People, Locations, Episodes

Nixon v. Herndon is Legally Argued

*On this date in 1927, Nixon v. Herndon, 273 U.S. 536, was argued.  A United States Supreme Court decision struck down a 1923 Texas law forbidding Blacks from voting in the Texas Democratic Party primary.   In 1902 the Texas legislature passed a requirement for a poll tax, which resulted in the suppressed voting by Black and Mexican Americans. As voter participation by […]

Carl Stokes, Politician born

Carl Stokes was born on this date in 1927. He was an African American lawyer and politician.

David Dinkins, Lawyer, and Politician born

*On this date, in 1927, David Dinkins was born.  He was a Black politician, lawyer, and author.  who, from 1990 to 1993, served as the 106th Mayor of New York City. He was the first African American to hold that office.   David Norman Dinkins was born in Trenton, New Jersey, the son of Sarah “Sally” Lucy and William Harvey Dinkins Jr.  His mother was a […]

William Thompson, Soldier born

*William Thompson was born on this date in 1927.  He was a decorated Black soldier in the United States Army.   Born in Brooklyn, New York, to an unmarried mother, little is known of William Henry Thompson’s early life, but he grew up in an impoverished tenement house neighborhood. He dropped out of school young and spent his teen years wandering the […]

C. DeLores Tucker, Activist born

*C. DeLores Tucker was born on this date in 1927. She was an African American politician and civil rights activist. Born in Philadelphia to a minister and a “Christian feminist mother, Cynthia DeLores Nottage was the tenth of eleven children.

Hazel Johnson-Brown, Nurse, and Officer born

*Hazel Johnson Brown was born on this date in 1927. She was an African American nurse and the first black woman General in the United States Army.

Mangosuthu Gatsha Buthelezi, Politician born.

*Mangosuthu Gatsha Buthelezi was born on this date in 1928. He was a Black South African politician and Zulu prince. Prince Mangosuthu Gatsha Buthelezi was born at Ceza Swedish Missionary Hospital in Mahlabathini in southeastern Natal, South Africa. His mother was Princess Magogo kaDinuzulu, the daughter of former Zulu King Dinuzulu and sister of the incumbent King Solomon […]

Robert G. Clark Jr., Politician born

*Robert Clark was born on this date in 1928. He was a retired Black politician and American Civil Rights activist.  Robert G. Clark, Jr., was born in Mississippi. He received his undergraduate degree from Jackson State University and a master’s in administration and educational services from Michigan State University. Clark was elected to the Mississippi […]

Roscoe Robinson, Army Commander, and Engineer born

*Roscoe Robinson, Jr. was born on this date in 1928. He was a pioneering African American Army commander, engineer and administrator.

Jocelyn Anita Barrow, Educator, and Politician born.

*Dame Jocelyn Anita Barrow DBE was born on this date in 1929. She was a Black British educator, community activist, and politician. Jocelyn Barrow was the daughter of Barbadian father Charles Newton Barrow and Olive Irene (nee Pierre). She was born in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, where she was active politically as a member of […]

John Conyers, Michigan Congressman born

On this date in 1929, John Conyers, Jr., was born. He was an African American politician and lawyer.

Cornelius Charlton, Soldier born

*Cornelius Charlton was born on this date in 1929. He was a soldier in the United States Army during the Korean War. Cornelius H. Charlton was born in East Gulf, West Virginia. He was the eighth of 17 children born to Van Charlton, a coal miner, and Clara (née Thompson) Charlton, a housewife. In 1940, […]

Ernest Morial, Lawyer, Mayor, Judge born

On this date in 1929, Ernest Morial, an African American politician, was born.

He was born the youngest of six children in Louisiana and nicknamed Dutch. The Morial family were devout Catholics and Ernest began his education at St. Louis Catholic School. He later attended Xavier Preparatory School. Morial graduated from Xavier University, a historically Black Catholic college, in 1951. At Xavier, the only historically Black Catholic College in the country at the time, he became president of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc., the first Black Greek Fraternity.

Emery Barnes, Politician born

*Emery Barnes was born on this date in 1929. He was a Black Canadian football player and politician.

Born in New Orleans Louisiana and raised in Oregon, Barnes was an alternate hi-jumper for the 1952 US Olympic Track and Field team. He played football at the University of Oregon and graduated he received his B.S. degree in 1954. Later that year he was drafted by the NFL’s Green Bay Packers, but had much more success in the Canadian Football League with the B.C. Lions.

Charles Rangel, Politician born

Charles Rangel, an African American politician, was born on this date in 1930.

He was born in New Harlem, NY, and raised by his mother and grandmother after his parents separated. He dropped out of high school to serve in the U.S. Army from 1948-52. During his tour, he fought in Korea and was awarded the Purple Heart and Bronze Star. Rangel is a graduate of New York University and St. John’s University School of Law.