16 October 1849 – 2000

1849 – George Washington Williams is born in Bedford Springs, Pennsylvania.  He will become the first major African American historian and founder of two African American newspapers, “The Commoner” in Washington, DC, and Cincinnati’s “The Southern Review.”

1849 – Charles L. Reason is named professor of belles-lettres and French at Central College in McGrawville, New York.   William G. Allen and George B. Vashon also will teach at the predominantly white college.

1855 – More than one hundred delegates from six states hold a Black convention in Philadelphia.

1855 – John Mercer Langston, one of the first African Americans to win public office, is elected clerk of Brownhelm Township, Lorain County, Ohio.

1859 – Osborne Perry Anderson, a free man, is one of five African Americans in John Brown’s raid on the United States Arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia.

1872 – South Carolina Republicans carry the election with a ticket of four whites and four Blacks: Richard H. Gleaves, lieutenant governor; Henry E. Hayne, secretary of state; Francis L. Cardozo, treasurer; and Henry W. Purvis, adjutant general. African Americans win 97 of the 158 seats in the General Assembly and four of the five congressional districts.

1876 – A race riot occurs in Cainhoy, South Carolina.  Five whites and one African American are killed.

1895 – The National Medical Association is founded in Atlanta, Georgia.

1901 – Booker T. Washington dines at the White House with President Theodore Roosevelt and is criticized in the South.

1932 – Chi Eta Phi sorority is founded in Washington, DC.  Aliene Carrington Ewell and 11 other women establish the nursing society, which will grow to 72 chapters in 22 states, the District of Columbia, and Liberia and will eventually admit both men and women.

1968 – Tommie Smith and John Carlos hold up their fists in a Black Power salute during the 1968 Summer Games in Mexico City, Mexico. Their actions will come to symbolize the Black Power movement in sports and will result in their suspension from the games two days later.

1973 – Maynard Jackson becomes the first African American mayor of a major southern city when he was elected mayor of Atlanta, Georgia.  Jackson, at the age of 35, becomes one of the youngest mayors of a major city to ever be elected.

1984 – Anglican Bishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his role as a unifying figure in the campaign to resolve the problems of apartheid in South Africa.

1990 – Art Blakey, jazz drummer (Jazz Messengers), joins the ancestors, after a bout with cancer, at the age of 71.

1995 – Minister Louis Farrakhan of The Nation of Islam speaks at The Million Man March in Washington, D.C., which he called for, and organized.  It is known as the “Day of Atonement.”

2000 – The Million Family March, called for by Minister Louis Farrakhan, is held in Washington, DC.

17 October 1711 – 1991

1711 – Jupiter Hammon, the first African American to publish poetry (Complete Works), is born.

1787 – Boston African Americans, led by Prince Hall, submit to the State Legislature in Boston, Massachusetts, a petition asking for equal educational rights and facilities.   The petition is not granted.

1806 – Jean Jacques Dessalines, revolutionist and Emperor of Haiti, joins the ancestors as a result of an assassination.

1817 – Samuel Ringgold Ward is born on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. He will be considered one of the finest abolitionist orators.

1871 – President Grant suspends the writ of habeas corpus and declares martial law in nine South Carolina counties affected by Ku Klux Klan disturbances.

1888 – The first African American bank, Capital Savings Bank of Washington, DC, opens for business.

1894 – Ohio National Guard kills 3 members of a lynch mob while rescuing an African American man.

1909 – William R. Cole is born in East Orange, New Jersey.  He will become a jazz drummer best known as “Cozy Cole.”  He will begin to play professionally as a teenager and will make his first recording at age 20 with Jelly Roll Morton’s Red Hot Peppers.  Cozy Cole will join Cab Calloway’s band in 1939 and will join CBS radio in 1943 to play in Raymond Scott’s Orchestra, becoming one of the first African American musicians on a network musical staff.  In 1958, Cole will make a solo hit record, “Topsy,” that sells more than a million copies.  He will join the ancestors in 1981.

1928 – James “Junior” Gilliam is born.  He will become a professional baseball player for the Brooklyn Dodgers and will be the National League Rookie of the Year in 1953.

1956 – Dr. Mae C. Jemison is born in Decatur, Alabama. She will grow up in Chicago, become a physician, serve in the Peace Corps in Africa, and practice medicine in Los Angeles, before being selected for the astronaut training program in 1987.

1969 – Dr. Clifton R. Wharton Jr., is elected president of Michigan State University and becomes the first African American to head a major, predominantly white university in the twentieth century.

