01 May 1863 – 2000

1863 – The Confederate congress passes a resolution which brands African American troops and their officers criminals. The resolution, in effect, dooms captured African American soldiers to death or slavery.

1866 – White Democrats and police attack freedmen and their white allies in Memphis, Tennessee.  Forty-six African Americans and two white liberals are killed.  More than seventy are wounded.  Ninety homes, twelve schools and four churches are burned.

1867 – Reconstruction of the South begins with the registering of African American and white voters in the South.  Gen. Philip H. Sheridan orders the registration to begin in Louisiana on May 1 and to continue until June 30.  Registration will begin in Arkansas in May.  Other states follow in June and July. By the end of October, 1,363,000 citizens had registered in the South, including 700,000 African Americans.   African American voters constitute a majority in five states: Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and South Carolina.

1884 – Moses Fleetwood Walker becomes the first African American in the Major Leagues when he plays for the Toledo Blue Stockings in the American Association.  A catcher, he goes 0-for-3 in his debut, allowing 2 passed balls and committing 4 errors, as his team bows to Louisville 5-1. He will do better in 41 subsequent games before injuries force Toledo to release him in late September. In July he will be joined by his brother Welday, an outfielder. Racial bigotry will prevent his return to major league ball.  No other African American player will appear in a major league uniform until Jackie Robinson in 1947.

1901 – Sterling Allen Brown is born in Washington, DC.  He will become a poet, literary critic, editor of “The Negro in American Fiction” and “Negro Poetry and Drama,” and the coeditor of the anthology, “The Negro Caravan.”

1941 – A. Philip Randolph issues a call for 100,000 African Americans to march on Washington, DC, to protest armed forces and defense industry discrimination.  In response, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who attempted to persuade Randolph and others to cancel the demonstration, will issue Executive Order 8802, to ban federal discrimination, before Randolph finally yields.

1946 – Mrs. Emma Clarissa Clement is named “American Mother of the Year” by the Golden Rule Foundation.

1948 – Glenn H. Taylor, U.S. Senator from Idaho and Vice-presidential candidate of the Progressive party, is arrested in Birmingham, Alabama, for trying to enter a meeting through a door marked “for Negroes.”

1950 – Gwendolyn Brooks becomes the first African American to win a Pulitzer Prize for her book of poetry “Annie  Allen.”

1975 – A commemorative stamp of poet Paul Laurence Dunbar is issued by the U.S. Postal Service as part of its American Arts series.

1981 – Dr. Clarence A. Bacote, historian and political scientist, joins the ancestors in Atlanta, Georgia at the age of 75.

1990 – Robert Guillaume, former star of the Benson TV series, premieres in the title role in “Phantom of the Opera” at the Music Center in Los Angeles.  Guillaume continues the role that had been played to critical acclaim by the English star, Michael Crawford.

1991 – Rickey Henderson steals his 939th base in the Oakland A’s game against the New York Yankees, breaking Lou Brock’s major league record.

1995 – Charges that Qubilah Shabazz, the daughter of Malcolm X, had plotted to murder Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan are dropped as jury selection for her trial is about to begin in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

1998 – Eldridge Cleaver, the fiery Black Panther leader who later renounced his past and became a Republican, joins the ancestors in Pomona, California, at age 62.

1998 – Former Rwandan Prime Minister Jean Kambanda, pleads guilty to charges stemming from the 1994 genocide of more than 500,000 Tutsis.

2000 – Bobby Eggleston is sworn in as the new sheriff of Drew County, Arkansas. He becomes the first African American sheriff in Arkansas since Reconstruction.

02 May 1844 – 1999

1844 – Elijah McCoy is born in Colchester, Ontario, Canada. He will become a master inventor and holder of over 50 patents. He will be the inventor of a device that allows machines to be lubricated while they are still in operation. Machinery buyers insisted on McCoy lubrication systems when buying new machines and will take nothing less than what becomes known as the “real McCoy.” The inventor’s automatic oiling devices will become so universal that no heavy-duty machinery will be considered adequate without it, and the expression becomes part of America culture.

1920 – The first game of the National Negro Baseball League (NNL) is played in Indianapolis, Indiana.  The NNL was formed earlier in the year by Andrew “Rube” Foster and a group of African American baseball club owners to combat prejudice and further enjoyment of the game.

1968 – The Poor People’s March, led by Ralph D. Abernathy, begins as caravans from all over the country leave for Washington, DC., to protest poverty and racial discrimination.

1990 – The government of South Africa and the African National Congress open their first formal talks aimed at paving the way for more substantive negotiations on dismantling apartheid.

1992 – Los Angeles begins a massive cleanup and rebuilding effort after three days of widespread civil unrest.  The April 29 acquittal of four police officers in the 1991 beating of motorist Rodney G. King fueled perceptions of unequal justice for African Americans and sparked multiracial violence that resulted in unprecedented figures of 58 deaths, over 2,000 injuries, over 600 fires, $1 billion in property damage and spread to San Francisco, Las Vegas, Seattle, Atlanta, Madison (Wisconsin), and Toronto.

1994 – Nelson Mandela claims victory in the wake of South Africa’s first democratic elections. President F.W. de Klerk acknowledges defeat.

1999 – Reverend Jesse Jackson, who leads a group of religious leaders to the country of Serbia, obtains the release of three American Army prisoners of war, Staff Sgt. Andrew A. Ramirez, 24, of Los Angeles; Spc. Steven M. Gonzales, 21, of Huntsville, Texas; and Staff Sgt. Christopher J. Stone, 25, of Smiths Creek, Mich. at 4:45 EST.

03 May 1845 – 1967

1845 – Macon B. Allen becomes the first African American formally admitted to the bar in Massachusetts when he passes the examination in Worcester.  The previous year, he was admitted to the bar in Maine, making him the first licensed African American attorney in the United States.

1902 – African American jockey Jimmy Winkfield wins his second Kentucky Derby in a row astride Alan-a-Dale.  With Winkfield’s wins, African American jockeys have won 15 of 28 Derby races.

