*This date marks the birth of Ralph David Abernathy in 1926. He was an African American minister, and civil rights leader.
learn more*James Reeb was born on this date in 1927. He was a white-American minister, pastor, and activist. James Reeb was born to Mae (Fox) and Harry Reeb in Wichita, Kansas. He was raised in Kansas and Casper, Wyoming. He attended Natrona County High School and graduated in 1945, after which he joined the Army even though his commitment to the ministry […]
learn more*Michael E. Haynes was born on this date in 1927. He was a Black minister, politician, and activist from Boston, MA. Taught daily by a praying mother, he surrendered his life to Christ as a teenager. In the following decades, Haynes passionately represented his Savior to the city of Boston as a youth director, teacher, […]
learn more*Dorothy Coates was born on this date in 1928. She was a Black gospel vocalist. Born Dorothy McGriff in Birmingham, Alabama, she was one of seven children of a minister. As a teenager, she sang in local churches and started a family group, the Royal Gospel Singers. Coates joined the Gospel Harmonettes, a well-known Birmingham […]
learn more*Robert Graetz was born on this date in 1928. He was a white-American Lutheran clergyman and activist. Robert S. Graetz, of German descent, was born in Clarksburg, West Virginia, and educated in Columbus, Ohio. He graduated from Capital University in Bexley, Ohio, in 1950 and received a B.D. in 1955 from Evangelical Lutheran Theological Seminary […]
learn more*Oba Efuntola Oseijeman Adelabu Adefunmi, born on this date in 1928, was a Black priest (spiritual leader), historian, and activist. Walter Eugene King was born in Detroit, Michigan. King had been baptized at the age of 12. He left the Baptist faith at age 16, became interested in African culture, and began African studies. At age 20, King traveled to Haiti in 1954 to […]
learn moreThe founding of the Dixie Hummingbirds in 1928 is celebrated on this date. They are an African American Gospel singing group.
learn moreThis date marks the birth of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1929. He was an African American minister and activist.
learn more*Israel Seymour Dresner, a white Jewish-American Reform rabbi and global activist, was born on this date in 1929 on the Lower East Side of New York City. He was raised in Brooklyn, attending an Orthodox yeshiva (day school). At the age of 13, he joined Habonim Dror, a Labor Zionist youth movement, and in his […]
learn moreOn this date in 1930, Barbara Harris, the first woman ordained a bishop in the Anglican Communion, was born.
learn more*Rastafarianism is affirmed on this date in 1930. Also known as Rastafari and the Rastafari movement, it is a religion developed in Jamaica during the 1930s. Scholars of religion classify it as both a new religious movement and a social movement. No central authority controls the movement, and much diversity exists among practitioners, known as […]
learn more*Alfred King was born on this date in 1930. He was a Black Baptist minister and civil rights activist. Alfred Daniel King was born in Atlanta, Georgia. He was the son of Reverend Martin Luther King Sr. and Alberta Williams King. He was the youngest of their three children (the other two being Willie Christine, […]
learn moreOn this date in1930, E. Muhammad established the Nation of Islam (NOI).
Founded in Detroit, the NOI (at the time) started with 250,000 thousand Blacks. Earlier that year (on July 4) Master W. Fard Muhammad appeared in that city. He preached that God is one, and it was now time for Blacks to return to the religion of their ancestors, Islam.
learn moreOn this date we celebrate the beginning of Clarence Fountain and The Blind Boys of Alabama in 1931. They are a gospel singing group who’ve been singing God’s music for over 60 years.
learn more*Della Reese was born this date in 1931. She is an African American actress, singer, television star and ordained minister.
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