1985 – Legendary jazz and blues singer Alberta Hunter joins the ancestors in New York City.  She achieved fame in Chicago jazz clubs in the 1920’s, toured Europe in the 1930’s and, after over 20 years of anonymity as a nurse, returned to performing in 1977.

1990 – Dr. Ralph Abernathy, civil rights leader, joins the ancestors.

1991 – The 100th episode of “A Different World” airs on NBC.  The acclaimed show, a spin-off of “The Cosby Show” that stars Jasmine Guy, Kadeem Hardison, and an ensemble of young African American actors, is directed by Debbie Allen.

18 October 1910 – 1990

1910 – Felix Houphouet-Boigny is born in the Ivory Coast when it was part of French colonial West Africa. In 1960, after the Ivory Coast (Cote’ d’Ivoire) gains independence from France, he will become President, and hold that office until he joins the ancestors in 1993.

1926 – Charles Edward Berry is born in St. Louis, Missouri. He will become one of the foremost legends in rock and roll and known as “Chuck” Berry. In the early Fifties, Berry will lead a popular blues trio by night and work as a beautician by day.   After befriending Muddy Waters, he will be introduced to Leonard Chess of Chess Records,         who signs him to a recording contract.   Chuck Berry will also be successful in crossing over to the largely white pop market.  His hits will include “Maybellene,” “Rock and Roll Music,” “School Days,” “Johnny B. Goode,” “Sweet Little Sixteen,” “No Particular Place to Go,” “You Never Can Tell,” “Promised Land,” and “My Ding-a-Ling.”  He will inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986.

1942 – Willie Horton is born.  He will become a professional baseball player with the Detroit Tigers, known for his power hitting ability.

1945 – Paul Robeson, actor, singer, athlete and activist, receives the NAACP’s Spingarn Medal.

1953 – Willie Thrower becomes the first African American NFL quarterback in modern times.

1961 – Wynton Marsalis is born in New Orleans, Louisiana.  A jazz trumpeter from the famous Marsalis family, which includes father Ellis and brothers Branford and Delfayo, he will at 19, become a member of Art Blakely’s Jazz Messengers and in 1984 be the first musician to win Grammys for jazz and classical music recordings simultaneously.

1968 – Bob Beamon of the United States, wins an Olympic gold medal in the Mexico City Summer Games. His long jump of 29′-2.5″ betters the world record by over 21″.

1968 – United States Olympic Committee suspends Tommie Smith & John Carlos for giving a “black power” salute as a protest during a victory ceremony in Mexico City on October 16.

1973 – “Raisin”, a musical adaptation of the Lorraine Hansberry play, “A Raisin in the Sun”, opens on Broadway.  It marks the debut of Debbie Allen in the role of Beneatha Younger and will act as the catalyst for her further success in television and choreography.

1974 – The Chicago Bull’s Nate Thurmond, becomes first player in the NBA to complete a quadruple double – 22 pts, 14 rebounds, 13 assists & 12 blocks.

1977 – Reggie Jackson hits 3 consecutive home runs, tying Babe Ruth’s World Series record.  The Yankees beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 8-4 for 21st world championship, the first in 15 years.

1990 – Filmmaker Charles Burnett’s 1977 movie “Killer of Sheep” is declared a “national treasure” by the Library of Congress. It is among the first 50 films placed in the National Film Registry because of its significance.  Burnett’s film joins other significant films such as “All About Eve”, “The Godfather”, and “Top Hat.”

19 October 1859 – 1988

1859 –  Byrd Prillerman is born a slave in Shady Grove, Franklin County, Virginia. He will become an educator, reformer, religious worker, political figure, and lawyer. He will be best known as the co-founder of the West Virginia Colored Institute in 1891.  The school will be changed to the West Virginia Collegiate Institute in 1915. The school, under Prillerman’s leadership, will become the first state school for African Americans to reach the rank of an accredited college whose work is accepted by the universities of the North.  The school will eventually become West Virginia State College, then West Virginia State University.

1870 – The first African Americans are elected to the House of Representatives.  African American Republicans won three of the four congressional seats in South Carolina: Joseph H. Rainey, Robert C. DeLarge and Robert B. Elliott.  Rainey was elected to an un-expired term in the Forty-first Congress and was the first African American seated in the House.

1920 – LaWanda Page is born in Cleveland, Ohio.  She will become an television and movie actress and will star in “Mausoleum,” “Women Tell the Dirtiest Jokes,” “Shakes the Clown,” and “Don’t Be a Menace.” She will be best known for her role as Aunt Esther in the long-running television series, “Sanford and Sons.”