1921 – Walker Smith, Jr. is born in Detroit, Michigan.  He will begin his career as a boxer by using the amateur certificate of another boxer, Ray Robinson, which enables him to enter contests at a young age.  After winning the welterweight Golden Glove titles in 1939 and 1940, he will turn professional.  He will continue to box under that name as a professional and will be known as Sugar Ray Robinson.  He will be a world welterweight champion and five-time middleweight champion, with a 175-19-6 record and 109 knockouts from 1940-65. He will win his last middleweight title at the age of 38. He will be voted the Associated Press Fighter of the Century in December, 1999.

1933 – James Brown is born in Barnwell, South Carolina.  The only child of a poor backwoods family, he will be sent, to Augusta, Georgia at age five, to live at an aunt’s brothel. He will evolve from a juvenile delinquent to become one of the most influential Rhythm & Blues singers, with a career that will span more than five decades and include the hits “I Got You,” “Cold Sweat,” “Living in America,” “Prisoner of Love,” “Sing It Loud, I’m Black and I’m Proud.” Incarcerated in 1988 for aggravated assault, Brown will be released in 1991 and return to the recording scene, where he will continue to influence a new generation of artists including M.C. Hammer, Prince, and many others. He will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on January 23, 1986 and on February 25, 1992, will receive a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 34th annual Grammy Awards.

1948 – In Shelley v. Kraemer, the Supreme Court rules that courts cannot enforce segregational housing covenants, which bar persons from owning or occupying property because of their race.

1967 – African American students seize the finance building at Northwestern University and demand that African American oriented curriculum and campus reforms be implemented.

04 May 1864 – 1999

1864 – Ulysses S. Grant crosses the Rapidan and begins his duel with Robert E. Lee.  At the same time Ben Butler’s Army of the James moves on Lee’s forces. An African American division in Grant’s army did not play a prominent role in the Wilderness Campaign, but Ben Butler gave his African American infantrymen and his eighteen hundred African American cavalrymen important assignments.  African American troops of the Army of the James were the first Union Soldiers to take possession of James River ports (at Wilson’s Wharf Landing, Fort Powhatan and City Point).

1937 – Melvin Edwards is born in Houston, Texas.  He will become a sculptor and will have one-man exhibits at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City.  His work will be represented in private collections as well as that of the Museum of Modern Art, the Schomburg Collection of the New York Public Library, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, among others.

1942 – Nickolas Ashford is born in Fairfield, South Carolina.  He will become a songwriter who, with his partner and wife Valerie Simpson, will write such hits as “Reach out and Touch (Somebody’s Hand),” “Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing,” and “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough.”  Becoming a solo act in 1973, Ashford and Simpson will have a string of successful albums including “Send It,” “Solid,” and “Real Love.”  He and wife Valerie will perform at Nelson Mandela’s 70th birthday celebration in London in 1988, sing for President Clinton at the 52nd Presidential Inauguration in 1992, perform at the White House for the CISAC 39th World Congress, and in April of 1996 they will be awarded ASCAP’s highest honor: The Founder’s Award, at the Motown Cafe in New York.

1943 – William Tubman is elected president of Liberia.

1952 – Sigmund Jackson is born in Gary, Indiana.  Better known as “Jackie,” he will become the oldest of the pop group, “The Jackson Five” and later “The Jacksons.”

1961 – Thirteen CORE-sponsored Freedom Riders begin a bus trip in Washington, DC to cities throughout the south, to force desegregation of terminals. Ten days later, the bus will be bombed and its passengers attacked by white segregationists near Anniston, Alabama.

1965 – Willie Mays’ 512th home run breaks Mel Ott’s 511th National League home run record.

1969 – “No Place to Be Somebody” opens at the Public Theatre in New York City.   Charles Gordone’s powerful play will earn its author the 1970 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

1985 – The famed Apollo Theatre, once the showcase for the nation’s top African American performers, reopens after a renovation that cost $10.4 million.  The landmark building on West 125th Street in New York was the first place The Beatles wanted to see on their initial visit to the United States.  Ed Sullivan used to frequent the Apollo in search of new talent for his CBS show.

1990 – The South African government and the African National Congress conclude historic talks in Cape Town with a joint statement agreeing on a “common commitment toward the resolution of the existing climate of violence.”

1999 – Five New York police officers go on trial for the torture of Haitian immigrant Abner Louima. One officer will later plead guilty; a second officer will be convicted; and three will be acquitted.

05 May 1857 – 1988

1857 – The Dred Scott decision, in the famous U.S. Supreme Court case, declares that no black–free or slave–could claim United States citizenship, therefore could not sue.   It also stated that Congress could not prohibit slavery in United States territories.  The ruling will arouse angry resentment in the North and will lead the nation a step closer to civil war. It also will influence the introduction and passage of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution after the Civil War (1861-1865).  The amendment, adopted in 1868, will extend citizenship to former slaves and give them full civil rights.

1865 – Adam Clayton Powell, Sr. is born in a log cabin in Soak Creek, Virginia.  He will be a social and religious leader at Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, after becoming the pastor in 1908.  Under his leadership, he will expand the role of the church in the community and increase its membership. When he retires in 1937, Abyssinian Baptist Church will be the largest Protestant church in the United States. He will be succeeded in the pulpit by his son, Adam CLayton Powell, Jr., who will become a future congressman.

1883 – Josiah Henson joins the ancestors in Dawn, Ontario, Canada at the age of 93. He had escaped slavery in Maryland and settled in Canada. He had been part of the creation of a settlement for fugitive slaves near Dawn, Ontario.

1905 – Robert Sengstacke Abbott founds the Chicago Defender, calling it “The World’s Greatest Weekly.”

1919 – The NAACP awards the Spingarn Medal to William Stanley Braithwaite. Braithwaite’s publication of essays and verse in notable mainstream magazines and editorial efforts on three books of verse and poetry anthologies had earned him wide acclaim among African Americans and whites.

1931 – Edwin A. Harleston joins the ancestors in Charleston, South Carolina. One of the most popular and influential African American painters of the day, his work will be exhibited at the Harmon Foundation, the Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, and in the exhibit “Two Centuries of Black American Art.”

1935 – Jesse Owens, of the United States, sets the long jump record at 26′ 8″.

1943 – Maximiliano Gomez Horatio is born in San Pedro de Macoris, Dominican Republic. After working in the sugar refineries in his home area, be will become a politician, leading the Dominican Popular Movement. He believed that the Dominican Republic should be guided by its own historical and social environment, not on any European model.  He will participate in an insurrection that is ended by a U.S. invasion in 1965. He will later be imprisoned and after his release, he will go into exile.  He will join the ancestors under suspicious circumstances in Brussels, Belgium, in 1971.

