People, Locations, Episodes

Idi Amin Takes Over Uganda

*On this date in 1971, Idi Amin Dada became president and ruler of Uganda. He was the deputy commander of Uganda’s armed forces ousted President Obote to get control of the country.

The one-time heavyweight-boxing champion’s erratic and brutal rule of eight years left the country in disarray. A year after becoming president, he expelled non-Africans, mostly Asians, some 40 to 50 thousand people, from the country. He nationalized foreign companies and killed as many as 300,000 Ugandans who opposed his policies. The Ugandan economy collapsed.

The USS Jesse L. Brown is Commissioned

*On this date in 1973, a naval ship was named after African American Jesse Brown.

First constructed as an escort vessel the USS Jesse L. Brown was built at Westwego, Louisiana. It commissioned for Ensign Jesse L. Brown, the first African American naval aviator killed in combat over Korea.

Then reclassified as a Navy frigate, the USS Jesse L. Brown was leased and then sold to Egypt on June 27 1994, where it was renamed “Dumyat”. Success!

The American Marine Corps Promotes its First Black General

*On this date in 1979, the first African American man was promoted to the rank of brigadier general in the U.S. Marine Corps.

Lt. General Frank E. Peterson, from Topeka, Kansas received the honor in Quantico, Virginia. Peterson spent 38 years in the Corp. He also holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from George Washington University. He retired from the Corp in 1988.

Emily Perez, Soldier born

*Emily Perez was born on this date in 1983. She was an African American soldier, and West Point graduate.

Born in Heidelberg, West Germany Emily Jazmin Tatum Perez was the daughter of African American and Hispanic parents. She graduated from Oxon Hill High School, in Maryland, where she was wing commander of Junior ROTC. While in high school, working with the Peace Baptist Church, Perez helped begin an HIV-AIDS ministry.

After high school graduation, Perez attended the United States Military Academy at West Point. There she excelled in the classroom and in track and field.

The Sierra Leone War Begins

*On this date in 1991, the Sierra Leone Civil War began. This civil war began when the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), with support from the special forces of Charles Taylor’s National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL), intervened in Sierra Leone in an attempt to overthrow the Joseph Momoh government. The resulting civil war lasted 11 […]

Lieutenant Henry O. Flipper is Pardoned

*On this date in 1999 President Bill Clinton posthumously pardoned Second Lieutenant Henry Ossian Flipper.

The Second Liberian Conflict, a story

On this date in 2003, the Liberian conflict continued. In Monrovia, peace keepers confronted gunmen on a rampage of burning, shooting and looting.

The African and Caribbean War Memorial is unveiled

*On this date in 2017, the African and Caribbean War Memorial was unveiled. The United Kingdom’s national memorial to Afro Caribbean service personnel who fought in the First and Second World Wars is in Brixton, London. While the Imperial War Museum holds records for almost 70,000 memorials to the First and Second World Wars in […]