1924 – “From Dixie to Broadway” premieres at the Broadhurst Theatre in New York City. The music is written by Will Vodery, an African American, who arranged music for the Ziegfeld Follies for 23 years.

1936 – Johnnetta Betsch (later Cole) is born in Jacksonville, Florida.  She will have a distinguished career as an educator and administrator and will become the first African American woman to head Spelman College.

1944 – Peter Tosh is born in Westmoreland, Jamaica.  He will become a founding father of reggae music and be part of the song writing magic of the Wailers, Bob Marley’s group. He will join the ancestors in 1987.

1944 – The Navy announces that African American women would be allowed to become WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service).

1946 – The first exhibition of the work of Josef Nassy, an American citizen of Dutch-African descent, is held in Brussels.  The exhibit consists of 90 paintings and drawings Nassy created while in a Nazi-controlled internment camp during World War II.

1960 – Jennifer Holiday is born.  She will become a singer and actress and will have her first big break as a star in the Broadway production of “Dream Girls” in 1981.

1960 – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is arrested in an Atlanta, Georgia sit-in demonstration.

1962 – Evander Holyfield is born in Atmore, Alabama.  He will become a professional boxer.  Over the course of his career, he will become IBF Heavyweight Champion, WBA Heavyweight Champion, three time World Champion, and Undisputed Cruiserweight Champion.

1981 – The Martin Luther King, Jr. Library and Archives opens in Atlanta, Georgia.  Founded by Coretta Scott King, the facility is the largest repository in the world of primary resource material on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., nine major civil rights organizations, and the American civil rights movement.

1983 – Grenadian Prime Minister Maurice Bishop joins the ancestors after being assassinated after refusing to share leadership of the New Jewel Movement with his deputy, Bernard Coard.  This event will indirectly lead to the invasion of Grenada by the United States and six Caribbean nations.

1983 – The U.S. Senate approves the establishment of the Martin Luther King, Jr. federal holiday on the third Monday in January.

1988 – South African anti-apartheid leader, Walter Sisulu wins a $100,000 Human Rights prize.

20 October 1895 – 1989

1895 – Rex Ingram is born near Cairo, Illinois.  He will attend medical school and earn a Phi Beta Kappa key but forsake medicine for the stage, becoming a powerful actor on the stage and screen, most notably as “De Lawd” in the 1936 film “The Green Pastures.”  He will also appear in “Cabin in the Sky” and “Anna Lucasta.”

1898 – North Carolina Mutual Life and Provident Association is organized by seven African Americans: John Merrick, Dr. Aaron M. Moore, P.W. Dawkins, D.T. Watson, W.G. Pearson, E.A. Johnson, and James E. Shepard.  Each invests $50 in the company, which will grow to become North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company and have over $211 million in assets and over $8 billion of insurance in force by 1991.

1924 – The “First Colored World Series” of baseball is held in Kansas City, Missouri.  The series, which pits the Kansas City Monarchs against the Hillsdale team from Darby, Pennsylvania, is won by the Monarchs, five games to four, and was organized by Rube Foster.

1932 – Roosevelt Brown is born in Charlottesville, Virginia.  He will become a football star at Morgan State College in Baltimore, Maryland, and will be drafted in the 27th round by the New York Giants in 1953.  Over  his career he will be All-NFL for eight straight years (1956-1963), play in nine Pro Bowl games, and named NFL’s Lineman of Year (1956). He will play for the Giants for 13 seasons and will be elected to the NFL Hall of Fame in 1975.

1942 – Sixty leading southern African Americans issued the “Durham Manifesto”, calling for fundamental changes in race relations after a Durham, North Carolina, meeting.

1953 – Jomo Kenyatta and five other Mau Mau leaders are refused an appeal of their prison terms in British East Africa (Kenya).  Members of the Mau Mau guerilla troops all took an oath to commit themselves to expelling all white settlers in Kenya and to eliminate the Africans who cooperated with or benefited from colonial rule.

1963 – Jim Brown, of the Cleveland Browns, sets the then NFL all-time rushing record, 8,390 yds.

1963 – South Africa begins the trial of Nelson Mandela & eight others on charges of conspiracy.

1967 – An all-white federal jury in Meridian, Mississippi convicts 7 white men in the murder of 3 civil rights workers.  They are convicted of civil rights’ violations.

1968 – Elder Lightfoot Solomon Michaux, joins the ancestors at the age of 84.  His church services were broadcast weekly, first on radio, then on  television.  The theme song of his broadcasts was “Happy am I, I’m always happy!”