1965 – Edgar Austin Mittelholzer joins the ancestors in Farnham, Surrey, England, after committing suicide at the age of 55. He had been the the first author from the Carribean to earn his living as a writer. He was considered the father of the novel in the English-speaking Caribbean.

1969 – Moneta Sleet becomes the first African American to win a Pulitzer Prize for his photograph of Mrs. Martin Luther King, Jr. and her daughter at her husband’s funeral.

1971 – A race riot occurs in the Brownsville section of New York City.

1975 – Hank Aaron surpasses Babe Ruth’s RBI mark.  He will finish his career with 755 home runs and over 2200 RBIs.  Both records will stand for many years.  Aaron will be inducted into Baseball’s Hall of Fame on August 1, 1982.

1977 – The Afro-American Historical and Genealogy Society is founded in Washington, DC.   The society’s mission is to encourage scholarly research in African American genealogy.

1988 – Eugene Antonio Marino, is installed as the archbishop of Atlanta, becoming the first African American Roman Catholic archbishop in the United States.

06 May 1787 – 1967

1787 – Prince Hall forms African Lodge 459, the first African American Masonic Lodge in the United States.

1794 – Haiti, under Toussaint L’Ouverture, revolts against France.

1812 – Martin R. Delany is born free in Charlestown, Virginia. He will become the first African American field officer to serve in the Civil War, a noted physician, author, explorer, and a newspaper editor.

1930 – Noted actor Charles Gilpin joins the ancestors. The founder and manager of the Lafayette Theatre Company, one of the earliest African American stock companies in New York, Gilpin achieved fame for his performance as Brutus Jones In Eugene O’Neill’s play “The Emperor Jones.”  In 1921, he won the NAACP’s Spingarn Medal in recognition of his theatrical career.

1931 – Willie Mays is born in Westfield, Alabama.  He will become a professional baseball player at the age of 16, for the Birmingham Black Barons.  After graduating from high school, he will be signed by the New York Giants.  His 7095 putouts will be the all-time record for an outfielder.  His career batting average will be .302.   For eight consecutive years, he will drive in more than 100 runs a year, and his 660 home runs will put him in third place for the all-time home run record.  He will win the Gold Glove Award 12 times. He will be voted Most Valuable Player in the National League in both 1954 and 1965. He will be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1979.

1960 – The Civil Rights Act of 1960 is signed by President Eisenhower.  The act acknowledges the federal government’s responsibility in matters involving civil rights and reverses its customary “hands-off” policy.

1967 – Four hundred students seize the administration building at Cheyney State College.

07 May 1867 – 1959

1867 – African American demonstrators stage a ride-in to protest segregation on New Orleans streetcars. Similar demonstrations occur in Mobile, Alabama, and other cities.

1878 – J.R. Winters receives a patent for the fire escape ladder.

1884 – Henrietta Vinton Davis performs scenes from Shakespeare with Powhatan Beaty at Ford’s Opera House in Washington, DC, site of the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln.  Vinton’s career will span a total of 44 years and will include her involvement with Marcus Garvey’s UNIA, including a vice-presidency of Garvey’s Black Star Line.

1885 – Dr. John E. W. Thompson, a graduate of the Yale University Medical School, is named minister to Haiti.

1931 – Literary critic and editor Darwin Turner is born in Cincinnati, Ohio.  His major works will include “Black American Literature: Essays, Poetry Fiction and Drama” (1969) and “Voices from the Black Experience: African and Afro-American Literature” (1972).

1939 – Jimmy Ruffin is born in Colinsville, Mississippi. The older brother of the Temptations’ lead singer David Ruffin, he will become a singer on the Motown label and will best known for the hit “What Becomes of the Brokenhearted.”  He will also record “Hold on to My Love,” “There Will Never be Another You,” and “I’ll Say Forever My Love.”

1941 – “Natural Man,” a play by Theodore Browne, premieres in New York City.   It is a production of the American Negro Theatre, founded by Abram Hill and Frederick O’Neal.

1945 – Baseball owner Branch Rickey announces the organization of the United States Negro Baseball League, consisting of six teams.

1946 – William Hastie is inaugurated as the first African American governor of the U.S. Virgin Islands.

1959 – 93,103 fans pack the Los Angeles Coliseum for an exhibition game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the New York Yankees. It is “Roy Campanella Night.”   The star catcher for the Dodgers, paralyzed in an automobile accident, is honored for his contributions to the team for many years.  “Campie” will continue to serve in various capacities with the Dodger organization for many years.

08  May 1771 – 1967

1771 – Phillis Wheatley sails for England. Two years later, her book of poetry, “Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral,” will be published in London.

1858 – John Brown holds an antislavery convention, which is attended by twelve whites and thirty-four African Americans, in Chatham, Canada.

1858 – “The Escape,” first play by an African American, is published by William Wells Brown.

1910 – Mary Elfrieda Scruggs is born in Atlanta, Georgia. She will become a professional piano player at the age of 6 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. After marrying musician and band leader, John Williams, she will perform as Mary Lou Williams. She will become an accomplished arranger and composer and be a music educator in her later years. In 1957, she will form Mary Records, becoming the first woman to establish a record company. She will join the ancestors in 1981 in Durham, North Carolina.

1911 – Robert Leroy Johnson is born in Hazlehurst, Mississippi. He will become a legendary blues musician while remaining relatively obscure during his short lifetime. Recordings of Johnson, made by by Columbia Records between 1936 and 1937, will be the foundation for his reputation after he joins the ancestors in 1938. The songs he recorded will influence the bluesmen of the 1960’s during the revival of the blues. He will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986.

1915 – Henry McNeal Turner joins the ancestors in Windsor, Canada. He was an influential minister in the AME Church and was appointed the first African American chaplain in the U.S. Army.

1917 – An African American, Jesse Washington, is burned alive in a public square in Waco, Texas. Fifteen thousand will look on in the incident known later as the “Waco Horror.”

1925 – A. Philip Randolph organizes the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters after failing to integrate the American Federation of Labor.

