*The Afro Guyanese community is affirmed on May 26, 1621. Also known as Black Guyanese, they are descendants of the enslaved African people brought to Guyana from West Africa to work on sugar plantations during the Atlantic slave trade era. The Dutch West India Company was instrumental in the importation of African slaves, who rapidly […]
learn more*Thomas Coleman was born on this date in 1910. He was a white-American highway engineer, sheriff deputy, and segregationist. On August 20, 1965, voting rights activists were released from jail in Fort Deposit, a small town in Lowndes County, Alabama. After release, the group waited near the courthouse jail while one of their members called […]
learn more*Forbes Burnham was born on this date in 1923. He was an Afro Guyanese politician and leader. Linden Forbes Sampson Burnham was born in Kitty, a suburb of Georgetown, Demerara County, British Guiana, as one of four (Olga, Freddie, Jessica, and Flora)[3] children. His parents were James Ethelbert Burnham, a schoolmaster,[2] and Rachel Abigail Sampson, and he grew up in […]
learn more*Ruby Sales was born on this date in 1948. She is a Black social justice activist, scholar, and public theologian. Born Ruby Nell in Jemison, Alabama, she attended locally segregated Carver High School and was educated in the community during the American Civil Rights Movement. After graduating high school, Sales attended Tuskegee Institute, where she […]
learn more*Jerry Rawlings was born on this date in 1947. He was a Black Ghanaian military officer, aviator, and politician. Jerry John Rawlings was born in Accra, Ghana, to Victoria Agbotui, an Anlo Ewe from Dzelukope, Keta, and James Ramsey John, a British chemist from Scotland. His father never lived with him and his mother and […]
learn more*Lottie Gee was born on this date in 1886. She was a Black dancer and singer who performed in shows and musicals during the Harlem Renaissance. Charlotte O. ‘Lottie’ Gee was born in Millboro, Virginia. Initially a dancer in Aida Overton Walker’s shows, she appeared in The Red Moon in 1904 and later toured the […]
learn more*Vivian ‘Buster’ Marshall was born on this date in 1911. She was a Black administrator and civil rights activist. Vivian Burey was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Vivian Burey grew up in a middle-class family; her parents, Christopher and Maud Burey, worked in catering in the city. She attended local schools. She met Thurgood Marshall at […]
learn more*The Black Mafia is affirmed on December 23, 1968. It was a Black Philadelphia-based organized crime syndicate. Also known as the Philadelphia Black Mafia (PBM), Black Muslim Mafia, and Muslim Mob, it began as a small criminal group known for holding up neighborhood crap games and dealing in illegal drugs. From its height of operation […]
learn more*Samuel Christian was born on this date in 1939. He was a Black mobster and the founder of the Philadelphia Black Mafia. Samuel Christian was a former member of the Black Panther Party from Philadelphia, PA. Christian was added to the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list as a suspect in the 1972 murder of Tyrone […]
learn more*Ford Dabney was born on March 15, 1883. He was a Black ragtime pianist, composer, songwriter, and band director. Ford Thompson Dabney was from Washington, D.C., and was the son of John Wendell Dabney. He attended the business education division of M Street High School and Dunbar High School) grades nine through eleven. Dabney then […]
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