1976 – New York Nets’ (ABA), Julius “Dr. J” Erving is sold to the Philadelphia 76ers.  This will be the beginning of his All-Star career in the NBA.

1989 – The Senate convicts U.S. District Judge Alcee L. Hastings of perjury and conspiracy and removed him from office. The conviction will be overturned and Hastings is later elected to the House of Representatives.

21 October 1832 – 1999

1832 – Maria W. Stewart, an African American women’s rights and abolitionist speaker, says in her farewell address …for it’s not the color of the skin that makes the man or woman, but the principle formed in the soul.”

1865 – Jamaican National Hero, George William Gordon, is unfairly arrested and charged for complicity in what is now called the Morant Bay Rebellion.  George William Gordon was a free colored land owner.  Born to a slave mother and a planter father, who was attorney to several sugar estates in Jamaica, he was self-educated and became a landowner in St. Thomas.   Gordon had urged the people to protest against and to resist the oppressive and unjust conditions under which they were forced to live.  He is illegally tried by court martial and, in spite of a lack of evidence, convicted and sentenced to death.

1872 – John H. Conyers, Sr. becomes the first African American admitted to the United States Naval Academy.

1917 – John Birks (“Dizzy”) Gillespie is born in Cheraw, South Carolina. He will, with Charlie Parker and Theolonious Monk, be the founder of the revolutionary bebop movement in the very early 1940’s.  His music accomplishments will include formation of the Dee Gee and Verve labels.  He will perform in clubs and concert halls in Harlem, Canada and Europe.  His music will earn him a Grammy Award in 1974 and 1980.

1950 – Ronald E. McNair is born in Lake City, South Carolina.  He will become an astronaut and the first African American astronaut to perish during a mission (Challenger – STS 41B, 51L disaster).

1950 – Earl Lloyd, becomes the first African American person to play in an NBA game (beating out Charles Cooper and Nat Clifton by one day).  He will later become the first African American NBA Assistant Coach and first African American NBA chief scout.

1969 – A bloodless coup occurs in Somalia (National Day).

1977 – The United States recalls William Bowdler, ambassador to South Africa, due to the country’s apartheid policies.

1979 – The Black Fashion Museum is opened in Harlem by Lois Alexander to highlight the achievements and contributions of African Americans to fashion.

1980 – Valerie Thomas invents the illusion transmitter.

1989 – Bertram M. Lee and Peter C.B. Bynoe sign an agreement to purchase the National Basketball Association’s Denver Nuggets for $54 million.  They become the first African American owners of a professional basketball team.

1999 – Gaston T. Neal, a community activist and influential performance poet, who was best known for his work in the genre of the Black power movement and social change, joins the ancestors after a bout with lymphatic cancer, at his home in Washington, DC.

22 October 1854 – 1991

1854 – James Bland is born in Flushing, New York.  He will write over 700 songs including “Oh, Dem Golden Slippers” and “Carry Me Back to Old Virginny.” The latter song will be selected in 1940 as the state song of Virginia, the state’s legislators little knowing the identity and race of its composer.  Virginia will decide to change their state song in the late 1990s due to protest from civil rights activists who say that the song glorifies slavery and is inappropriate.

1906 – Three thousand African Americans demonstrated and rioted in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to protest a theatrical presentation of Thomas Dixon’s “The Clansman”.

1936 – Bobby Seal is born in Dallas, Texas. He will become a Black political activist and co-founder, with Huey Newton, of the Black Panther Party.

1950 – Charles Cooper and Nat “Sweetwater” Clifton become two of the first three African Americans to play in an NBA game.  Cooper had been drafted by the Boston Celtics on April 25, 1950, becoming the first African American ever drafted by a NBA team.

1952 – Frank E. Peterson, Jr. is commissioned as the first African American marine aviation officer.

1955 – The first African American post office opens in Atlanta, Georgia.

1963 – 225,000 students boycott Chicago public schools in a Freedom Day protest against de facto segregation.

1986 – In an interview with the Washington Post, Spike Lee says, “Movies are the most powerful medium in the world and we just can’t sit back and let other people define our existence, especially when they’re putting lies out there on the screens.”

1990 – President Bush vetos major civil rights legislation, arguing that the measure would force employers to adopt hiring quotas. The veto is later upheld.

1991 – Thirty African American delegates conclude a three-day visit to the Republic of South Africa at the invitation of the African National Congress.  While there, TransAfrica’s Randall Robinson charges President Bush with failing to exert his influence to end Black township strife and Congresswoman Maxine Waters vows to press United States’ cities and states to maintain sanctions against the republic.

