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A Marxist Scholar Analyzes the American Legal System
In the following article Professor Malik Simba, an historian at California State University, Fresno describes his professional and personal odyssey that led to the writing of his book, Black Marxism and American Constitutionalism: From the Colonial Background through the Ascendancy of Barack Obama
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Source: Black Past
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
Howell, Abner Leonard (1877-1966)
Abner Leonard Howell was a star athlete in Utah whose accomplishments went largely ignored during the peak of his football career because of his
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Source: Black Past
Aug
9
1877
Wilt Chamberlain
Wilt Chamberlain (born Wilton Norman Chamberlain) was an American basketball star who played for several NBA teams. Chamberlain  was born on August 21, 1936 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He studied at Overbrook High School where he played on his school’s team for three years, scoring more than
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Source: Black History Resources
Sponsored by New York University
Aug
21
1936
Joe Louis
Having a sharecropper and a slave as his ancestors, the eighth child of Munn and Lilly Barrow, Joseph Louis Barrow, was born on May 14, 1914, in a cotton-field country near Alabama. Belonging to a financially weak family, Joe Louis received little education as a child and worked odd jobs in order
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Source: Black History Resources
May
14
1914
A Brief History of the San Diego NAACP, 1917-2007
In 1917, realizing the hunger for social justice among the one thousand African American residents of San Diego, W. E. B. DuBois traveled from Los Angeles to San Diego as part of his western states tour on behalf of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).  Having
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Source: Black Past
Sponsored by Museum of African American History in Massachusetts
Jay-Z
Jay-Z’s name is a shortened version of an early nickname, “Jazzy”… Another popular nickname for Jay-Z is “Jiggy”… In 2005 he announced he wanted to be known by his real name, Shawn Carter, but he has remained most widely known by his nickname… Jay-Z and Beyoncé have
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Source: Fact Monster - Black History
Sponsored by Massachusetts Black Lawyers Association (MBLA)
Jul
14
2017
Walt Frazier
Walter Frazier is a retired professional NBA player who played for the New York Knicks and Cleveland Cavaliers. He was born on March 29, 1945 in Atlanta, Georgia and was the eldest of nine children. An exceptional athlete since childhood, Frazier was the star of the football, baseball and
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Source: Black History Resources
Mar
29
1945
Berry Gordy
Berry Gordy Jr. is the founder of Motown Records, the first black owned music label in the U.S. He was born on November 28, 1929 in Detroit, Michigan to Berry Gordy, Sr. and Bertha Fuller Gordy. He had seven other siblings and was the seventh of his eight siblings. He is a descendent of a white
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Source: Black History Resources
Sponsored by Christo Rey New York High School
Nov
28
1929
Coleman, Bessie (1892–1926)
In 1921, Bessie Coleman became the first black woman to gain an international permit to fly. After learning French, she attended the famous flight school Ecole d’Aviation des Frères Caudron in Northern France. No schools in America would train a black person. She was inspired to fly by the stories
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Source: Black Past
Sponsored by Center for Critical Race and Digital Studies
O.J. Simpson
Orenthal James Simpson better known as O. J. Simpson was born on July 9, 1947. He was an American football player and is now incarcerated for numerous felonies. Also known as “The Juice”, Simpson briefly acted in a couple of films and was a football broadcaster as well. One of his
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Source: Black History Resources
Jul
9
1947
James, Sylvester (1947-1988)
Sylvester James, American singer and songwriter, was born in the Watts section of Los Angeles, California to Sylvester James and Letha Weaver on September 6, 1947.  He grew up with his mother and stepfather Robert Hurd, as well as five siblings: John James, Larry James, Bernadette
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Source: Black Past
Sponsored by Massachusetts Black Lawyers Association (MBLA)
Freddy Adu
Freddy Adu of Tema, Ghana, was born in 1989 and moved to the United States with his family at the age of eight. Adu had a nag for soccer from a young age and began competing in neighborhood matches at the age of four. From then on, Adu practiced every day to make his game
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Source: Black History Resources
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
Jones, David “Deacon” (1938-2013)
National Football League star David “Deacon” Jones was a dominant player in the League.  During Jones’ years on the football field he singlehandedly revolutionized the defensive end position. Throughout his fourteen-year stint in the NFL Jones managed to play in 190 games, missing only
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Source: Black Past
Jun
3
2013
Nigeria
Boko Haram was responsible for the brutal deaths of more than 400 people in and around Maiduguri in northeast Nigeria in February and early March 2014. Among its victims were children watching a soccer match and dozens of male students at a public college in Yobe State, many of whom were burned or
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Source: Fact Monster - Black History
