People, Locations, Episodes

Wilbanks K. Smith, Collegiate Football Player born

*Wilbanks K. Smith was born on this date in 1930. He was a white-American college football player from Mangum, Greer County, Oklahoma. In 1951, two brutal hits by Smith in a football game at Oklahoma A&M on Johnny Bright broke the Drake star running back’s jaw. Called the Johnny Bright Incident, the Des Moines Register captured the blows […]

Ernie Banks, Baseball Player born

*Ernie Banks was born on this date in 1931. He was an African American baseball player.

Growing up in Dallas, Banks had to be bribed with nickels and dimes by his father to play catch. Banks, more interested in softball than baseball, was a high school star in both football and basketball, and once ran a 52-second quarter mile. At 17, he signed on to play baseball with a Negro barnstorming team for $15 a game. Cool Papa Bell later signed him for the Kansas City Monarchs.

Willie Mays, Baseball Player born

*Willie Mays was born on this date in 1931. He was a Black Baseball player.

From Westfield, Alabama, both of his parents were athletes. His father played baseball on the all-Black teams of the segregated south, and his mother was a champion sprinter in her school. In his youth, his father also worked in a steel mill, and played on a semi- professional team sponsored by the mill. Young Mays was taught to catch a ball before he could walk, and at age 14, he joined his father on the mill team. His high school had no baseball team, so he played basketball and football.

Barbara Hillary, Explorer, and Environmentalist born

*Barbara Hillary was born on this date in 1931. She was a Black nurse, publisher, adventurer, and environmental justice advocate.   Hillary was born in New York City in the Lincoln Square neighborhood (formerly San Juan Hill). Her mother raised her in Harlem, and her father died while she was a baby. Hillary grew up impoverished; […]

Black History in Women’s Professional Basketball, a story

On this date, we explore African American women and professional basketball. The game of basketball had been created in 1891 and Black men entered the ranks of professional players (the NBA) in the 1950s.

The Pittsburgh Crawfords Baseball Team is Formed

*On this date in 1932, we remember the Pittsburgh Crawfords. They were one of the many Negro League Baseball teams in America.  Known as the Craws, they were based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The team, previously known as the Crawford Colored Giants, was named after the Crawford Bath House, a recreation center in the Crawford neighborhood […]

New York Black Yankees Baseball Team formed

*On this date in 1932, we celebrate the forming of the New York Black Yankees. They were a Negro League Baseball organization.   Originally the New York Harlem Stars, they were co-owned by Tubby Scales. After the change, the owner was financier James “Soldier Boy” Semler and Dancer Bill “Bojangles” Robinson. The Black Yankees originated […]

Meadowlark Lemon, Basketball Player, and Minister born

*Meadowlark Lemon was born on this date in 1932.  He was a Black basketball player, actor, and Christian minister.  Meadow Lemon III was born in Wilmington, North Carolina.  Lemon made his first basketball hoop out of an onion sack and a coat hanger, using an empty Carnation milk can to sink his first 2-point hoop. […]

Sonny Liston, Boxer born

Sonny Liston, an African American boxer, was born on this date in 1932.

He was born in Arkansas, the tenth of eleven children born into an impoverished family.

Ozzie Virgil, Baseball Player, and Coach born

*Ozzie Virgil was born on this date in 1932. He is an Afro Dominican retired professional baseball player and coach.  Osvaldo José Virgil Pichardo was born in Monte Cristi, Dominican Republic. His family emigrated to the United States when he was 13 and settled in The Bronx, where Virgil graduated from DeWitt Clinton High School. […]

Roosevelt Grier, Athlete, and Minister born

*Roosevelt Grier was born on this date in 1932.  He is a Black actor, singer, minister, and former professional football player.   Born in Cuthbert, Georgia, as one of twelve children, Grier was named after Franklin Delano Roosevelt.  He played high school football at Abraham Clark High School in Roselle, New Jersey, graduating in 1951. […]

The First American Transcontinental Airplane Flight by Black Aviators is Completed

*On this date in 1932, the first American transcontinental airplane flight by Black aviators was completed. James Banning and Thomas Allen took off from Los Angeles’ Dycer Airport on September 19, 1932.   They made stops en route to New York. On October 9th, 1932, they circled Manhattan, looking down at what was “the biggest thrill […]

Cal Jones, Iowa Football Legend born

Cal Jones was born on this date in 1933. He was an African American college and professional football player.

John Roseboro, Baseball Player born

On this date in 1933, John Roseboro, an outstanding African American baseball player, was born in Ashland, OH.

Roseboro succeeded Roy Campanella as the Dodgers’ full-time catcher in 1957. For the next ten years he caught some of the greatest pitchers in the national league and was a four-time All-Star. He was the starting catcher in the 1959, 1963, 1965 and 1966 World Series, with the Dodgers winning the championship the first three times.

Edward Dwight Jr., Astronaut and Sculptor born

*Edward Dwight Jr. was born on this date in 1933.  He is a Black sculptor, author, former test pilot, and astronaut. Edward Joseph Dwight Jr. was born in Kansas City, Kansas area, to Georgia Baker Dwight and Edward Joseph Dwight Sr., a Negro League baseball player. At age 4, Dwight built a toy airplane from orange crates in […]