1932 – Charles (Sonny) Liston is born in St. Frances County, Arkansas. After spending time as juvenile delinquent, he will be convicted of armed robbery in 1950 and sentenced to prison. While in prison, he will develop an interest in boxing. He will win the 1953 Golden Gloves championship in 1953, after serving his sentence. He will become a professional boxer and will win the World Heavyweight Boxing crown in 1962 and defend it until he is defeated by Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali) in 1964. He will join the ancestors on December 30, 1970 and be inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1991.

1951 – Philip Bailey is born in Denver, Colorado. He will become a rhythm and blues singer and will enjoy his first fame with the group Earth, Wind and Fire, which he joined in 1972. He will develop his unique four-octave voice into a trademark sound and will be the hallmark of the group’s hits such as “Reasons,” “Shining Star,” “All ‘N’ All,” and “After The Love Has Gone.” In 1983, he will start his solo career and will enjoy success in both rhythm and blues and gospel venues. On March 6, 2000 he will appear with Earth, Wind and Fire when they are inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

1958 – President Eisenhower orders federalized National Guard troops removed from Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas.

1965 – The Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians is founded by Muhal Richard Abrams.

1967 – Muhammad Ali is indicted for refusing induction in the U.S. Army. 

09  May 1750 – 1995

1750 – The South Carolina Gazette reports that Caesar, a South Carolina slave, has been granted his freedom and a life time annuity in exchange for his cures for poison and rattlesnake bite. Caesar and the famous James Derham of New Orleans are two of the earliest known African American medical practitioners.

1862 – General Hunter of the Union Army issues a proclamation freeing the slaves of Georgia, Florida and South Carolina. A displeased President Lincoln annuls this act. Lincoln stated, “General Hunter is an honest man…He proclaimed all men free within certain states. I repudiated the proclamation.”

1919 – James Reese Europe joins the ancestors after being stabbed to death by a crazed band member (his drummer) after a concert at Mechanics Hall in Boston. Europe was one of the preeminent jazz bandleaders of the early 20th century, beginning with his association with the team of J. Rosamond Johnson and Bob Cole in The Shoo Fly Regiment in 1906. Founder of the Clef Club, Europe joined the 15th, and later, 369th Infantry Regiments. The military band he formed during World War I was one of the most popular in all of Europe.

1936 – After a eight month occupation, Italy annexes Abyssinia (now Ethiopia). Italy’s dictator Benito Mussolini announces in front of 400,000 people at the Piazza Venezia in Rome that, by controlling Abyssinia, Eritrea, and Somaliland, Italy now has its own Empire. This is the beginning of a five year occupation, which will end in 1941.

1952 – Canada Lee joins the ancestors in New York at the age of 45. A jockey and amateur boxer before turning to acting, Lee achieved wide acclaim for his portrayal of Bigger Thomas in the 1941 Broadway play “Native Son” and for the film, “Cry the Beloved Country.”

1960 – Nigeria becomes a member of the British Commonwealth.

1974 – The House Judiciary Committee formally opens its impeachment hearings against President Richard M. Nixon with representatives John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.) and Barbara Jordan (D-Tex.) among members of the committee. Jordan, in particular, distinguishes herself as an eloquent and incisive contributor to the hearings process.

1977 – Mabel Murphy Smythe is confirmed as Ambassador to the Republic of Cameroon.

1987 – Chief Obafemi Awolowo, leader of the banned Action Group and leader of the Yorubas of western Nigeria and first premier of the defunct Western Region, joins the ancestors at the age of 78.

1987 – Eddie Murray, of the Baltimore Orioles, is the first baseball player to hit home runs as a switch hitter in 2 consecutive games.

1994 – South Africa’s newly elected parliament chooses Nelson Mandela to be the country’s first black president.

1995 – Kinshasa, capital of Zaire, is placed under quarantine after an outbreak of the Ebola virus.

10  May 1652 – 1998

1652 – John Johnson, a free African American, is granted 550 acres in Northampton County, Virginia, for importing eleven persons to work as indentured servants.

1775 – Lemuel Haynes, Epheram Blackman, and Primas Black, in the first aggressive action of American forces against the British, help capture Fort Ticonderoga as members of Ethan Allen’s Green Mountain Boys.

1815 – Henry Walton Bibb is born a slave in Shelby County, Kentucky. He will escape to Canada, return to get his first wife, be recaptured in Cincinnati, escape again, be recaptured again and sold into slavery in New Orleans. He will be removed to Arkansas, where he will escape yet again, this time for good in 1842. He will make his way to Detroit, Michigan and will become an active abolitionist. He will publish his autobiography, “Narrative of The Life and Adventures of Henry Bibb, an American Slave” in 1849. This narrative of his life will be so suspenseful that an investigation is conducted that will substantiate Bibb’s account. In 1850, the U.S. Congress will pass the Fugitive Slave Act which will force his immigration to Canada with his second wife. In 1851, he will found the “Voice of the Fugitive”, the first Black newspaper in Canada. He will join the ancestors in 1854 at the age of 39.

1837 – Pinckney Benton Steward (P.B.S.) Pinchback is born near Macon, Georgia. During the Civil War, he will recruit and command a company of the “Corps d’Afrique,” a calvary unit from Louisiana. He will resign his commission in 1863 after unsuccessful demands that African American officers and enlisted men be treated the same as white military personnel. In 1868, he will be elected to the Louisiana legislature as a Senator. In 1871, he will be elected President Pro Temp of the Louisiana Senate, and will become Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana in 1872 after the death of Oscar Dunn. He will serve briefly (two months) as the appointed Governor. He will be elected to the U.S. Senate in 1873, but never be seated by that body, due to supposed election irregularities. After the end of Reconstruction and his political career, Pinchback will use his resources to work as an advocate for African Americans as Southern Democrats endeavor to take away the civil rights gained by Blacks after the Civil War. He will publish the newspaper “The Louisianan,” using it as a venue to help influence public opinion. He will also become the leader of the precursor to the Associated Negro Press, the Convention of Colored Newspaper Men. At the age of sixty, he will relocate to Washington, DC where he will live until he joins the ancestors in 1921.

1876 – The American Centennial Exposition opens in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Included are works by four African American artists, among them Edmonia Lewis’ “The Dying Cleopatra” and Edward Bannister’s “Under the Oaks.” Bannister’s painting will win the bronze medal, a distinct and controversial achievement for the renowned painter.

