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: June 26, 2016
June 26, 1940
Wilma Glodean Rudolph was born in Clarksville, Tennessee
In 1940, Wilma Glodean Rudolph was born in Clarksville, Tennessee. She became the first American woman to win 3 gold medals.
June 26, 1970
Charles Rangel defeated Adam Clayton Powell
Charles Rangel defeated Adam Clayton Powell in Democratic primary in Harlem, ending the political career of one of the major political symbols of the post-World War II period.
June 27, 1872
Paul Laurence Dunbar
Poet Paul Laurence Dunbar born in Dayton, Ohio. Mr. Paul Laurence Dunbar is one of the most popular African-American poets of all time. His dialect poems and humor in his works were often under appreciated due to the English standards which were set at the time. His book was finally given attention in “The Book of American Negro Poetry” in 1921 by James Weldon Johnson. Among his numerous collections of poems are “Oak and Ivory” (1893) and “Majors and Minors” (1896). His birth in 1872 and his death in 1906 gave him enough time to give impact upon the poetic world, and an impression of the true art of poetry.
June 28, 1964
Organization for Afro-American Unity
Organization for Afro-American Unity founded in New York by Malcolm X.
June 28, 1970
Muhammad Ali
Muhammad Ali, (born Cassius Clay) stands before the Supreme Court regarding his refusal of induction into the US Army during the Vietnam War(Clay v- United States). He is asked “How can you be a pacifist opposed to the idea of war?” One of Ali’s responses goes as follows, “I am not going ten thousand miles from here to help murder and kill and burn poor people simply to help continue the domination of white slave masters over the darker people.”
June 29, 1820
283 Africans were recaptured on American Shores
On Thursday, June 29, 1820, at 3:00 P.M., nineteen years before the “Amistad” incident, 283 African slaves (two dead and 281 were in chains) were aboard a slave vessel named “The Antelope”, when they were recaptured by the United States Treasury cutter “Dallas”, under the command of John Jackson. The seizure occurred between Amelia Island and the Florida Coast. After about 2,576 days of captivity and legal battle in the United States, 120 Africans died, 2 were missing, 39 were enslaved in the United States (the 39 included 36 men, one woman, and two boys), and 120 Africans of the Antelope, (there were 22 additional recaptured Africans that were sent with this group, bringing the number to 142), were released from custody by the United States Supreme Court, and sent to Liberia on July 18, 1827.
June 30, 1951
NAACP attacked issues concerning schools
NAACP began frontal attack on segregation and discrimination at elementary and high school levels, arguing that segregation was discrimination in cases before three-judged federal courts in South Carolina and Kansas. The South Carolina court, with a strong dissent from Judge E. Waites Warning, held that segregation was not discrimination, June 23. Kansas Court ruled that the separate facilities at issue were equal but said that segregation had an adverse effect on Black children.
June 30, 1926
James Weldon Johnson was honored by NAACP
James Weldon Johnson was honored for his careers as an executive of the NAACP in New York City.
July 1, 1987
African American Women College Presidents
On July 1, 1987, for the first time in history, there were three African American women serving as Presidents of Four Year Colleges and Universities in America. They were – Dr. Niara Sudarkasa- President of Lincoln University in Pennslyvania; Dr. Johnetta Cole, President of Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia; and Dr. Gloria Randle Scott, President of Bennett College in Greensboro, North Carolina. Dr. Sudarkasa was appointed in February of 1987; Dr. Gloria Scott appointed March 1987, and Dr. Johnetta Cole appointed in May, 1987.
July 1, 1976
Kenneth Gibson, mayor of Newark
Kenneth Gibson, mayor of Newark, became the first Black president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors.
July 2, 1908
The first Black Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall
The first Black Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, born in Baltimore. (July 2, 1908 – January 24, 1993) was an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, serving from October 1967 until October 1991. Marshall was the Court’s 96th justice and its first African-American justice.
Before becoming a judge, Marshall was a lawyer who was best known for his high success rate in arguing before the Supreme Court and for the victory in Brown v. Board of Education, a decision that desegregated public schools. He served on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit after being appointed by President John F. Kennedy and then served as the Solicitor General after being appointed by President Lyndon Johnson in 1965. President Johnson nominated him to the United States Supreme Court in 1967.
July 2, 1925
1925 – Activist Medgar Evers born
Civil Rights activist Medgar Evers born in Decatur, Mississippi. Medgar Evers was a civil rights activist who organized voter-registration efforts, demonstrations and boycotts of companies that practiced discrimination.
Being familiar with past events gives us the ability not only to learn from past mistakes but also from the successes.
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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