People, Locations, Episodes

Martin Luther King Jr. Gives His “Give Us The Ballot” Speech

*On May 17, 1957, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his “Give Us the Ballot” speech.  Dr. King addresses 25,000 people in Washington D.C. at the Lincoln Memorial for the Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom.  He suggested that all politicians’ “betrayal” of disenfranchised Americans offered the ultimate argument for why the struggle for voting rights is essential to the […]

The Prayer Pilgrimage For Freedom Demonstration, a story

*On this date in 1957, The Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom demonstration occurred. It took place in Washington, D.C., an early event in the American Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. The demonstration marked the third anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education (1954), a landmark Supreme Court ruling that segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. […]

The Little Rock Nine, a story

*The Little Rock Nine is celebrated on this date in 1957. The Little Rock Nine were nine African American students who were first denied but eventually enrolled to integrate Arkansas Little Rock Central High School. The U.S. Supreme Court Brown v. Board of Education decision occurred on May 17, 1954. Tied to the Fourteenth Amendment, the decision declared […]

Central High School (Little Rock) Is Integrated

*On this date in 1957, President Dwight D. Eisenhower sends 1,000 U. S. government paratroopers to Little Rock, Ark., to desegregate schools.

The troops escorted nine Black school young people to Central High School in the first federally supported effort to integrate America’s public schools.

The National Hockey League Integrates

On this date in 1958, Willie O’Ree became the first Black man to play in the National Hockey League (NHL).

O’Ree played for the Boston Bruins during the 1957-58 seasons and retired from professional hockey in 1980. Honoring his pioneering spirit the NHL created the Willie O’Ree All-Star Game that is held every year at the Junior World Championships.

The Battle of Hayes Pond Occurs

*The Battle of Hayes Pond occurred on this date in 1958. Also called the Maxton Riot, it was an armed confrontation between members of the Ku Klux Klan and the Lumbee Native Americans at a Klan rally near Maxton, North Carolina. James W. “Catfish” Cole organized the Klan rally. Sanford Locklear, Simeon Oxendine, and Neill […]

Wayne Williams, Serial Killer born

*Wayne Williams was born on this date in 1958. He is a Black serial killer serving life imprisonment for the 1981 killing of two men in Atlanta, Georgia.   Wayne Bertram Williams was born and raised in the Dixie Hills neighborhood of southwest Atlanta, Georgia, the son of Homer and Faye Williams. Both of his […]

Baseball’s Detroit Tigers Integrate

On this date in 1958, Ozzie Virgil integrated the Detroit Tigers baseball team.

Virgil, acquired from the San Francisco Giants in January of that year, became the first Black player to appear in a Detroit Tiger game. He went 1-for-5 as a batter in the 11-2 win over Washington. “I don’t believe the Tigers called me up because I was black,” Virgil said, “They called me up because I was a player. I was treated very well in Detroit. It was pleasant. I went through the minor leagues with guys like Jim Bunning and Hank Aguirre. They accepted me.”

Martin Luther King Jr. is Stabbed in New York

*On this date in 1958, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., was nearly fatally stabbed to death.

While signing copies of his first book Stride Toward Freedom, a woman named Izola Ware Curry stabbed King with a letter opener in Blumsteins Department store in New York City.

Guinea Gains its Independence From France

*On this date in 1958, Guinea gained its independence from France.  Self-governing occurred 74 years after the 1884 invasion from the Berlin Conference, the high point of white-European competition for territory in Africa, a process commonly known as the Scramble for Africa.  That year, the French Fourth Republic collapsed due to political instability and its failures in dealing with […]

The ‘Kissing Case’ in North Carolina, a story

*The Kissing Case occurred on this date in 1958. This was the arrest, conviction, and lengthy sentencing of two preteen Black boys in Monroe, North Carolina. In late October 1958, Sissy Marcus, a 7- or 8-year-old white girl, told her mother she had kissed 9-year-old James “Hanover” Thompson and 7-year-old David “Fuzzy” Simpson on their […]

The First All African People’s Conference Convenes

*On this date in 1958, the first All African Peoples’ Conference (AAPC) was held. This gathering was partly a result and a different perspective to the modern African states represented by the Conference of Heads of Independent African States. The All Africa Peoples Conference was conceived to include social groups, ethnic communities, anti-colonial political parties, […]

“A Raisin in the Sun” Debuts on Broadway

*On this date in 1959 “A Raisin in the Sun,” became the first Broadway play written by a Black woman.

The show opened at the Barrymore Theater with Sidney Poitier and Claudia McNeil in the starring roles. Lorraine Hansberry’s drama ran for 530 performances and received the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award.

Cameroon Gaines Independence From France

*Cameroon gained its independence from France on this date in 1960. Nigeria was scheduled for independence later that same year, which raised the question of what to do with the British territory. After some discussion (which had been going on since 1959), a vote was agreed to and held on February 11, 1961. The Muslim-majority […]

North Carolina A&T Students Stage Sit-In Protest

*On this date in 1960, the sit-in movement rose to new heights in the Civil rights era.

The North Carolina A&T Four turned up participation in the Black equal rights movement that day. The late David Richmond, Franklin McCain, Jibreel Khazan (formerly Ezell Blair) and Joseph McNeil were all freshman at NCA&T at the time. They entered a segregated North Carolina F.W. Woolworth’s lunch counter and demanded to be served. This protest ignited sit-in campaigns throughout the South.