23 October 1775 -1968

1775 – The Continental Congress approves resolution prohibiting the enlistment of African Americans in the Army.

1783 – Virginia emancipates slaves who fought for independence during the Revolutionary War.

1790 – A major slave revolt occurs in Haiti, which is later suppressed.

1847 – William Leidesdorff brings his ship Sitka from Sitka, Alaska, to San Francisco, California.  Earlier in the year, the Danish West Indies Native had launched the first steamboat ever to sail in San Francisco Bay. The ventures were one of many activities for Leidesdorff, which included appointment as United States vice-counsel for property acquisition in San Francisco.

1886 – Wiley Jones operates the first streetcar system in Pine Bluff, Arkansas.

1911 – Three organizations, The Committee for Improving the Industrial Conditions of Negroes in New York, The Committee on Urban Conditions and The National League for the Protection of Colored Women merge, under the leadership of Dr. George E. Hayne and Eugene Kinckle Jones, to form the National Urban League.  Eugene Kinckle Jones is named executive secretary.

1940 – Edson Arantes do Nascimento is born in a small village in Brasil called Trjs Coragues in the Brasilian state of Minas Gerais.  He will become a soccer player and at the age of sixteen will join the Brasilian National team.  He will be known world-wide as Pele’, seen as greatest player in history of soccer.  After retiring from his team, the Santos, he will be recruited to play for the New York Cosmos in 1971, playing an additional three years.  He will score 1,281 goals in his career.

1945 – Branch Rickey of the Brooklyn Dodgers signs Jackie Robinson to the club’s Triple A farm team, the Montreal Royals.  In a little under 18 months, Robinson will be called up to the majors, the first African American to play major league baseball in the twentieth century.

1947 – The NAACP petition on racism and racial injustice, “An Appeal to the World,” is presented to the United Nations at Lake Success, New York.

1951 – The NAACP pickets the Stork Club in support of Josephine Baker, who had been refused admission to the club a week earlier. After a city-convened special committee calls Baker’s charges unfounded, Thurgood Marshall will call the findings a “complete and shameless whitewash of the long-established and well-known discriminatory policies of the Stork Club.”

1968 – Kip Keino of Kenya wins an Olympic Gold Medal for the 1,500 meter run (3 min 34.9 sec).

24 October 1892 – 1972

1892 – 25,000 African American workers strike in New Orleans, Louisiana.  This is the first major job stoppage in U.S.  labor history by African Americans.

1923 – The U.S. Department of Labor issues a report stating that approximately 500,000 African Americans had left the South in the preceding twelve months.

1935 – Langston Hughes’s play “Mulatto” opens on Broadway.  It will have the longest run of any play by an African American until Lorraine Hansberry’s “A Raisin in the Sun.”

1935 – Italy invades Ethiopia. African Americans hold mass meetings of protest and raise funds for the Ethiopian defenders.

1936 – The Boston Chronicle blasts the soon-to-be-released movie “The Big Broadcast” of 1937 for featuring a white pianist who appears in the movie while Teddy Wilson actually plays the music: “The form of racial discrimination and falsification of acts…is frequently duplicated by many whites in their daily dealings with Negroes…Negro farm hands and laborers in other fields of industry produce billions of dollars of wealth, but the white landowners and sweat shop operators get all the profit.”

1942 – In recognition of the influence of so-called race music, Billboard magazine creates its first ratings chart devoted to African American music, The Harlem Hit Parade.  The number-one record is “Take It & Git” by Andy Kirk and His Twelve Clouds of Joy, featuring Mary Lou Williams on piano.

1948 – Frizzel Gray is born in Baltimore, Maryland.  Better known as Kweisi Mfume, an adopted African name that means “Conquering Son of Kings,” he will be elected a congressman from Maryland’s 7th District in 1986.   He will later leave the Congress to become the head of the NAACP.

1964 – Kenneth David Kuanda becomes President of Zambia as Zambia (Northern Rhodesia) gains independence from Great Britain.

1972 – Jack Roosevelt “Jackie” Robinson joins the ancestors at the age of 53 in Stamford, Connecticut.

25 October 1806 – 1997

1806 – Benjamin Banneker joins the ancestors at the age of 74 in Ellicott Mills, Maryland.  Banneker was a self-taught mathematician and builder (at age 21) of the first striking clock built in the United States.  An amateur astronomer, Banneker’s calculations for solar and lunar eclipses appeared in 29 editions of his almanacs, published from 1792 to 1797.