26 June 2014 breaking news - Fans adorn Michael Jackson's Hollywood star, five years on.
26 June 2014 breaking news - Fans adorn Michael Jacksons Hollywood star, five years on. - YouTube
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Source: Smithsonian Black History Teaching Resources
Sponsored by Diversity In Action
Arthur Allen Fletcher, “The Father of Affirmative Action”
Arthur Allen Fletcher is known to many as the father of affirmative action.  In the following account historian David Hamilton Golland describes the career of Fletcher, a Republican civil rights activist during the last half of the 20th
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Source: Black Past
Sponsored by Concerned Black Men of Massachusetts
Washington, Harold (1922 – 1987)
Harold Washington, the first African American mayor of Chicago, Illinois, was born on April 15, 1922, to Roy Washington, a lawyer, Methodist minister and one of the first black precinct captains in Chicago.  Washington’s mother Bertha Washington was a well-known singer in the
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Source: Black Past
Nina Simone
Nina Simone was an African-American singer, pianist and civil rights activist. Her birth name was Eunice Kathleen Waymon. She was born in Tryon, North Carolina to Mary Kate Waymon and John Divine Waymon. She was the sixth of seventh children and the family was quite poor when Simone was growing
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Source: Black History Resources
LeBron James
LeBron James is an American basketball superstar who currently plays for the National Basketball Association (NBA) team “Cleveland Cavaliers”. He is six feet, eight inches tall and weighs 250 pounds. He was born to a 16 year old single mother named Gloria Marie James on December
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Source: Black History Resources
Waters, Ethel
Waters, Ethel, 1896?–1977, African-American singer and actress, b. Chester, Pa. As a singer, she is noted for her sultry, sophisticated, and dramatic version of the blues, evinced in her interpretations of Am I Blue, Dinah, Heat Wave, Stormy Weather, and other songs. After beginning in
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Source: Fact Monster - Black History
Sponsored by Concerned Black Men of Massachusetts
Josephine Baker
Josephine Baker was a dancer and singer who later became a Civil Rights activist. Her birth name was Freda Josephine McDonald and she was born on June 3, 1906, in St. Louis, Missouri. Her mother used to be a dancer as well, but she gave up her aspirations in order to raise her children. Her father
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Source: Black History Resources
Jun
3
1906
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
Idris Elba
Best Known
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Source: Fact Monster - Black History
Sponsored by Illinois Math and Science Academy
Flip Wilson Honored
Comedian and television star Flip Wilson received the International Broadcasting Man of the Year Award. Flip Wilson was the first Afro-American to be a television superstar.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Mar
11
1959
Lillian Evans, world famous opera star
Lillian Evans, world famous opera star and a founder of the National Negro Opera company, born
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Sponsored by Intellitech
Aug
12
1891
Andre Braugher
With a myriad of awards under his belt, Andre Braugher is a well known television, film and theatre actor. He was born on July 1, 1962 in Chicago, Illinois to a postal worker named Sally and a heavy equipment operator named Floyd. He initially enrolled at Stanford University as a pre-medical
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Source: Black History Resources
Sponsored by Prospanica Boston Professional Chapter
Jul
1
1962
(1993) Clarence Thomas, “The New Intolerance - Law Day Address”
Thank you all so much. Thank you, Judge Bell for your kind words, and I also thank you for all the kind things youve done for me in my life, especially over the last three or four years. I -- This is a real pleasure to be here. I didnt thing so many people would be interested in what I had to
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Source: Black Past
James Earl Jones
James Earl Jones is an American actor who is well known for an array of notable characters he has played in his movies. He was born in January 1931 to Robert Earl and Ruth Jones in Arkabutla, Mississippi. His father was an actor, boxer, butler, and chauffeur who left the family shortly after his
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Source: Black History Resources
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