Know Your History!
Up to the early 20th century, most American knowledge of Black history was limited to the African American struggle through slavery and emancipation. The significance of Black history is recognition of the advancements and accomplishments of a group of people once defined by the Constitution as three-fifths of a person. While slavery in America hosts the background of Black history, the African American impact on history reaches beyond the country’s early history, as African Americans have made significant contributions.
African-American Facts for Week of: April 19, 2015
April 19, 1910
National Urban League Formed
The National Urban League was formed in New York City. The league was born out of a merger of the National League for the Protection of Colored Women, National League on Urban Conditions Among Negroes and the Niagra Movement.
April 19, 1978
Network news anchor
Max Robinson is the first African American to anchor network news. The network is ABC.
April 20, 1853
Movement
Harriet Tubman starts the Underground Railroad. Harriet Tubman (born Araminta Ross; 1822 – March 10, 1913) was an African-American abolitionist, humanitarian, and during the American Civil War, a Union spy. Born into slavery, Tubman escaped and subsequently made about thirteen missions to rescue approximately seventy enslaved family and friends,using the network of antislavery activists and safe houses known as the Underground Railroad.
April 21, 1898
Volunteer African American Army Units, including the 3rd Alabama, 3rd North Carolina
Volunteer African American army units, including the 3rd Alabama, 3rd North Carolina, 6th Virginia, 9th Ohio, 9th Illinois, 23rd Kansas and 10th Cavalry regiments, some units with African American officers, took part in the Spanish-American War on Cuban soil. Some of these veterans, upon return to the United States, were treated with parades and speeches. Others were assaulted and even lynched.
April 22, 1596
Stono Rebellion
Slave revolt occurs in Stono, – Charleston, S.C.
April 23, 1856
Inventor Granville T. Woods born
Born in Columbus, Ohio, Inventor Granville T. Woods. Woods received more than 35 patents including those for a steam boiler furnace, an incubator, and an automatic air brake. He is also the first American of African ancestry to be a mechanical and electrical engineer after the Civil War. Self-taught, he concentrated most of his work on trains and streetcars.
April 24, 1884
National Medical Association of Black Physicians
National Medical Association of Black Physicians organized in Atlanta, Ga.
April 25, 1944
The United Negro College Fund
On April 25, 1944, the United Negro College Fund was incorporated. The UNCF was incorporated on April 25, 1944 by Frederick D. Patterson (then president of what is now Tuskegee University), Mary McLeod Bethune, and others.
April 25, 1960
Memphis Federal Court Case
Consent judgment in Memphis federal court ended restrictions barring voters in Fayette County, Tennessee. This was the first voting rights case under the Civil Rights Act.
It is important to celebrate the achievements and contributions Black Americans have played in U.S. history.
To me, the omission of any group from history teachings results in a limited understanding of history’s relationship with the present and future. Know your history.
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