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Massacre in Mississippi
White Democrats killed seventy-five Republicans in massacre at Vicksburg, Mississippi.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Dec
7
1874
Larry Doby
Larry Doby is born. He will become the first African American in baseballs American League, playing for the Cleveland Indians. He will be the 1954 RBI leader.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Dec
13
1924
Samuel L. Gravely is born
Samuel Gravely was appointed captain of the Navy Destroyer Escort, U.S.S. Falgout, the first African American to command a United States warship. He later received the rand of Rear Admiral, a first for an African American navyman.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Jun
4
1922
Death of artist Charles White (61), in Los Angeles
Death of artist Charles White (61), in Los Angeles.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Oct
3
1979
Network news anchor
Max Robinson is the first African American to anchor network news. The network is ABC.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Apr
19
1978
Journalist Ralph Waldo Tyler born
Birthday of Ralph Waldo Tyler, journalist, Auditor-General of the Navy and World War I foreign correspondent. Te oldest of 12 children, Tyler is believed to have been born in Ohio. He attended elementary and high schools in Columbus, Ohio, studied a year in Baldwin,Missouri, and began teaching
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Sponsored by New York University
Mar
18
1860
Ground is broken for the Harold Washington wing of the DuSable Museum in Chicago
Ground is broken for the Harold Washington wing of the DuSable Museum in Chicago, Illinois. Founded by artist and poet Margaret T. Burroughs in 1961, the DuSable is one of the oldest African American museums in the U.S.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Sep
17
1991
Jonathan A. Rodgers becomes president of CBS's television stations division, the
Jonathan A. Rodgers becomes president of CBSs television stations division, the highest ranking African American in network television. Rodgers had been general manager of WBBM-TV, CBSs Chicago Station
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Sep
3
1990
First African American Intercollegiate football
Livingstone and Biddle College (now Johnson C. Smith) play the first African American intercollegiate football game
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Dec
27
1892
A Black Holocaust In America
The Tulsa Riot of 1921
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Source: Blackfacts.com
May
31
1921
Black Entertainment Television - BET
Black Entertainment Television {BET} - first black owned company to be listed on the NYSE, begins broadcasting from Washington, DC
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Sponsored by Museum of African American History in Massachusetts
Jan
25
1980
Muddy Waters is born
Muddy Waters, Born April 4, 1915 in Rolling Fork, Mississippi by the name of McKinley Morganfield was one of the greatest, most influential and enduringly important musicians of the century, one who had reshaped the course of the blues.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Apr
4
1915
Civil Rights Movement
On this day the African American community of Montgomery, Alabama voted unanimously to end its 385 day bus-boycott.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Sponsored by National Association of Black Accountants (NABA) Boston Metropolitan Chapter
Dec
20
1956
Anti-lynching Bill Proposed
African American Congressman George H. White,R-North Carolina, introduced a bill to make lynching of Americans a federal offense. The bill died in committee. In 1900, 105 African Americans were lynched in the United States.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Sponsored by Greater Boston Veterans Collaborative
Jan
20
1900
Henry Lewis
On this day Henry Lewis becomes the first African American to lead a symphony orchestra in the United States.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Feb
15
1968
The Charles R. Drew Postgraduate Medical
The Charles R. Drew Postgraduate Medical School (later Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science) is chartered in Los Angeles. It is the only African American focused medical school west of the Mississippi
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Sponsored by APEX Museum
Aug
2
1966
Bill Cosby
Bill Cosby becomes the first African American to receive an Emmy for best actor in a dramatic series, for his role in I Spy
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Source: Blackfacts.com
May
22
1966
Lee Elder becomes the first African American professional golfer to qualify for
Lee Elder becomes the first African American professional golfer to qualify for the Masters Tournament.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Sponsored by APEX Museum
Apr
21
1974
'This Far By Faith'
On this date in 1999, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America released This Far By Faith: An African American Resource for Worship, which compiles hymns of liturgies of Lutheran African Americans.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Apr
8
1999
Actress, Writer
Born on this day in Winston-Salem, N.C., USA. Pamala Suzette Grier is one of the most important African American actresses of the 1970s
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Source: Blackfacts.com
May
26
1949
Shirley Franklin is sworn in
Shirley Franklin is sworn in as the first African American Mayor of Atlanta and the only African American female mayor of a major American city.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Sponsored by Museum of African American History in Massachusetts
Jan
7
2002
The first Kentucky Derby
The first Kentucky Derby is won by African American jockey Oliver Lewis riding the horse Aristides. 14 of the 15 jockeys in the race are African Americans.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
May
17
1875
Miss America
Vanessa Williams is the 1st African American Miss America to be crowned.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Sponsored by APEX Museum
Sep
17
1983
Rafer Johnson won the Olympic Decathlon
On Sept. 6, 1960 Rafer Johnson won the Olympic Decathlon--the first for an African American
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Sep
6
1960
Whoopi Goldberg, nee Caryn Johnson, Academy Award winning actor,born
Whoopi Goldberg, nee Caryn Johnson, Academy Award winning actor,born
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Nov
13
1949
Oscar DePriest elected to Seventy-first Congress
Oscar DePriest elected to Seventy-first Congress from Illinois First Congressional District (Chicago). He was the first congressman from the North and the first Black in Congress since the departure of George H. White in 1901.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Nov
6
1928
Founder of Pro-Line
Comer Cottrell, founder and president of Pro-Line Corporation (1970), the largest African American owned business in the Southwest and the first African American to be part owner of a major league baseball team (1989), the Texas Rangers, born
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Dec
7
1931
Baseball player Darryl Strawberry born
New York Mets controversial star outfielder Darryl Strawberry was born in Los Angeles.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Mar
12
1962
The People's Savings Bank is incorporated in Philadelphia by former African Amer
The Peoples Savings Bank is incorporated in Philadelphia by former African American congressman George H. White of North Carolina. The bank will help hundreds of African Americans buy homes and start businesses until the illness of its founder forces its closure in 1918.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Sep
26
1907
Thomas Bradley
Thomas Bradley was born on this day in Calvert, Texas and went on to become mayor of Los Angeles by winning 56% of the vote.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Sponsored by Pride Academy
Dec
29
1917
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