1919 – A race riot occurs in Charleston, South Carolina. Two African Americans are killed.

1935 – Larry Williams is born. He will become a rhythm and blues singer and will be known for his record hits “Short Fat Fannie,” “Bony Maronie,” and “Dizzy Miss Lizzie.”

1936 – Jayne Cortez is born in Fort Huachuca, Arizona. She will grow up in the Watts section of Los Angeles, California and will marry jazz saxophonist Ornette Coleman in 1954. After divorcing him in 1960, she will study drama and poetry. She will become active in the civil rights movement, registering African Americans to vote in Mississippi as a worker for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. She will then become a poet and performance artist that will integrate the rhythms and foundations of jazz into her written works. She will found the Watts Repertory Theater and be its artistic director from 1964 through 1970. She will establish Bola Press in New York City in 1972 and will be a writer-in-residence at Rutgers University from 1977 to 1983. She will be known for her collections of poetry “Pisstained Stairs and Monkey Man’s Wares,”  “Festivals and Funerals,” “Coagulations: New and Selected Poems,” and “Somewhere in Advance of Nowhere.” She will also be known for her poetry reading recordings with jazz musicians “There It Is,” “Maintain Control,” and “Taking the Blues Back Home: Poetry and Music.”

1944 – Judith Jamison is born in Philadelphia. Pennsylvania. She will begin her dancing career at the age of six. She will complete her dance training at the Philadelphia Dance Company (later the University of Arts). She will make her debut with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre in Chicago, dancing in Talley Beaty’s Congo Tango Palace. She will become the troupe’s premier dancer in 1967 and will tour the world exhibiting her signature dance “Cry.” She will win a Dance Magazine award for her performances in 1972. She will leave the Ailey troupe in 1980 to perform on Broadway and will choreograph many of her own works such as “Divining,” Ancestral Rites” and “Hymn.” She will form the twelve member group, The Jamison Project, in 1987. After Alvin Ailey’s health declines in 1988, she will rejoin the Ailey troupe as artistic associate and will become artistic director upon his death in 1989. She will continue the company’s tradition of performing early works choreographed by African Americans for many years.

1950 – Jackie Robinson appears on the cover of Life magazine. It is the first time an African American has been featured on the magazine’s cover in its 13-year history.

1951 – Z. Alexander Looby is the first African American elected to the Nashville City Council.

1952 – Canada Lee joins the ancestors in England at the age of 45. He had become an actor in 1933 after a professional boxing match left him blind in one eye. He was able to be cast in non-traditional roles for African Americans at a time when most were cast in stereotypical parts. He was best known for his portrayal of “Bigger Thomas” in the play “Native Son” in 1940 and 1941. He was blacklisted by the House Committee on Un-American Activities and the FBI for his outspoken views on the stereotyping of African Americans in Hollywood and Broadway.

1954 – Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield sang before Queen Victoria

1962 – Southern School News reports that 246,988 or 7.6 per cent of the African American pupils in public schools in seventeen Southern and Border States and the District of Columbia attended integrated classes in 1962.

1963 – Rev. Fred L. Shuttlesworth announces agreement on a limited integration plan which will end the Birmingham demonstrations.

1974 – “Just Don’t Want To Be Lonely” earns a gold record for the group, The Main Ingredient. The trio began as the Poets in 1964. Cuba Gooding is the lead singer. (Gooding’s son, Cuba Jr., will star in the 1991 film “Boyz N The Hood” and will win an Academy award for his role in the movie “Jerry Maguire in 1997.) The Main Ingredient’s biggest hit, “Everybody Plays The Fool,” will make it to number three on the pop charts in 1972.

1986 – Navy Lt. Commander Donnie Cochran becomes the first African American pilot to fly with the celebrated Blue Angels precision aerial demonstration team.

1994 – Nelson Mandela is inaugurated as president of South Africa. In an historic exchange of power, former political prisoner Nelson Mandela becomes the first black president of South Africa. In his acceptance speech, he says, “We enter into a covenant that we shall build the society in which all South Africans, both black and white, will be able to walk tall, without any fear in their hearts–a rainbow nation at peace with itself and the world.”

1998 – Jose’ Francisco Pena Gomez joins the ancestors at the age of 61 in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic after succumbing to pancreatic cancer. He had led a successful civil-military revolt in 1965 which was curtailed by the interference of United States Marines sent to the Dominican Republic to put down the rebellion. He was later forced into exile. He later returned to the Dominican Republic and be heavily involved in politics as leader of the Partido Revolucionario Dominicano. He ran for president unsuccessfully three times.

11  May 1885 – 1986

1885 – Joseph Oliver is born in Donaldsville, Louisiana. He will become a professional musician after learning his craft playing with local street musicians in New Orleans. After playing in the band of Edward “Kid” Ory, he will be dubbed “King” Oliver. After being recruited to Chicago, Illinois to play in the band of Bill Johnson, King Oliver will assume leadership of the Creole Jazz Band. He will recruit some of best available jazz talent of the time including Louis Armstrong. The Creole Jazz Band will disband after the exit of Louis Armstrong. King Oliver will lead various other bands until 1937 when he retires from music. Due to severe gum problems, he stopped playing the cornet in 1931. He will join the ancestors in 1938. King Oliver was one of the pioneering musicians in New Orleans and Chicago style jazz.

1895 – William Grant Still is born in Woodville, Mississippi. Considered one of the nation’s greatest composers, he will begin his career by writing arrangements for W.C. Handy and as musical director for Harry Pace’s Phonograph Corporation. One of his most famous compositions, “Afro-American Symphony,” will be the first symphonic work by an African American to be performed by a major symphony orchestra, the Rochester Philharmonic Symphony, in 1931. He will also be the first African American to conduct a major U.S. symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, in 1936. He will create over 150 musical works including a series of five symphonies, four ballets, and nine operas. Two of his best known compositions will be “Afro-American Symphony” (1930) and “A Bayou Legend” (1941). He will join the ancestors in 1978.

1899 – Clifton Reginald Wharton is born in Baltimore, Maryland. He will become an attorney and will be the first African American to enter the Foreign Service and the first African American to become the U.S. ambassador to an European country. He will begin his career in the Foreign Service in 1925 and will serve in a variety of diplomatic positions in Liberia, Spain, Madagascar, Portugal, and France before becoming the Ambassador to Norway in 1961. He will retire from the State Department in 1964 and will join the ancestors in 1990.

