People, Locations, Episodes

Geoffrey Canada, Educator born

*Geoffrey Canada was born on this date in 1952. He is a Black social activist and educator.   Born in New York City, Canada was raised in the South Bronx. He is the third of four sons of McAlister and Mary Canada. His parents’ marriage ended in 1956, after which his father played little part […]

The Kendall School for the Deaf Opens

*This date in 1952 celebrates the integration of Schools for Black deaf children. Segregation was also prevalent within the American deaf community.

That year Miller vs. Board of Education was filed in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia forcing the integration of Kendall Elementary School for the deaf on located on Gallaudet University campus.

Spingarn High School, Washington D.C. Opens

*Spingarn High School is celebrated on this date in 1952. This was a segregated public high school for Black students in the District of Columbia. The school is named after Joel Elias Spingarn, a white-American Jewish educator and activist. Spingarn High School opened as a new modern high school, the last segregated high school built in Washington, […]

Cornel West, Scholar, and Educator born

Cornel West, an African American scholar and activist, was born on this date in 1953.

Born in Tulsa, OK, he is one of America’s most prominent Black intellectuals. West earned a BA from Harvard University and his MA and PhD degrees from Princeton University. His first book, Prophesy Deliverance! An Afro-American Revolutionary Christianity (1982), sought to fuse Christianity and Marxism. He taught religion and directed the Afro-American Studies Department at Princeton prior to joining the Harvard faculty in 1994. There, West is the Alphonse Fletcher Jr., University Professor.

Harryette Mullen, Writer born

*Harryette Mullen was born on this date in 1953. She is an African American writer and professor.

Brown v. B.O.E. is Decided

Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka was ruled on this date in 1954.

Randall Kennedy, Scholar, Lawyer, and Author born

*Randall Kennedy was born this date in 1954, in Columbia, South Carolina, He is an African American Law professor and author.

Theodore Shaw, Lawyer, and Educator born

*Theodore Shaw was born on this date in 1954.  He is a Black lawyer, activist, and educator.  Theodore Michael Shaw is the son of Theodore and Jean Audrey Churchill Shaw. He was born on Governors Island and raised in Harlem and the Bronx, NY. He received his B.A. from Wesleyan University in 1976 and his […]

Lezli Baskerville, Lawyer, and Education Advocate born.

*Lezli Baskerville was born on this date in 1956. She is a Black lawyer, judge, and education advocate. Baskerville was born in Montclair, New Jersey, to Marjorie Baskerville and Charles W. Baskerville. Her mother was a teacher and social worker, and her father was a marketing executive. She has an identical twin, Dr. Renee E. […]

Regina Harris Baiocchi, Music Educator and Composer born

*Regina Harris Baiocchi was born on July 16, 1956. She is a Black music educator, composer, and writer of short stories and poetry. Regina A. Harris was the third of eight children born in Chicago to Elgie Harris Jr. and Lanzie Mozelle (Belmont) Harris. She was exposed to the arts early, took guitar lessons at […]

Michaele Pride, Architect, and Educator born

Michaele Pride was born on this date in 1956. She is an African American architect and educator.

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 […]

Julie Felix, Ballerina, and Teacher born

*Julie Felix’s birth is celebrated on this date in 1958. She is a retired Black British ballerina and teacher. Having grown up in Ealing, west London, in the 60s, Felix knew about racial distinction. She did not often notice any faces that weren’t white in the neighborhood or at college, she says. After her mother […]

Michael Eric Dyson, Writer, Minister, and Scholar born

Michael Eric Dyson was born on this date in 1958. He is an African American educator and writer.

The University of Georgia Reinstates Hunter, and Holmes

On this date in 1961, racial rioting erupted on the campus of the University of Georgia.

Black students Charlayne Hunter and Hamilton Holmes were suspended for their involvement, but eventually reinstated by a federal court order. Hunter-Gault later became an Emmy award-winning journalist with the McNeil/Lehrer NewsHour.