1915 – Attorney James L. Curtis is named minister to Liberia.

1926 – Crisis magazine, led by editor W.E.B. DuBois, awards its first prizes in literature and art.  Among the winners will be Arna Bontemps’ poem “Nocturne at Bethesda,” Countee Cullen’s poem “Thoughts in a Zoo,” Aaron Douglas’ painting “African Chief” and a portrait by Hale Woodruff.

1940 – The Committee on the Participation of Negroes in the National Defense Program met with President Roosevelt.

1940 – The National Newspaper Publishers Association is founded.

1940 – The Spingarn Medal is presented to Dr. Louis T. Wright for his civil rights leadership and his contributions as a surgeon.

1940 – Benjamin Oliver Davis, Sr. is promoted to Brigadier General, the first African American to attain that rank in the United States Army or any other branch of the Armed Forces.

1958 – Ten thousand students, led by Jackie Robinson, Harry Belfonte and A. Phillip Randolph, participate in the Youth March for integrated schools in Washington, DC.

1958 – Daisy Bates, head of the Arkansas chapter of the NAACP, and the nine students who integrated Little Rocks’s Central High School are awarded the Spingarn Medal for their courage and leadership in the civil rights struggle.

1962 – Uganda is admitted as the 110th member of the United Nations.

1968 – The city of Chicago officially recognizes Jean Baptiste Pointe de Sable as its first settler.

1973 – Abebe Bikila, Ethiopian marathoner who won the Olympic Gold Medal in 1960 and 1964, joins the ancestors at the age of 46.

1976 – Clarence “Willie” Norris, the last surviving member of the nine Scottsboro Boys, who were convicted in 1931 of the alleged rape of two white women on a freight train, is pardoned by Governor George Wallace.  Norris had spent 15 years in prison and had been a fugitive fleeing parole in Alabama in 1946.

1983 – Mary Francis Berry, professor of history and law at Howard University, and two other members of the Civil Rights Commission are fired by President Ronald Reagan.  Considered a champion of minority concerns on the Commission, Berry will charge the administration with attempting to “shut up” criticism. She will later sue and be reinstated.

1983 – The United States and six other Caribbean nations invade the island nation of Grenada.

1988 – Two units of the Ku Klux Klan and eleven individuals are ordered to pay $1 million to African Americans who were attacked during a brotherhood rally in predominately white Forsythe County, Georgia.

1990 – Evander Holyfield knocks out James “Buster” Douglas in the third round of their twelve-round fight to become the undisputed world heavyweight champion.  Holyfield’s record stood at 25-0, with 21 knockouts.

1997 – The Million Woman March, organized by grass root sisters, led by Sister Phile Chionesu and Sister Asia Coney, takes place in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  The event is attended by 1.3 million attendees (300,000 to 1 million according to Philadelphia officials).  The MWM had been promoted by word of mouth and avoided traditional media and mainstream groups, such as sororities and many civil rights groups.   Sis. Chionesu calls the march “a declaration of independence from ignorance, poverty, enslavement, and all the things that have happened to us that has helped to bring about the confusion and disharmony that we experience with one another.”

26 October 1868 – 1980

1868 – White terrorists kill several African Americans in St. Bernard Parish, near New Orleans, Louisiana.

1868 – B.F. Randolph, state senator and chairman of the state Republican party, is assassinated in broad daylight at Hodges Depot in Abbeville, South Carolina.

1911 – Mahalia Jackson is born in New Orleans, Louisiana.  Known as the “Gospel Queen,” Jackson will become instrumental in the popularization of gospel music and songs.   Jackson’s traditional gospel audiences transcended beyond African American churchgoers through her recordings, radio performances and concert tours in America and abroad. Her recordings will sell millions of copies. She will join the ancestors on January 27, 1972.

1919 – Edward William Brooke III is born in Washington, DC.  After serving in World War II and obtaining a law degree from Boston University, he will be elected attorney general of the State of Massachusetts and serve a term of four years before being elected to the United States Senate as a Republican in 1966, the first African American Senator elected since Reconstruction.  In the Senate, Brooke will oppose President Nixon’s policies in Southeast Asia, advocate low-income housing, and oppose quotas to meet affirmative action goals.  Among his awards will be the NAACP’s Spingarn Medal in 1967.

1921 – Solomon Porter Hood is named minister to Liberia.

1934 – At a New York City conference, representatives of the NAACP and the American Fund for Public Service plan a coordinated legal campaign against segregation and discrimination.  Charles H. Houston, Vice-dean of the Howard University Law School, is named director of the NAACP legal campaign.