1930 – Lawson Edward Brathwaite is born in Bridgetown, Barbados. He will become a poet, critic, historian and editor better known as Edward Kamau Brathwaite. He will be considered by most literary critics in the English speaking Caribbean to be the most important West Indian Poet. He will be best known for his works “Rights of Passage,” “Masks,” and “Islands” which will later be combined in a trilogy “The Arrivants.” His other works will be “Other Exiles,” “Mother Poem, Sun Poem,” “X/Self,” “Middles Passages,” and “Roots.” He will be the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Fulbright Scholarship, the Casa de las Americas prize, and the Neustadt International Prize for Literature. After teaching at the University of the West Indies for twenty years, he will join the faculty of New York University.

1933 – Louis Eugene Walcott is born in Roxbury, Massachusetts. In 1955 he will convert to Islam and join The Nation of Islam after attending the Saviour’s Day Convention in Chicago, Illinois. He will be known as Louis X and will later adopt the name Louis Farrakhan. Within three months of joining the Nation, he will have to choose between his life in show business or life in the Nation of Islam. He chooses to leave his life as an entertainer and dedicates his life to the teachings of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. After moving to Boston at the request of Malcolm X, he will rise to the rank of Minister and will head the Boston Temple from 1956 until 1965 when he was asked by Elijah Muhammad to take over Temple # 7 in New York City. After the death of Elijah Muhammad and three years of subsequent changes in the Nation from his teachings, Minister Farrakhan decided to return to the teachings of Elijah Muhammad and since then, has continued programs to uplift and reform Blacks. In 1995, he will exhibit his influence as a Black leader when he successfully organizes and speaks at the Million Man March in Washington, DC.

1963 – One day after Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth announces agreement on a limited integration plan in Birmingham, Alabama, his home is bombed and a riot ensues.

1965 – African Americans hold a mass meeting in Norfolk, Virginia and demand equal rights and ballots.

1968 – Nine Caravans of poor people arrive in Washington, DC for first phase of Poor People’s Campaign. Caravans started from different sections of the country on May 2 and picked up demonstrators along the way. In Washington, demonstrators erect a camp called Resurrection City on a sixteen-acre site near the Lincoln Monument.

1970 – Johnny Hodges joins the ancestors in New York City at the age of 63. He had been a well known saxophone player and played with the band of Duke Ellington for almost forty years. He was Duke Ellington’s favorite soloist. Over his career, he will be chosen as the best reed player by DownBeat Magazine ten times.

1972 – The San Francisco Giants announce that they are trading Willie Mays to the New York Mets.

1981 – Hoyt J. Fuller joins the ancestors in Atlanta at the age of 57. He was a literary critic and editor of “First World” and “Black World” (formerly Negro Digest) magazines.

1981 – Robert Nesta ‘Bob’ Marley, Jamaican-born singer who popularized reggae with his group The Wailers, joins the ancestors after succumbing to cancer in a Miami hospital at the age of 36. He will enshrined in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994.

1981 – Ken Norton, former heavyweight boxing champion, is left on the ropes and unconscious after 54 seconds of the first round at Madison Square Garden in New York City, by Gerry Cooney.

1986 – Frederick Douglass ‘Fritz’ Pollard joins the ancestors in Silver Spring, Maryland at the age of 92. Pollard had been the first African American to play in the Rose Bowl and the second African American to be named All-American in college football. After college he played professional football and later became the coach of his team. When the league in which he coached became the NFL in 1922, he became the first African American coach in NFL history.  No other African American will coach in the NFL until the 1990s. 

12  May 1896 – 1991

1896 – Juan Morel Campos joins the ancestors in Ponce, Puerto Rico. He was a musician and composer who was one of the first to integrate Afro-Caribbean styles and folk rhythms into the classical European musical model. He was considered the father of the “danza.”

1898 – Louisiana adopts a new constitution with a “grandfather clause” designed to eliminate African American voters.

1902 – Joe Gans (born Joseph Gaines) becomes the first native-born African American to win a world boxing championship, when he defeats Frank Erne in one round for the World Lightweight Crown. He will be elected to the Boxing Hall of Fame in 1954.

1910 – The Second NAACP conference opens in New York City. The three day conference will create a permanent national structure for the organization.

1916 – Albert L. Murray is born in Nokomis, Alabama. He will become an author of several works of nonfiction, among them the influential collection of essays, “The Omni Americans: New Perspectives on Black Experience and American Culture.” His other works will include “South to a Very Old Place,” “The Hero and The Blues,” “Train Whistle Guitar,” “The Spyglass Tree,” “Stomping The Blues,” “Good Morning Blues,” and “The Blue Devils of Nada.”

1926 – Paulette Poujol-Oriol is born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. She will become a well-known literary personality in Haiti. She will be best known for her innovative creative expression. Her works will include “Prayers for Two Vanished Angels” and “The Crucible.”

1926 – Mervyn Dymally is born in Cedros, Trinidad. He will become the first African American elected as lieutenant governor of California and will be elected to Congress in 1980, where he will serve for 12 years.

1929 – Samuel Nujoma is born in Etunda, South West Africa (now Namibia). He will become a nationalist politician and the first president of Namibia. He will remain in exile for thirty years from 1959 to 1989 when he will return to Namibia and win a seat in the National Assembly. He will vacate this seat in 1990 when he is elected president.

1933 – Henry Hugh Proctor joins the ancestors in Brooklyn, New York at the age of 64. He had been the pastor of Nazarene Congregational Church for thirteen years. Prior to coming to New York, he had been pastor of the First Congregational Church in Atlanta, Georgia for twenty four years, where he had been instrumental in working with local whites in order to reduce racial conflicts in the city.

1934 – Elechi Amadi is born in Aluu, Nigeria. He will become a novelist whose works will illustrate the tradition and inner feelings of traditional tribal life of his people. He will be known for his works “The Concubine,” “Sunset in Biafra: A Civil War Diary,” “The Great Ponds,” “The Slave,” “Estrangement,” “Isiburu,” “Peppersoup,” “The Road to Ibadan,” “Dancer of Johannesburg,” and “Ethics in Nigerian Culture.” His writings reflect his upbringing as a member of the Igbo ethnic group in Nigeria.

