*On this date in 1960, the Republic of the Congo received full independence from France. They had been colonized as a result of the 1884 Berlin Conference. It marked the high point of white European competition for African territory, commonly known as the Scramble for Africa. Fulbert Youlou ruled as the country’s first president until labor […]
learn more*On this date in 1960, Gabon gained its independence from France. Officially, the Gabonese Republic they are a country on the west coast of Central Africa. Initially settled by Pygmy peoples, they were absorbed into the Bantu tribes as the Bantu tribes migrated. By the 18th century, a Myeni-speaking kingdom known as the Kingdom of […]
learn more*On this date in 1960, Mali, Africa, gained independence from France. Following Senegal’s withdrawal from the federation in August 1960, the former Sudanese Republic became the Republic of Mali, with Modibo Keïta as president. Keïta (named after Sundiata Keita), whose Sudanese Union-African Democratic Rally (US/RDA) party had dominated pre-independence politics (as a member of the African Democratic Rally), […]
learn more*On this date in 1960, Gomillion v. Lightfoot, 364 U.S. 339 (1960), was argued at the United States Supreme Court. This decision found an electoral district with boundaries created to disenfranchise blacks violated the Fifteenth Amendment. In Tuskegee, Alabama, after the Civil Rights Act of 1957, activists had been slowly making progress in registering black voters, whose numbers on the rolls […]
learn more*On this date in 1960, Mauritania gained independence from France. Mauritania is a country in Northwest Africa. It is the twenty-eighth largest country or dependency in the world, the eleventh largest sovereign state in Africa, and the largest country lying entirely below an altitude of 1,000 meters (3,300 ft). In the late 19th century, due […]
learn more*On this date in 1961, Sierra Leone gained independence from Great Britain. In the 1800s, the colonial British settlement of Sierra Leone was unique in that the population was composed of displaced Africans who were brought to the colony after the British abolition of the slave trade in 1807. Upon arrival in Sierra Leone, each […]
learn more*Barack Obama was born on this date in 1961. He is an African American lawyer, politician and activist. He is also the first Black person elected as President of the United States of America.
learn more*On this date in 1961, Eritrea gained independence from Ethiopia. Eritrea is in East Africa. It is bordered to the northeast and east by the Red Sea, Sudan to the west, Ethiopia to the south, and Djibouti to the southeast. Eritrea lies between latitudes 12° and 18°N and longitudes 36° and 44°E. A branch of the […]
learn more*On this date in 1961, Tanzania gained independence from Britain. In 1954, Julius Nyerere, a schoolteacher who was then one of only two Tanganyikans educated to the university level, organized a political party—the Tanganyika African National Union (TANU). Through that party, Tanganyika became independent, retaining the British monarch as Queen of Tanganyika, and Nyerere became Prime Minister under a new constitution. The […]
learn more*This date in 1962 celebrates Burundi’s independence from Belgium. Burundi is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley where the African Great Lakes region and East Africa converge. It borders Rwanda to the north, Tanzania to the east and southeast, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west; Lake Tanganyika lies along its southwestern border. The capital cities are Gitega and Bujumbura. Burundi began its drive for independence on January 20, […]
learn more*Rwanda gained independence from Belgium on this date in 1962. Separated from Burundi, the episode is commemorated as Independence Day, a national holiday. This came after decades of colonial strife following the Berlin Conference of 1884. Modern human settlement in what is now Rwanda dates back to at least the last glacial period, either the […]
learn more*Ebrahim Rasool was born on July 15, 1962. He is a Coloured South African politician and diplomat. Ebrahim Rasool was born in District Six, Cape Town, to a Muslim family of mixed English-Javanese-Dutch-Indian heritage. Since he was classified as Coloured by the apartheid system at nine years old, he and his family were forcefully evicted […]
learn more*On this date in 1962, Jamaica celebrates its independence from British colonial rule. The Caribbean island was settled first by hunter-gatherers from the Yucatan and then by two waves of Arawak people from South America. Christopher Columbus arrived in Jamaica in 1494 and took it for the Crown of Castile. At this time, over two […]
learn more*Trinidad and Tobago gained its independence from the United Kingdom on this date in 1962. Trinidad, officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, is the southernmost island country in the Caribbean. It consists of the main islands of Trinidad and Tobago and numerous much smaller islands. It shares maritime boundaries with Barbados to the northeast, Grenada to the northwest, Guyana to the southeast, and Venezuela […]
learn more*On this date in 1962. Meredith v. Fair was ruled. This was a desegregation suit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi on May 31, 1961. This involved the desegregation of the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss). Plaintiff, transfer student, and activist James Meredith claimed he had been denied admission to Ole […]
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