The life of Zumbi in 1655 is celebrated on this date. He was an Afro Brazilian abolitionist and soldier.
learn more*The beginning of the Komenda Wars is affirmed on this date in 1694. These wars lasted until 1700, largely between the Dutch West India Company and the British Royal African Company in the Eguafo Kingdom in the present-day state of Ghana, over trade rights. The Dutch were trying to keep the British out of the region to maintain […]
learn more*The birth of María Remedios. is celebrated on this date in c1768. She was an Afro Argentine abolitionist and soldier. María Remedios del Valle was born in Buenos Aires in the second half of the eighteenth century. The details of her parentage are unknown, but according to her military record, she was a parda or pardo, one of the categories […]
learn more*Black Loyalists are celebrated on this date in 1775. They were African slaves who sided and fought with the British during the American Revolutionary War. They escaped the enslavement of Patriot masters and served on the Loyalist side because the Crown promised freedom. In November 1775, Lord Dunmore issued the controversial Lord Dunmore’s Proclamation. As […]
learn moreOn this date in 1775, the Continental Congress of the United States issued the order to bar Blacks from the army.
learn moreThis date, 1804, is celebrated as the birth date of Hendrick Arnold, a Black military scout, guide, and spy during the Texas Revolution. Hendrick Arnold emigrated from Mississippi or Kentucky to Texas with his parents, Daniel Arnold, a white man, and Rachel, who was black, in the winter of 1826. The family settled in Stephen […]
learn more*Benjamin Franklin Butler was born on this date in 1818. He was a white-American major general, politician, lawyer, and businessman. Born in Deerfield, New Hampshire, and raised in Lowell, Massachusetts, Butler is best known as a political major of the Union Army during the American Civil War and for his leadership role in the impeachment of U.S. President Andrew Johnson. He was a colorful and often controversial figure on the […]
learn more*Aaron Fisher was born on this date in 1895. He was a Black WW I soldier. He served over thirty years in the U.S. Army and received several military awards. Aaron Richard Fisher was born in the Lyles Station community in Gibson County, Indiana. He was the son of Macy Octiva (Barnhill) and Benjamin F. […]
learn more*Ulric Cross was born on this date in 1917. He was a Black British jurist, diplomat, and Royal Air Force (RAF) navigator. Philip Louis Ulric Cross was born in Belmont, Port of Spain, Trinidad, to Reginald Rufus and Maud Iris Cross. He was the second child in a family of nine. At 11, he came […]
learn more*The 366th Infantry Regiment was created on this date in 1917. This was an all-Black unit of the United States Army that served in World War I and II. Officers of this racially segregated Regiment included Lieutenant Cleveland L. Abbott, Captain Joseph L. Lowe, Lieutenant Aaron R. Fisher, and Captain E. White. The 366th Infantry […]
learn more*Johnnie Jones, Sr., was born on this date in 1919. He was a Black soldier, lawyer, and Louisiana state legislator. Johnnie A. Jones was born in West Feliciana Parish near Woodville, Mississippi, in Laurel Hill, Louisiana. One of eight children, he was the son of lease sharecropping farmers Henry E. Jones and Sarah Ann Coats and the […]
learn more*Kenneth Wofford Sr. was born on this date in 1922. He was an African American administrator and former Tuskegee Airman.
learn more*Chukwuemeka Ojukwu was born on this date in 1933. He was a Black Nigerian military officer and politician. Chukwuemeka “Emeka” Odumegwu Ojukwu was born in northern Nigeria. He was the son of Sir Louis Odumegwu Ojukwu, an Igbo businessman in the transport business; he took advantage of the business boom during World War II to […]
learn moreAfrican American Registry acknowledges the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor with 10 short facts that occurred during or after the incident.
learn more*This date in 1942 celebrates the beginning of the Burma Road construction project, which was a three-year WW II military excavation project. Black soldiers who worked to re-open the Burma Road were the single largest group of Blacks in World War II-era China. They were present in many WW II construction projects, including the Red Ball Express […]
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