1951 – Former U.S. Congressman Oscar Stanton DePriest joins the ancestors at the age of 80 in Chicago, Illinois. He had been the first African American elected to the U.S. Congress since Reconstruction and the first-ever African American congressman from the North.

1955 – Samuel (“Toothpick Sam”) Jones, of the Chicago Cubs, becomes the first African American to pitch a major league no-hitter, against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

1958 – At a summit meeting of national African American leaders, President Dwight D. Eisenhower is sharply criticized for a speech which, in effect, urges them to “be patient” in their demands for full civil and voting rights.

1967 – H. Rap Brown replaces Stokely Carmichael as chairman of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee.

1969 – Kim Fields (later Freeman) is born in Los Angeles, California. She will become an actress as a child, starring in the sit-com, “The Facts of Life” (1979-1988). She will continue her television career on the “Living Single” show, which will premier in 1993.

1970 – Ernie Banks of the Chicago Cubs hits his 500th home run.

1970 – A racially motivated civil disturbance occurs in Augusta, Georgia.Six African Americans are killed. Authorities say five of the victims were shot by police.

1976 – Wynona Carr joins the ancestors. She had been a gospel singer who was best known for her rendition of “The Ball Game.” Her other recordings were “Each Day,” “Lord Jesus,” “Dragnet for Jesus,” “Fifteen Rounds for Jesus,” “Operator, Operator,” “Should I Ever Love Again,” and “Our Father.”

1991 – Hampton University students stage a silent protest against President George Bush’s commencement address to highlight their opposition to his civil rights policies.

13  May 1865 – 1995

1865 – Two white regiments and an African American regiment, the Sixty-Second U.S. Colored Troops, fight in the last action of the civil war at White’s Ranch, Texas.

1871 – Alcorn A&M College (now Alcorn A&M University) opens in Lorman, Mississippi.

1888 – Princess Isabel of Brazil signs the “Lei Aurea” (Golden Law) which abolishes slavery. Slavery is ended in part to appease the efforts of abolitionists, but mostly because it is less expensive for employers to hire wageworkers than to keep slaves. Plantation owners oppose the law because they are not compensated for releasing their slaves. The passage of the law hastens the fall of the Brazilian monarchy.

1891 – Isaac Murphy becomes the first jockey to win three Kentucky Derbys as he wins the fabled race astride Kingman. Kingman was trained by Dud Allen, an African American trainer.

1914 – Joseph Louis Barrow is born in Lexington, Alabama. He will be better known as Joe Louis. “The Brown Bomber” will hold the heavyweight crown from his 1937 title match with James J. Braddock until his first retirement in 1949. In his 71 professional fights, he will amass a record of 68 victories, 54 by knockouts.

1933 – John Junior “Johnny” Roseboro is born in Ashland, Ohio. He will become a professional baseball player in 1957 and will play as a catcher for the Dodgers from 1957-1967, Minnesota Twins from 1968 to 1969, and the Washington Senators in 1970.

1938 – Louis Armstrong and his Orchestra record the New Orleans’ jazz standard, “When The Saints Go Marching In”, on Decca Records making it extremely popular.

1943 – Mary Wells is born in Detroit, Michigan. She will become a singer for the Motown label and record the hits, “My Guy,” “Two Lovers,” “You Beat Me to the Punch,” and “The One Who Really Loves You.”

1949 – Franklin Ajaye is born in Brooklyn, New York. He will become a comedy writer, comedian and actor. He will appear in the movies “The Jazz Singer,” “Car Wash,” “Hysterical,” “The Wrong Guys,” and “Jock Jokes.”

1950 – Steveland Judkins Morris is born in Saginaw, Michigan. As 12-year-old Little Stevie Wonder, he will become a singing and musical sensation notable for “Fingertips, Part 2.” Wonder will continue to record through-out adulthood, with the albums “Talking Book,” “Songs in the Key of Life,” “The Woman in Red,” and the soundtrack to the movie “Jungle Fever.” Among other awards he will win more than 16 Grammys and a 1984 best song Oscar for “I Just Called to Say I Love You.” He will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989.

1961 – Dennis Rodman is born in Texas. He will become a professional basketball player and will help two different teams win multiple NBA championships.

1966 – Federal education funding is denied to 12 school districts in the South because of violations of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

1971 – (James) Charles Evers becomes the first African American mayor of Fayette, Mississippi.

1971 – Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul, receives a gold record for her version of “Bridge Over Troubled Water”, originally a Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel tune.

1978 – Henry Rono of Kenya sets the record for the 3,000 meter steeplechase (8:05.4). The record will stand for eleven years.

1979 – Max Robinson becomes the first African American network news anchor when he anchors ABC’s World News Tonight.

1983 – Reggie Jackson becomes the first major leaguer to strike out 2,000 times.

1985 – Philadelphia Police bomb a house held by the group “Move”, killing eleven persons. Ramona Africa and a 13-year-old boy are the only people to escape the inferno that the blast caused inside 6221 Osage Street. The heat from the blast also ignites a fire that destroys 60 other homes and leaves 250 people homeless, angry and heartbroken in a working-class section of West Philadelphia.

1990 – George Stallings is ordained as the first bishop of the newly established African American Catholic Church. Stallings broke from the Roman Catholic Church in 1989, citing the church’s failure to meet the needs of African American Catholics.

1995 – Army Captain Lawrence Rockwood is convicted at his court-martial in Fort Drum, New York, of conducting an unauthorized investigation of reported human rights abuses at a Haitian prison (the next day, Rockwood is dismissed from the military, but receives no prison time).

14  May 1867 – 1995

1867 – A riot occurs in Mobile, Alabama, after an African American mass meeting. One African American and one white are killed.

1885 – Erskine Henderson wins the Kentucky Derby riding Joe Cotton. The horse’s trainer is another African-American, Alex Perry.

1888 – Abolition of slavery in Brazil

1897 – Sidney Joseph Bechet is born in New Orleans, Louisiana. A member of both Duke Ellington’s and Noble Sissle’s orchestras, Bechet moved to France and there achieved the greatest success of his career. He had been the greatest jazz soloist of the 1920s along with Louis Armstrong.

