People, Locations, Episodes

The Howard Beach Incident Occurs

The Howard Beach incident, the murder of a Black man by a small White mob in New York, occurred on this date in 1986.

Lita McClinton, Black Socialite is Murdered

On this date in 1987, an African American socialite was murdered. Phillip Anthony Harwood shot the victim, Lita McClinton Sullivan. He was charged with the Atlanta murder in April 1988. Yet it has been suspected that he was hired by McClinton Sullivan’s husband.

The First Black Quarterback Earns Most Valuable Player Award In The Super Bowl

*On this date in 1988, the first Black Super Bowl MVP was named.

Washington Redskins quarterback Doug Williams, the first African American quarterback to play in a Super Bowl game, was the MVP in Super Bowl XXII.

The final score from Jack Murphy stadium in San Diego, CA was Washington 42, Denver 10.

The First Black Wins a Winter Olympic Medal

*On this date in 1988, world-class figure skater Debi Thomas made an Olympic first. She won a bronze medal in the Winter Olympic Games in Calgary Alberta, Canada.

She became the first African American, in fact the first person of African ancestry to win any medal in the Winter Games.

The First Black Texas Ranger in America is Hired

On this date in 1988, Lee Roy Young became the first African- merican Texas Ranger in the 20th Century.

The history of the Texas Rangers began in 1820 when the Mexican Government gave permission for 300 families to enter the territory of Texas. On August 10, 1823, permission was granted to employ ten men from a group of volunteers to protect the new Texas frontier.

Lee Roy Young was the first Black in the police force’s 165-year history.

The St. Jean Bosco Church Massacre Occurs.

*The St. Jean Bosco Church massacre took place in Haiti on this date in 1988.   Close to 50 people were killed and around 80 wounded in a three-hour assault in Port-au-Prince, which saw the church burned down.   The structure was the parish of future President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. A liberation theology Roman Catholic priest of the Salesians of Don Bosco ordered and had been packed with […]

A Black Woman Becomes an Official Presidential Candidate

On this date in 1988, the first African American officially qualified to run for president of the United States of America since 1972.

Dr. Lenora Fulani of the New Alliance Party ran in the general election, passing the minimum 70,000 votes in every state and the District of Columbia to run. She received 217,221 of the popular vote that year. Dr Fulani focused on issues concerning unemployment, health care, and homelessness, and officially ran again in 1992. Shirley Chisholm was the first official Black woman candidate in America.

Stompie Moeketsi, Anti-Apartheid Activist is Killed

*Stompie Moeketsi was killed on this date in 1989.  He was a 14-year-old Black United Democratic Front (UDF) activist from Parys in South Africa.    Also known as James Seipei, he and three other boys were kidnapped on December 29, 1988, by members of Winnie Mandela’s bodyguards, known as the Mandela United Football Club. Moeketsi was murdered on 1 January 1989, the only one of the boys to […]

The First African American Reparations Bill is Brought to Congress

On this date in 1989, House Resolution (H.R.) 40 was brought before the 1st Session of the 105th Congress.

John Conyers, Black Democrat from Michigan, presented it in the House of Representatives, the first formal attempt to obtain reparations to compensate African Americans for slavery since Reconstruction. This act was cited as the “Commission to Study Reparation Proposals for African Americans Act.”

Mickey Leland, Congressman is Killed

*On this date in 1989 Congressman George Thomas “Mickey” Leland was killed in Africa. He and members of his congressional staff (including Patrice Johnson of Minneapolis), and State Department officials died when their plane crashed.

Representative Leland, chairman of the House Select Committee on Hunger, died when the small plane in which he was traveling crashed en route to a refugee camp in Fugnido, Ethiopia.

Leland was buried (shown) in his hometown of Houston, TX on August 19, 1989.

Bishop Tutu Defies Apartheid Law

*On this date in 1989, Anglican Bishop Desmond Tutu of Johannesburg, the first Black Bishop of his church; defied apartheid laws by walking alone on a South African beach.

The Supreme Court Favors Reverse Discrimination Decision

On this date in 1989, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of reverse discrimination suits.

The establishment of racial quotas in the name of affirmative action brought charges of so-called reverse discrimination in the late 1970s. Although the U.S. Supreme Court accepted such an argument in Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (1978), it let existing programs stand and approved the use of quotas in 1979 in a case involving voluntary affirmative-action programs in unions and private businesses.

Reparations for American Slavery, H.R.3745, an Article

*Reparation’s for America slavery against African’s in America is this date’s subject on The Registry.

America Elects Its First Black Governor

On this date in 1989, Virginia became the first state in America to elect a Black man as its governor. Lawrence Douglas Wilder, a Richmond native, ran the state from 1990 to 1994. State law limits each governor’s service to one four-year term.

Wilder, a graduate of Virginia Union and Howard University, also was the first Black elected to the Virginia Senate in 1969.

Marion Barry is Arrested

On this date in 1990, the FBI and D.C. police arrested Washington, D.C. Mayor Marion Barry.

He was charged with possession of cocaine at the downtown Vista International Hotel after an undercover investigation.

The mayor was arrested shortly after 8 p.m., in a sting operation; he was smoking crack cocaine in the hotel room. The mayor was with a longtime female friend who agreed to work with federal authorities.

The outcome was one count of misdemeanor cocaine. After he was convicted of the charges, Barry served six months in a federal prison, but was elected to the D.C.