On this day in 1909, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was formally founded. Its origins go back to 1905, when a group of 32 prominent […]
In 1990, after 27 years of imprisonment, Nelson Mandela was released. Mandela had been arrested in 1962 with the help of the CIA. At the time, he was the leader […]
On this date in 1964, the United States House of Representatives passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by a vote of 290-130. The bill was originally introduced in a […]
On this day in 1963, Arthur Ashe became the first African-American selected to play on the United States Davis Cup team. The Davis Cup is the premier men’s international team […]
In 1944 on this day, Harry S. McAlpin was admitted into a White House press conference, becoming the first African-American to receive White House press credentials. At the time he […]
James Hubert Blake, or Eubie Blake, was born in 1887 on this day to John Blake and Emily Johnstone, both former slaves. From a young age, he displayed a proclivity […]
In 1820 on this day, a ship departed from New York harbor carrying freed slaves to Freetown, Sierra Leone. This trip was largely organized by the American Colonization Society (ACS) […]
On this day in 1994 Byron De La Beckwith was convicted of the murder of civil rights activist Medgar Evers over thirty years after death. Evers, born on July 2, […]
On this day in 1913, Rosa Louise McCauley Parks was born. She would become a lightning rod of the Civil Rights movement after December 1st, 1955 when she refused to […]
In 1870, the Fifteenth Amendment (XV) to the United Constitution was passed, saying that the right to vote would not be restricted on “account of race, color, or previous condition […]