1898 – Arthur James ‘Zutty’ Singleton is born in Bunkie, Louisiana. He will become a percussion musician and bandleader. He will start as a drummer at the age of 15 and will work in a variety of bands until he forms his own in 1920. He will eventually make his way to Chicago and will become part of the “Chicago School of Jazz.” He will be primarily remembered for introducing sock cymbals and wire brushes as percussion accessories. These innovations will place him in demand as an accompanist for jazz greats like Louis Armstrong, Fats Waller, Dizzy Gillespie, Jelly Roll Morton, and Charlie Parker. He will perform primarily in New York City from 1953 until 1970. He will join the ancestors in 1975.

1906 – Ngwazi Hastings Kamuzu Banda is born near Kasungu, British Central African Protectorate. Even though his official birthdate is cited as

1906, many sources show his birth date as 1898. He will become Malawi’s first prime minister after independence in 1963. In 1966, he will elected Malawi’s president in 1966. He will lead Malawi until 1994. He will join the ancestors in Johannesburg, South Africa in 1997.

1913 – Clara Stanton Jones is born in St. Louis, Missouri. She will become the first African American director of the Detroit Public Library and the first African American president of the American Library Association.

1943 – Tania J. Leon is born in Havana, Cuba. She will become a pianist, composer, and orchestral conductor. Her music style will encompass Afro-Cuban rhythm and elements of jazz and gospel. She will emigrate to the United States in 1967 and in 1969 will join the Dance Theater of Harlem as a pianist. She will later become the artistic director of the troupe. Some her compositions for the Dance Theater of Harlem will include “Tones,” “Beloved,” and “Dougla.” She will debut as a conductor in 1971 and starting in 1980 when she leaves the Dance Theater of Harlem, will serve as guest conductor and composer with orchestras in the United States and Europe. In 1993, she will become an advisor to the New York Philharmonic conductor, Kurt Masur on contemporary music.

1959 – Soprano saxophonist Sidney Joseph Bechet joins the ancestors in Paris, France on his sixty second birthday after succumbing to cancer.

1961 – A bus, with the first group of Freedom Riders, is bombed and burned by segregationists outside Anniston, Alabama. The group is attacked in Anniston and Birmingham.

1963 – Twenty-year-old Arthur Ashe becomes the first African American to make the U.S. Davis Cup tennis team.

1966 – Georgia Douglas Johnson joins the ancestors in Washington, DC at the age of 88. She was a poet and playwright. While she never lived in Harlem, she is associated with the Harlem Renaissance because her home was a regular oasis for many of the writers of that literary movement. Her home hosted writer workshops and discussion groups while also being a place of lodging for those writers when they visited Washington, DC. Her own poetry and plays were very popular with African American audiences during the 1920s.

1969 – John B. McLendon becomes the first African American coach in the ABA when he signs a two-year contract with the Denver Nuggets.

1970 – Two students are killed by police officers in a major racial disturbance at Jackson State University in Jackson, Mississippi.

1986 – Reggie Jackson hits his 537th home run passing Mickey Mantle into 6th place of all time home run hitters.

1989 – Kirby Puckett becomes the first professional baseball player since 1948 to hit 6 consecutive doubles.

1995 – Myrlie Evers-Williams (widow of Medgar Evers) is sworn in to head the NAACP, pledging to lead the civil rights group away from its recent troubles and restore it as a political and social force.

15  May 1791 – 1992

1791 – Civil Rights granted to free mulattoes in French colonies.

1795 – John Morront, the first African American missionary to work with Indians, is ordained as a Methodist minister in London, England.

1802 – Jean Ignace joins the ancestors in Baimbridge, Guadeloupe. He dies in the revolt against the Napoleonic troops sent to the Caribbean island to reimpose slavery.

1891 – The British Central African Protectorate (now Malawi) is established.

1918 – In a World War I incident that will later be known as “The Battle of Henry Johnson,” the African American attacks advancing Germans, frees sentry Needham Roberts, and forces the retreat of the enemy troops. Johnson and Roberts will be awarded the Croix de Guerre, France’s highest military award. They are the first Americans ever to win the award.

1923 – “The Chip Woman’s Fortune” by Willis Richardson opens at the Frazee Theatre on Broadway. The play, staged by the Ethiopian Art Theatre of Chicago, is the first dramatic work by an African American playwright to be presented on Broadway.

1934 – Alvin Francis Poussaint is born in the village of East Harlem in New York City. After being educated at Columbia College, Cornell University Medical School, and the University of California’s Neuropsychiatric Institute, he will become a psychiatrist and educator specializing in African American psychological and social issues. He will begin his career teaching at Tufts Medical School and Harvard Medical School. He will then join Operation Push. He will be a consultant for the television series, “The Cosby Show” and “A Different World, hired to ensure that the story lines present positive images of African Americans. He will later become Associate Dean and professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School (1993).

1938 – Diane Nash is born in Chicago, Illinois. She will become an civil rights activist and one of the founders of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in 1960. She will be part of the first group of civil rights activists who will refuse to pay bail for protesting under the “Jail, No Bail” strategy employed in the South. She will later marry fellow civil rights activist James Bevel and take his last name as her middle name. She and her husband will receive the Rosa Parks award from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1965.

1942 – The 93rd Infantry is activated at Fort Huachuca, Arizona. It is the first African American division formed during World War II and is assigned to combat duty in the South Pacific.

1946 – Camilla Williams appears in the title role of Madama Butterfly with the New York City Opera. She is the first African American female concert singer to sign a contract with a major American opera company.

1953 – Former Heavyweight Champion, Jersey Joe Walcott, is knocked out by Rocky Marciano at Chicago Stadium at two minutes, 25 seconds of the first round.

1970 – Two African American students (Phillip Lafayette Gibbs and James Earl Green) at Jackson State University in Mississippi are killed when police open fire during student protests.

1983 – James VanDerZee joins the ancestors in Washington, DC at the age of 96. He had been a prominent photographer who recorded and contributed to the Harlem Renaissance. Over his long career, which extended into his 90s, he captured the images of many famous African Americans.

1992 – Mary M. Monteith (later Simpkins) joins the ancestors in Columbia, South Carolina. She was a civil right activist who had been a state secretary of the NAACP and instrumental in the fight to desegregate South Carolina public schools.