1950 – Chuck Foreman is born.  He will become a star running back for the Minnesota Vikings.  He will be NFC Rookie of the Year in 1973 and NFC Player of the Year in 1974 and 1976.  He will also play in losing efforts in Super Bowls VIII, IX, and XI.

1951 – William Collins is born in Cincinnati, Ohio.  He will become a rhythm and blues performer and bandleader known as “Bootsy” Collins.   He will form his first group, the Pacesetters, in 1968.  From 1969 to 1971, the group will function as James Brown’s backup band and will be dubbed the JB’s. In 1972, Bootsy will join George Clinton’s Parliament/Funkadelic. He will launch Bootsy’s Rubber Band as a spin-off of P-Funk in 1976.  He will record with Warner Brothers from 1976 through 1982.  After a six year hiatus, he will sign with Columbia Records in 1988 and actively record into the 1990s.

1951 – Joe Louis is defeated by Rocky Marciano in the eighth round in a bout at Madison Square Garden.

1962 – Louise Beavers, who starred in more than 100 films, including “Imitation of Life”, “The Jackie Robinson Story”, and “Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House”, joins the ancestors in Los Angeles, California.

1970 – Following 3 1/2 years of forced isolation from boxing, Muhammad Ali returns to the ring and beats Jerry Quarry in Atlanta, Georgia.

1976 – Trinidad & Tobago becomes a republic.

1977 – Dr. Clifford R. Wharton Jr. is named chancellor of the State University of New York.

1980 – Ten African American Roman Catholic bishops issue a pastoral letter asserting that “the Church must seize the initiative to ‘share the gift of our blackness with the Church in the United States.'”

27 October 1891 – 1981

1891 – Charles H. Garvin is born in Jacksonville, Florida.  He will become the first African American physician commissioned in World War I.

1891 – Philip B. Downing, invents the street letter box and is awarded patent # 462,093.

1924 – Ruby Dee is born in Cleveland, Ohio. She will become one of the foremost actresses in America, beginning her career on Broadway in the early 1940’s. She will marry actor Ossie Davis and have a strong personal career with such notable stage roles as “A Raisin in the Sun”, “Purlie Victorious”, and “The Taming of the Shrew” as well as work in numerous television series and movies including “Raisin”, “Do the Right Thing”, and “Jungle Fever.”

1951 – Jayne Kennedy is born in Washington, DC.  She will become an actress, writer and producer.  Her movie credits will include “Fighting Mad,” “Body and Soul,” “Mysterious Island of Beautiful Women,” “Cover Girls,” “The Muthers,” and “Group Marriage.”

1954 – Benjamin O. Davis, Jr. becomes the first African American general in the history of the United States Air Force.  He is designated by President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

1960 – Martin Luther King Jr. is released on bond from the Georgia State Prison in Reidsville.  Political observers say the John F. Kennedy call for King’s release increased the number of African American voters who ensured his election.

1971 – The Republic of the Congo becomes the Republic of Zaire.

1978 – President Carter signs the Hawkins-Humphrey full employment bill.

1979 – St Vincent & the Grenadines becomes independent of Great Britain.

1981 – Andrew Young, former United Nations Ambassador, is elected mayor of Atlanta, Georgia.

28 October 1862 – 1981

1862 – The First Kansas Colored Volunteers, while greatly outnumbered, repulse and drive off a rebel force at Island Mound, Missouri. This is the first engagement for African American troops in the Civil War.

1873 – Patrick Healy becomes president of Georgetown University, the oldest Catholic University in the United States and becomes the first African American president of a predominantly white university in the United States.

1914 – Omega Psi Phi fraternity is incorporated. Founded in 1911 by three students, Frank Coleman, Oscar J. Cooper and Edgar A. Love and their faculty adviser, Ernest Everett Just, the fraternity will grow to have over 90,000 members in chapters throughout the United States and abroad.

1937 – Lenny Wilkens is born.  He will become a professional basketball player for the St. Louis Hawks, Cleveland Cavaliers, Portland Trail Blazers and Seattle Supersonics.  He will also coach every team for which he played.  In 1995, he will surpass Red Auerbach as the NBA winningest coach, with his 939th victory. On March 1, 1996, he will become the first coach to win 1,000 regular season games.  He and John Wooden will become the only two persons to be elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame as a player and coach.

1948 – Telma Hopkins, singer(Tony Orlando and Dawn) and actress(Family Matters), is born in Louisville, Kentucky.

