*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.
learn more*On this date in 1960, the Nashville sit-ins occurred. This was part of a nonviolent direct action campaign to end racial segregation at lunch counters in downtown Nashville, Tennessee.
learn more*National Pi Day is marked on this date in 1988. This is an annual celebration of the mathematical constant π (pi). In 2009, the United States House of Representatives supported the designation of Pi Day.
learn more*On this date in 1960, police in Sharpeville, near Johannesburg, fired on Black South Africans protesting racially biased pass laws.
The protesters suffered 72 deaths and more than 200 injuries in two days of violence. The incident is known as the “Sharpsville Massacre.”
learn more*On this date in 1960, a ‘Sit In’ occurred in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Nine Black Southern University students were arrested for “disturbing the peace.” This was after sitting at the “white only” segregated lunch counters in downtown Baton Rouge. The locations were a Kress Department store and the local Greyhound bus station. Despite the peaceful […]
learn more*On this date in 1960, the South African Nationalist Government banned the African National Congress (ANC).
The ANC continued to operate underground in South Africa. Outside the country the ANC started to establish itself as the official voice of South Africa’s vote-less people. By the 1970s recognition of the ANC’s legitimacy was growing, not only amongst the multiplicity of non-governmental anti-apartheid organizations, but also among foreign governments. By 1980, the ANC had offices and representatives in 32 countries.
learn moreOn this date in 1960, President Dwight Eisenhower signed the Civil Rights Act of 1960.
This was the first civil rights bill to be approved by Congress since Reconstruction. Though Eisenhower is not routinely linked to the civil rights issue, his contribution, including the 1957 Act, was important as it pushed the whole civil rights issue into the White House. At the time, politicians from the South were angry over what they saw as federal interference in state affairs. This bill became an act where as both parties were fighting for the “Black Vote.”
learn more*On this date in 1960, Senegal and French Sudan merged to form the Mali Federation, which became fully independent. Senegal was first colonized during the 15th century by major European powers; French, Dutch, Portuguese, and British. It is also the location of Goree Island, one of the first transport locations of the middle passage of slavery to the Americas. […]
learn more*On this date in 1960, Madagascar became an independent country from France, and Philibert Tsiranana became its first president. Seventy-six years after the Berlin Conference, the high point of white European competition for African territory was a process commonly known as the Scramble for Africa. The Malagasy Republic, proclaimed on October 14, 1958, became an autonomous state […]
learn more*On this date in 1960, the Democratic Republic of the Congo gained independence from Belgium. Patrice Lumumba, leader of the MNC-L, became the first Prime Minister. In the fallout from the Léopoldville riots, the report of a Belgian parliamentary working group on the future of the Congo was published, and a strong demand for “internal autonomy” was noted. […]
learn more*On this date in 1960, The Republic of Dahomey (Benin) became independent of France. In the words of the historian Martin Meredith, the young country “was encumbered with every imaginable difficulty: a small strip of territory jutting inland from the coast, it was crowded, insolvent and beset by tribal divisions, huge debts, unemployment, frequent strikes and an […]
learn more*On this date in 1960, Burkina Faso gained independence from France. Starting in the early 1890s, during the white-European Berlin Conference, many white military officers attempted to claim parts of what is today Burkina Faso. These colonialists and their armies fought the local peoples; sometimes, they forged alliances with them and made treaties. The colonialist officers […]
learn more*On this date in 1960, Ivory Coast achieved full independence from France, and Félix Houphouët-Boigny became the first president after the independence. Leading to the transfer of power, the Ivory Coast became a member state within the French Community on December 4, 1958. Students in the 1960s and 1970s began to organize into student activist groups, some of which opposed the Houphouet-Boigny regime. In […]
learn more*The Central African Republic gained independence from France on this date in 1960. They are a landlocked country in Central Africa. Its bordered by Chad to the north, Sudan to the northeast, South Sudan to the southeast, DR Congo to the south, the Republic of the Congo to the southwest, and Cameroon to the west. Approximately 10,000 years ago, desertification forced hunter-gatherer societies south into the Sahel […]
learn more*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 […]
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