Video: Tupac Shakur-“I Wonder If Heaven Got a Ghetto”

(1976) Congresswoman Barbara Jordan, “Who, Then, Will Speak for the Common Good?”

In 1972 Barbara Charline Jordan became the first black member of Congress elected from Texas. Two years later this freshman Representative became a national figure because of her prominent role as a member of the House Judiciary Committee during the impeachment hearings of President Richard

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Source: Black Past

Jim Beckwourth, Afro-American Pioneer

on this day Jim Beckwourth discovered a path through the Sierra Nevada Mountains that now bear his name. Beckwourth Pass on U.S. Alt 40 between Reno, Nevada and Sacramento, California made overland travel to the gold fields of California possible.

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Source: Blackfacts.com

Apr

26

1844

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

Saddler, Joseph/Grandmaster Flash (1958 - )

Although he will more than likely be remembered best for releasing “The Message,” the first rap song to delve into social commentary about the plight of African Americans in the inner-city, Grandmaster Flash was also the original technological virtuoso of the early hip-hop movement to

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Source: Black Past

Sean "P.Diddy" Combs is born

Birthday of musician Sean P. Diddy Combs. Combs had early training working for record companies before setting off on his own with Bad Boy Entertainment. Together with the late rapper Notorious B.I.G., Combs (performing as Puff Daddy) popularized the east coast sound of American hip-hop.

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Source: Blackfacts.com

Nov

4

1969

NAACP petition on racism, "An Appeal to the

NAACP petition on racism, An Appeal to the World, presented to United Nations at Lake Success.

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Source: Blackfacts.com

Oct

23

1947

Mary J. Blige

Mary Jane Blige is an American singer, songwriter and actress who has been making hit records for almost 25 years. She was born on January 11, 1971 in the Bronx, New York to Cora and Thomas Blige. She grew up in a very neglected and disastrous neighborhood and her childhood was marked by

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Source: Black History Resources

Jan

11

1971

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

(1817) J. Forten & Russel Perrott, “An Address To The Humane And Benevolent Inhabitants Of The City And County Of Philadelphia

On August 10, 1817, James Forten and Russel Perrott served as chairman and secretary of a large indignation meeting of Philadelphia’s free African American community. The gathering protested the efforts of the year-old American Colonization Society to recruit blacks to leave the United States for

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Source: Black Past

Aug

10

1817

Lonnie Johnson

You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to come up with a great idea, but it certainly doesn’t hurt. For Lonnie Johnson, a lifetime of achievement and success at various levels on government and private sector projects could not prepare him for the success the he would ultimately achieve – by

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Source: Black History Resources

Nov

26

2012

The Notting Hill Riots (1958)

Amidst racial intolerance and competition over resources, the white working class of the Notting Hill area, London, UK, launched an attack against members of the black community on August the 30, 1958. Forced to arm themselves in defence, the confrontation lasted

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Source: Black Past

Moore's Ford Lynching

During the late afternoon of the 25th of July 1946 four African-Americans were shot dead by a lynch mob at Moores Ford, Walton county, Georgia, about eight miles from the town of Monroe. The grotesquely sprawled bodies of the victims--the Coroner said at least sixty bullets were pumped into

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Source: Blackfacts.com

Jul

25

1946

Maggie Lena Walker

Maggie Lena Walker died on this day. Before her death, she was the secretary-treasurer of the Independent Order of St. Luke, a mutual aid society in Richmond, VA. She transformed the society into a successful financial complex that bolsters the Black community in Richmond in 1899.

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Source: Blackfacts.com

Dec

15

1934

Malcolm X

Born: 5/19/1925 Omaha, Nebraska, U.S.Died: 2/21/1965 New York City, New YorkMalcolm Little and also known as el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz (Arabic: الحاجّ مالك الشباز), was an American Muslim minister and a human rights activist. To his admirers he was a courageous advocate for the rights of

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Source: Blackfacts.com

(1838) James McCune Smith, “The Abolition Of Slavery And The Slave Trade In The French And British Colonies”

James McCune Smith (1813-1865) was a prominent physician and abolitionist. Smith was educated in the African Free School in New York City. When failing to be admitted to any American college, he enrolled in Glasgow University in Scotland in 1832 and earned three degrees including his medical

