Toni Braxton shares stories about grieving her younger sister's death

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Jan

0

1999

Dinah Washington was a popular singer from the 1950s who sang jazz, blues, R&B and pop. Her birth name was Ruth Lee Jones. She was born on August 29, 1924 in Tuscaloosa, Alabama and moved to Chicago at a very young age. Her first exposure to music stemmed from the church, where she learned to

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Source: Black History Resources

Aug

29

1924

African Americans win eight Grammys

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Source: Blackfacts.com

Feb

20

1991

Bo Diddley is born.

Bo Diddley was born Ellas Bates on Sunday December 30th 1928 on a small farm near the town of McComb, Mississippi, USA, in rural Pike County, close to the Louisiana border, the only child of Ethel Wilson and Eugene Bates. He had 3 half-brothers and

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Source: Blackfacts.com

Dec

30

1928

Ben Harper

Ben Harper is an American musician, known for his success as an artist, instrumental skills and social activism. He was born on October 28, 1969 as Benjamin Chase Harper to Leonard and Ellen-Chase Verdries in Pomona, California. His father was African American and his mother was Jewish. He came

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Source: Black History Resources

Oct

28

1969

Birthday

Carmen McRae Born April 8, 1920. After winning an amateur contest at Harlems legendary Apollo Theatre in her hometown New York City, McRae went on to become a noted jazz singer with Earl Hines, Mercer Duke Ellington and Benny Carter bands among others and recording more than 20 albums. She Died

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Source: Blackfacts.com

Apr

8

1920

Dixon, Julian (1934-2000)

Born in Washington, D.C. on August 8, 1934, Julian Dixon represented part of Los Angeles in the U.S. House of Representatives for twenty-two years. After serving in the U.S. Army from 1957 to 1960, Dixon attended California State University, Los Angeles. He earned a bachelor’s degree in 1962 and

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Source: Black Past

Aug

8

1934

Williams v. Mississippi (1898)

? Submitted March 18, 1898. Decided April 25, 1898. At June term 1896 of the Circuit Court of Washington County, Mississippi, the plaintiff in error was indicted by a grand jury composed entirely of white men for the crime of murder. On the 15th day of June he made a motion to quash the indic

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Source: Black Past

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

Rodney King is beaten by a group of white policemen in Los Angeles, Calif

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Source: Blackfacts.com

Mar

3

1991

Harry Belafonte

Harry Belafonte is an eminent African-American figure in the American entertainment industry. He is a notable singer, lyricist, actor and social activist. Belafonte came to international stardom as “King of Calypso” for his popular Caribbean musical style. He is famous for his

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Source: Black History Resources

Mar

1

1927

Rap artist Nortorious B.I.G. dies

Rap artist the Nortorious B.I.G. is killed in a drive-by shooting in Los Angeles. He was 24.

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Source: Blackfacts.com

Mar

9

1997

Robinson, Jack (Jackie) Roosevelt (1919–1972)

When Jackie Robinson took the field on April 15, 1947 wearing a Brooklyn Dodgers uniform, he became the first African American in over fifty years to play on a major league baseball team. In the process, he broke through baseball’s color line that had relegated African American players to the

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Source: Black Past

Isaacs, Cheryl Boone (1949---)

Veteran publicist Cheryl Boone Isaacs, the first African American to serve as President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, followed the path of her pioneering sibling as a top-tier executive in the Hollywood motion picture industry. Ashley A. Boone Jr. (1939-1994),her brother, had

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Source: Black Past

Jul

30

2013

Cole, Nat “King” (1919–1965)

Jazz pianist and popular singer Nathaniel Adams Coles was born into a musical family in Montgomery, Alabama on March 17, 1919. His mother Perlina was a choir director in his father Edward’s Baptist church. His three brothers, Edward, Ike, and Freddy, became professional musicians. Cole also had

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Source: Black Past

Feb

15

1965

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

Bath, Patricia (1942- )

Patricia Era Bath, a prominent ophthalmologist and innovative research and laser scientist, was the first African American woman physician to receive a patent for a medical invention. Bath was born on November 4, 1942 in Harlem, New York to Rupert Bath, a Trinidadian immigrant and the first black

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Source: Black Past

May

17

1988

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

(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

Mar

18

2008

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

Lincoln Motion Picture Company

African American audiences were generally ignored by the major motion picture studios in the first two decades of the 20th Century. Nonetheless, demand for films aimed at black theaters in both the South and larger Northern cities prompted the formation of several “black” motion picture

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Source: Black Past

Eartha Kitt

Eartha Kitt was a singer and actress who recorded the hit holiday song “Santa Baby”. She was born on January 17, 1927 in South Carolina to an African American mother and a white father. She was raised by Anna Mae Riley, as her biological mother had abandoned her. It wasn’t until later

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Source: Black History Resources

Jan

17

1927

(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

The Black Settlers

Los Angeles, California, founded by forty-four settlers of whom at least twenty-six were descendants of Africans. Among the Black settlers, according to H.H. Bancrofts authoritative History of California, were Joseph Moreno, Mulatto, 22 years old, wife a Mulattress, five children; Manuel

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Source: Blackfacts.com

Sep

4

1781

Queen Latifah

The word Latifah means “very kind” or “delicate” in Arabic. Queen Latifah is a New-Jersey born African-American whose real name is Dana Elaine Owens. Born on March 18, 1970, she witnessed her parents’ divorce at the tender age of ten and when she was twenty-two her elder

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Source: Black History Resources

Mar

18

1970

Terrence Howard

Terrence Howard is a celebrated American actor known for his strong performances in movies such as “Hustle & Flow” and “Ray & Crash”. He was born on March 11, 1969 in Chicago, Illinois to Tyrone Howard and Anita Williams. He came from a family of actors; his maternal

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Source: Black History Resources

Mar

11

1969

Ray Charles

Born: 9/23/1930 Albany, GeorgiaDied: 6/10/2004 Beverly Hills, CaliforniaRay Charles Robinson, professionally known as Ray Charles, was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and composer. He was sometimes referred to as The Genius, and was also nicknamed The High Priest of SoulAwards

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Source: Blackfacts.com

Andey Rooney suspended for racist comments

Andy Rooney, a CBS 60 Minutes commentator, received a 90-day suspension from work because of racist remarks about African Americans attributed to him by Chris Bull, a New York-based reporter for The Advocate, a bi-weekly national gay & lesbian newsmagazine published in Los Angeles. Bull quoted

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Source: Blackfacts.com

Feb

8

1990

Rhue, Sylvia (1947- )

Sylvia Rhue is a distinguished writer, religious scholar, documentarian, and public speaker. She has engaged in significant work in religious communities around lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender (LGBT) rights and sexuality as well as co-produced an award-winning

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Source: Black Past

Fred Williamson

Born on March 5, 1938, in Gary, Indiana, Fred Williamson has remained under the spotlight in various fields for a long time. Former Football player and actor, Williamson has produced and directed various movies along with being a black belt in Kenpo, Shotokan Karate and

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Source: Black History Resources

Mar

5

1938

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