confrontation over conciliation as he asserted the powers of the Oval Office to reshape the nation’s immigration
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Source: Smithsonian Black History Teaching Resources
Harris, Everette “E” Lynn (1955-2009)
New York Times bestselling author Everette “E” Lynn Harris was born June 20, 1955, in Flint, Michigan. Openly homosexual, Harris was best known for his depictions of gay African American men who were concealing or “closeting” their sexuality. Although he did not participate
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Source: Black Past
Jul
23
2009
Caver, Vivian Leona (1928 - )
Vivian Leona Caver is a civil rights activist in Seattle, Washington.  She directed the Seattle Human Rights Commission between 1975 and 1981, and served briefly in the Washington State Legislature in 1994. Caver was born Vivian Leona Mead in 1928, in Jackson, Tennessee.  Her mother Christine was
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Source: Black Past
One-Man Show of Art
One-Man Show of Art by Negro, First of Kind Here, Opens Today, read the headline of a front-page article in The New York Times on this day. The article announced the opening of Archibald J. Motley, Jrs show at the New Gallery on Madison Avenue. This was the first time in History that an artist had
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Sponsored by Museum of African American History in Massachusetts
Feb
25
1928
Benjamin Zephaniah
Born: 4/15/1958 Handsworth,United KingdomEnglish poet and writer, born to West Indian parents. Zephaniah writes poetry influenced by Jamaican Rastafarian tradition. He is also a social activist in fields of civil rights, animal rights and vegetarianismBusiness / Schooling: Awards / Achievements:
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Locke, Alain (1886-1954)
Alain Leroy Locke, a leading black intellectual during the early twentieth century and an important supporter of the Harlem Renaissance, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on September 13, 1886 to Pliny Ishmael Locke and Mary Hawkins Locke.  His parents were middle class educated
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Source: Black Past
Jun
9
1954
Jarboro, Caterina (1903-1986)
Caterina Jarboro was born one of three children in Wilmington, North Carolina, to an American Indian mother and a black father who was a local barber. She was christened Katherine Lee Yarborough at St. Thomas Catholic Church in Wilmington.  She received elementary school education at
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Source: Black Past
Foxy Brown
Foxy Brown is an African American rap musician, model and actress. Her birth name is Inga DeCarlo Fung Marchand. She was born on September 6, 1978 in Brooklyn, New York. As a teenager, she won a talent contest, where she was discovered by the rapper LL Cool J’s production team. They were so
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Source: Black History Resources
Sponsored by Christo Rey New York High School
Sep
6
1978
Bell Smith, Leopoldine Emma Doualla (1939– )
Leopoldine Emma Doualla-Bell Smith is the world’s first black flight attendant. Smith was born in Cameroon which, at the time, France controlled. Smith was a princess of the royal Douala family of Cameroon. She was offered a rare after-school employment opportunity in her hometown of Douala, then
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Source: Black Past
Feb
11
1958
Brown, Lee P. (1937- )
Lee Patrick Brown, known as “The Father of Community Policing,” became the first African American Mayor of Houston, Texas in
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Source: Black Past
Dec
6
1997
(1857) Abraham Lincoln, “The Dred Scott Decision and Slavery,"
? The Dred Scott Decision handed down by the U.S. Supreme Court on March 6, 1857 was supposed to end the decades-long debate about slavery in the United States.  It did just the opposite, inflaming passions particularly in the North.  In the follow speech, Abraham Lincoln, then a private citizen, p
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Source: Black Past
O’Leary, Hazel Rollins Reid (1937- )
The first and only woman to hold the position of U.S. Secretary of Energy, Hazel Rollins Reid was born May 17, 1937 in Newport News, Virginia.  During this time of public school segregation, Reid’s parents, hoping for better schooling opportunities, sent their daughter to live with an aunt in New
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Source: Black Past
Jan
22
1993
Blackwell, David Harold (1919-2010)
David Harold Blackwell, mathematician and statistician, was the first African American to be elected to the National Academy of Sciences (1965) and is especially known for his contributions to the theory of duels. Blackwell was born on April 24, 1919, to a working-class family in
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Source: Black Past
Sponsored by Concerned Black Men of Massachusetts
Jul
8
2010
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