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Source: Black Past

Jun

9

1838

Busta Rhymes

Busta Rhymes is an American rapper and actor. His birth name is Trevor Tahiem Smith, Jr. He was born on May 20, 1972 to Geraldine Green and Trevor Smith, who were Jamaican immigrants. He moved to Long Island at the age of 12, where he attended Uniondale High School. After graduating from high

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Source: Black History Resources

May

20

1972

Gilman, Charlotte Perkins

Gilman, Charlotte Perkins, 1860–1935, American feminist and reformer, b. Hartford, Conn. great-granddaughter of Lyman Beecher . Prominent as a lecturer and writer on the labor movement and feminism, she edited the Forerunner, a liberal journal. She wrote many works on social and economic

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Source: Fact Monster - Black History

Estes, Simon (1938- )

Simon Lamont Estes is a prominent and critically acclaimed African American opera singer. He has made singing appearances before six US presidents, including Barack Obama, numerous other presidents and world leaders, and dignitaries such as Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. He has

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Source: Black Past

Civil Rights Act of 1964

Document Number: PL 88-352

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Source: Black Past

Jan

31

1968

Betty Shabazz

Betty Shabazz was the wife of Malcolm X, a prominent leader of the Nation of Islam. Her exact date of birth is not known, but it is believed to be May 28, 1934. She was born in Georgia to unwed teenage parents named Ollie Mae Sanders and Shelman Sandlin, and raised in Detroit. By some accounts, her

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Source: Black History Resources

Sam Cooke - Change is Gonna Come - Anfiteatro (Argentina) Cover by Alex Serra

My dream is to never stop creating Art that

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Source: Black Inventors

Henderson, George Washington (c. 1850-1936)

Born a slave in Clark County, Virginia, George Washington Henderson graduated from the University of Vermont in 1877 and became the first African American to be inducted into Phi Beta Kappa (PBK), the highest academic honor society. He later received a bachelor’s degree in divinity from Yale

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Source: Black Past

Feb

3

1936

NAACP founded

Founded in 1909 in New York City by a group of black and white citizens committed to social justice, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is the nations largest and strongest civil rights

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Source: Blackfacts.com

Feb

12

1909

First Black heavyweight champion, Jack Johnson successfully defended his heavy

First Black heavyweight champion, Jack Johnson successfully defended his heavyweight championship by knocking out Jim The Great White Hope Jeffries, who had come out of retirement to win back the title for the White race

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Source: Blackfacts.com

Jul

4

1910

(1949) Nnamdi Azikiwe Addresses Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity at its 35th Annual Convention in Washington, D.C.

Here Nnamdi Azikiwe, future first President of Nigeria, delivers an address to his fellow fraternity members at the Banneker High School Auditorium, Washington, D.C., on December 27, 1949, at the 35th Anniversary of the Phi Beta Sigma

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Source: Black Past

Dec

27

1949

(1830) Rev. Peter Williams, Jr. “This is Our Country”

Fourteen years after its founding the American Colonization Society remained controversial among African Americans. By 1830 many of them opposed it and more generally the idea of forced or voluntary repatriation of blacks to Africa. One of these opponents, Rev. Peter Williams, Jr., the minister

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Source: Black Past

Jul

4

1830

(1787) Jupiter Hammon, “An Address to the Negroes in the State of New York,"

Home

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Source: Black Past

(1849) Frederick Douglass, “On Mexico”

On June 8, 1849, Frederick Douglass gave a major oration at Faneuil Hall in Boston soon after he returned from Europe. The speech addressed a number of issues including the politics of Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky. After his main address, Douglass returned to the podium following an eulogy by

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Source: Black Past

Jun

8

1849

Toni Morrison

Born on February 18, 1931 in Lorain, Ohio as Chloe Anthony Wofford, Toni Morrison is an American author, editor and professor who won the 1993 Nobel Prize in literature for being an author “who in novels characterized by visionary force and poetic import, gives life to an essential aspect of

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Source: Black History Resources

Feb

18

1931

(1906) W.E.B. DuBois, “Men of Niagara”

In 1906, one year after the Niagara Movement was founded, it held its second annual meeting at Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. W.E.B. Du Bois, a founding member and its titular leader, gave the address below to the assembled civil rights

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Source: Black Past

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