*On this date in 1940, The American Negro Exposition opened. Also known as the Black World’s Fair and the Diamond Jubilee Exposition, it was a world’s fair held in Chicago from July until September 1940 to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the end of slavery in the United States after the American Civil War in […]
learn more*Friendship Armstrong Academy was dedicated on this date in 1902. This public charter school is in the Truxton Circle neighborhood of Washington, D.C. With the passage of an act of the 55th Congress, approved March 3, 1899, the school first bore the name Manual Training School No. 2, later changed to Armstrong Manual Training School. […]
learn more*Memphis Slim was born on this date in 1915. He was a Black blues pianist, singer, and composer. Memphis Slim was born John Len Chatman in Memphis, Tennessee. For his first recordings, for Okeh Records in 1940, he used the name of his father, Peter Chatman (who sang, played piano and guitar, and operated juke […]
learn more*Barbara Dane was born on this date in 1927. She was a white-American folk, blues, and jazz singer, guitarist, record producer, and activist. Barbara Jean Spillman was born in Detroit, and her parents arrived from Arkansas in the 1920s. She was the eldest child of a pharmacist. In 1936, her father publicly admonished her for […]
learn more*The Miles Davis Quintet is celebrated on this date in 1955. These were two jazz groups formed from 1955 to early 1969, led by Miles Davis. Most references relate to two distinct and relatively stable bands: the First Great Quintet from 1955 to 1959 and the Second Great Quintet from late 1964 to early 1969, Davis being the […]
learn more*Lawrence Rainey was born on this date in 1923. He was a white-American police officer and white supremacist. Lawrence Andrew Rainey Sr. grew up in Neshoba and Kemper County, Mississippi. His parents were John and Bessie Rainey. Rainey had a younger brother who died at a young age. Rainey’s education stopped at the 8th grade. His […]
learn more*Cecil Price was born on this date in 1938. He was a white-American police officer and white supremacist. Cecil Ray Price was born in Flora, Mississippi, and graduated from Flora High School in 1956. After graduation, Price became a deputy sheriff in Neshoba County, Mississippi, and joined the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. On June […]
learn more*On this date in 2002, the African Union (AU) was formed. This African continental union consists of 55 member states located in Africa. The African Union has both political and administrative bodies. The highest decision-making organ is the Assembly of the African Union, comprised of all the heads of state or government of member states […]
learn more*The British Columbia Association for the Advancement of Coloured People is celebrated on this date in 1958. This was the first racially oriented, non-violence/activist organization in British Columbia. At an “overflowing” mass meeting in Vancouver, A. Phillip Randolph, one of the founders of the Brotherhood, set up the city’s division and established a branch of the […]
learn more*Anton Lembede was born on this date in 1914. He was a Black South African lawyer and activist. Anton Muziwakhe Lembede was born on the farm of Frank Fell near Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu Natal, South Africa. He was the eldest of seven children born to Mbazwana Martin and Martha Nora MaLuthuli Lembede. His father was a […]
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