On this date in 1954, Col. Benjamin O. Davis, Jr. was promoted to Brigadier General, the first African American to wear one star in the USAF.
learn moreCondoleezza Rice, an African American politician, administrator, secretary of state in the George W. Bush administration, and writer was born on this date in 1954.
She was born Birmingham, AL, the only child of Angelena Rice and the Reverend John Wesley Rice, Jr. Her father became a minister at Westminster Presbyterian Church and her mother was a music teacher. Her name is a variation on the Italian musical term “con doloezza” which is a direction to play “with sweetness.” Her father also worked as a high-school guidance counselor.
learn more*Ferron Williams was born on this date in 1955. He is a retired Jamaican police inspector and politician. Ferron Williams was born to parents Advira Elizabeth Anderson-Williams and Robert Williams, members of the Maroon community of Accompong. He attended local schools and joined the police service. After 37 years, Williams resigned from the force at […]
learn moreOn this date in 1955, E. Frederic Morrow became the first African American to serve in an executive position on a United States president’s cabinet in the White House.
A graduate and a recipient of a law degree from Rutgers University, Morrow served as a NAACP field secretary before joining the U.S. Army Field Artillery in 1942. In four years, he was promoted from private to a major. The former CBS public affairs writer served as an administrative aid and advisor to President Dwight D. Eisenhower on his campaign train in 1952.
learn moreOn this date in 1955, Sarah Keys v. Carolina Coach Company was ruled. This was a landmark civil rights case in the United States in which the Interstate Commerce Commission, in response to a bus segregation complaint filed in 1953 by Black Women’s Army Corps (WAC) private Sarah Louise Keys. This broke with its historic loyalty to the Plessy v. Ferguson separate but equal doctrine and interpreted the […]
learn more*On this date in 1956, Morocco gained independence from France. In 1844, after the French conquered Algeria, the Franco-Moroccan War took place, with the bombardment of Tangiers, the Battle of Isly, and the bombardment of Mogador. This was a prelude to the Berlin Conference, the high point of white European competition for African territory, a […]
learn more*On this date in 1956, we recall the enactment of the “Southern Manifesto.” This was a legislative challenge to defeat the Supreme Court ruling in Brown v BOE in 1954.
Case number 102 Cong. Rec. 4515-16 1956 was signed by 19 Senators and 81 Representatives from the South including all of Georgia’s congressional delegation.
*On this date in 1956, the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission was created. This commission was a state agency in Mississippi, active from 1956 to 1973, tasked with fighting integration and controlling American civil rights activism. After James P. Coleman won Mississippi’s gubernatorial election in 1955, he proposed to the Legal Educational Advisory Committee the creation […]
learn moreDeval L. Patrick was born on this date in 1956. He is an African American businessman, lawyer, and politician and the first Black governor of Massachusetts.
learn more*Michele Roberts’s birth, in 1956, is celebrated on this date. She is a Black lawyer and administrator. Michele A. Roberts grew up in a housing project in the South Bronx. She attended the master’s school in Dobbs Ferry, NY. She earned her BA from Wesleyan University in 1977 and her JD from the University of […]
learn more*On this date in 1956, The African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC) began. PAIGC is a political party in Guinea-Bissau. Formed initially as a peaceful campaign for independence from Portugal, the party turned to armed conflict in the 1960s. It was one of the belligerents in the Guinea-Bissau War of Independence. […]
learn more*On this date in 1957, Ghana became the first African nation to achieve freedom from colonial rule.
British Parliament, in January 1957, passed the Ghana Independence Act, and the first week of March that year, the National Assembly of Ghana issued an independence proclamation, then joining the United Nations. The dominant political party of the new nation was the Convention People’s party (CPP), headed by Kwame Nkrumah, who was the country’s first prime minister. On February 24, 1966, Nkrumah, who was on a state visit to China, was overthrown in a military coup.
learn more*Michaëlle Jean was born on this date in 1957. She is a Black Canadian stateswoman and former journalist. Michaëlle Jean was a refugee from Haiti coming to Canada in 1968 and was raised in Thetford Mines, Quebec. After receiving many university degrees, Jean worked as a journalist and broadcaster for Radio-Canada and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), as well as charity work, […]
learn more*On this date in 1957, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Civil Rights Act of 1957 into law. It was the first federal civil rights legislation passed by the United States Congress since the Civil Rights Act of 1875. The Supreme Court’s 1954 ruling in Brown v. Board of Education brought the issue of school desegregation to the […]
learn more*Marc Morial was born on this date in 1958. He is an African American administrator, politician, civic leader and lawyer.
Marc Morial grew up in New Orleans, in the 7th ward. He is the son of Ernest N. Morial, New Orleans’ first African American mayor, and Sybil (Haydel) Morial, teacher. He is the second of five children. Morial graduated from Jesuit High School in 1976 and received a bachelor’s degree in economics at the University of Pennsylvania in 1980. After this he earned a J.D. degree in 1983 from Georgetown University.
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