1965 – Earl Bostic, popular jazz alto saxophonist and winner of the 1959 Playboy Jazz poll, joins the ancestors in Rochester, New York.  The Tulsa, Oklahoma native had begun his career in the Midwest and, after studying music and playing with bands in the South, landed with Lionel Hampton’s big band, among others.

1973 – Elmore Smith of the Los Angeles Lakers blocks 17 shots in a game to establish a NBA record.

1981 – Edward M. McIntyre is elected as the first African American mayor of Augusta, Georgia.

29 October 1902 – 1987

1902 – The Dinwiddle Quartet from Virginia is the first African American singing group on record when they record six single sided discs, including “Down at the Old Camp Ground,” on the Victory Talking Machine Company’s Monarch label.

1923 – Runnin’ Wild opens at the Colonial Theater, Broadway.  Miller and Lyles Productions introduced the Charleston to New York and the world.

1924 – Dixie to Broadway, “the first real revue by Negroes,” opens at the Broadhurst Theater, New York City, with Florence Mills in the starring role.

1929 – The collapse of the stock market and the beginning of the Great Depression.  By 1937, 26 per cent of African American males will be unemployed.

1945 – Beatrice Moore is born in New York, New York.  She will become an actress and singer better known as Melba Moore. Her big break will come when she joins the cast of the Broadway musical “Hair.” She will eventually win the lead role. It will be the first time that an African American actress replaces a white actress (Diane Keaton) for a lead role on Broadway. That engagement will be followed with another Broadway hit, “Purlie,” which earns her a Tony Award and rave reviews.   This success will be followed by appearances in film and television.  In addition to her success in acting, she will have a fruitful recording career.

1947 – The President’s Committee on Civil Rights condemns racial injustices in America in a formal report, “To Secure These Rights.”

1947 – Texas Southern University is established.

1947 – The NAACP Spingarn Medal is awarded to Dr. Percy L. Julian for his achievements as a scientist.

1949 – Alonzo G. Moron, from the Virgin Islands, becomes the first person of African descent to become president of Hampton Institute (now University) in Hampton, Virginia.

1960 – Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali) boxes in his first professional fight, beating Tunney Hunsaker in 6 rounds.

1961 – Randy Jackson is born in Gary, Indiana. He will become a member of the famed family group, “The Jackson Five.”

1969 – Johnson Products Company of Chicago, Illinois, the largest African American hair-care products manufacturer, is incorporated.  Founded by George Johnson in 1954, in 1971, it will become the first African American owned company listed on the American Stock Exchange.

1969 – The U.S. Supreme Court states that school systems must end segregation “at once” and “operate now and hereafter only unitary schools.” In the Mississippi case, Alexander v. Holmes, the Court abandons the principle of “all deliberate speed.”

1974 – Muhammad Ali defeats George Foreman in Zaire to regain his heavyweight crown in a fight billed as “The Rumble in the Jungle.”  In addition to the fight being the first heavyweight title fight held in Africa, it is the 14th Anniversary of Ali’s professional boxing debut.

1981 – William Otis Walker, publisher of the “Cleveland Call & Post,” joins the ancestors at the age of 85.  He was the first African American to hold a post in the Ohio Cabinet in 1963, and was national chairman for “Black Republicans for Reagan and Bush” in 1980.

1987 – Thomas Hearns wins an unprecedented 4th boxing title in different weight classes.

30 October 1945

1945 – Booker T. Washington entered the Hall of Fame for Great Americans

31 October 1893 – 1969

1893 – Football player, William Henry Lewis, is named as an All-American.  He is the first African American athlete to receive this honor.

1900 – Ethel Waters is born in Chester, Pennsylvania.  She will become a famous blues singer, the first woman to perform W.C. Handy’s “St. Louis Blues,” and an actress known for her roles in the movie “Cabin in the Sky” and such stageplays as “Member of the Wedding”, for which she will be nominated for a New York Drama Critics Award. She will join the ancestors on September 1, 1977.

1935 – John Henry Lewis wins the world light heavyweight crown in St. Louis, Missouri by defeating Bob Olin.  He will become the first American-born light heavyweight champion to retire undefeated.

1945 – Educator, Booker T. Washington, is inducted into the Hall of Fame for Great Americans.

1953 – John Lucas is born.  He will become a professional basketball player and play guard for the Houston Rockets and Milwaukee Bucks.  He will become a NBA coach after retiring as a player.

1969 – A racially motivated civil disturbance occurs in Jacksonville, Florida.  The disturbance is caused by tensions between whites and Blacks during civil rights demonstrations.