*Theresa Venable was born on this date in 1948. She is a Black educator, historian, and retired librarian. Theresa Evans Venable, from Knoxville, TN, earned a B.S. in Elementary Education and an M.S. in Information Sciences from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN. She was an elementary and middle school reading and language arts teacher […]
learn more*On this date in 1948, the African National Congress Women’s League (ANCWL) was formed. The ANCWL is an auxiliary women’s political organization of the African National Congress (ANC) of South Africa. This organization has its precedent in the Bantu Women’s League, and it oscillated from being the Women’s Section to the Women’s League from its founding, through […]
learn more*Samuel Jackson was born on this date in 1948. He is a Black actor and film producer. Samuel Leroy Jackson was born in Washington, D.C., the son of Elizabeth Harriett Montgomery and Roy Henry Jackson. He grew up as an only child in Chattanooga, Tennessee. His father lived away from the family in Kansas City, Missouri, and later died from […]
learn more*On this date in 1949, Algeania Freeman was born. She is a Black educator, administrator, author, consultant, and community activist. Algeania Marie Warren Freeman, a native of Benson, North Carolina, was born in Betsy Johnson Memorial Hospital in Dunn, North Carolina, to Ms. Ada Mae Warren and Mr. Al Woodard, Jr. Until seven years old, […]
learn more*Reggie Forte was born on this date in 1949. He was an African American civil rights activist and one of the founding members of the Black Panther Party. Forte was born in Birmingham, Alabama, to Leavy II and Helen (Demand) Forte; he had two brothers, Sherwin and Leavy III. At age ten, his family relocated to Emeryville, California, in 1959 and […]
learn more*The Isitwalandwe/Seaparankoe Medal is celebrated on this date in 1949. It is the highest award given by the African National Congress (ANC) “to those who have made an outstanding contribution and sacrifice to the liberation struggle,” that is, those who resisted the apartheid regime in South Africa (1949−1991) in various ways. Isitwalandwe means “the one who wears the plumes […]
learn more*The Convention People’s Party (C.P.P.) was formed on this date in 1949. The C.P.P. is a socialist political party in Ghana based on the ideas of Ghana’s first President, Kwame Nkrumah. The Convention People’s Party is descended from a line of political movements formed in the early half of the 20th century to spearhead the anti-colonial […]
learn moreWhoopi Goldberg was born on this date in 1949. She is an African American actor, comedian, and television host.
learn more*Thomas Sankara was born on this date in 1949. He was a Black African military officer, Marxist revolutionary, and Pan-Africanist. Thomas Isidore Noël Sankara was born in Yako, French Upper Volta, Burkina Faso, the third of ten children to Joseph and Marguerite Sankara. His father, a gendarme, was Mossi–Fulani, while his mother, Marguerite Kinda, was of […]
learn more*Addai-Sebo’s birth is celebrated on this date in 1950. He is a Ghanaian analyst, journalist, and pan-African activist. Born and raised in Ghana, Akyaaba Addai-Sebo was part of Kwame Nkrumah’s Young Pioneers Movement. His education took him to the United States in the 1970s, where he was active when “Negro History Week” became Black History […]
learn more*Bobby Hutton was born on this date in 1950. He was also known as “Lil’ Bobby,” a Black activist. Robert James Hutton was one of three children, born in Jefferson County, Arkansas, to John D. Hutton and Dolly Mae Mitchner-Hutton. When he was three years old, his family moved to Oakland, California, during the second […]
learn more*Gloria Wekker was born on this date in 1950. She is an Afro Surinamese Dutch gender activist, emeritus professor, and writer. Gloria Daisy Wekker was born in Paramaribo, Suriname. Her family migrated to the Netherlands when she was a one-year-old infant and lived in a neighborhood in Amsterdam that had formerly been predominantly Jewish before WWI. […]
learn more*The publication of DRUM is celebrated on this date in 1951. This is a South African (now) online family magazine. Drum is noted chiefly for its reportage of township life under apartheid in the early 1950s and 1960s. In 2005, it was described as “the first black lifestyle magazine in Africa.” In July 2020, the magazine became […]
learn more*On this date (International Women’s Day) in 1951, we celebrate Sojourners for Truth and Justice. Sojourners for Truth and Justice was a radical protest organization formed by African American women from 1951 to 1952. It was led by activists such as Louise Thompson Patterson, Shirley Graham Du Bois, and Charlotta Bass. That year, a group of 14 African […]
learn moreOn this date in 1951, a 16-year-old African American girl led students from her overcrowded, segregated school in civil rights protest.
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