*The Sugarland 95 was affirmed on this date in 2018. This is a name given to 95 people believed to be Black convicts forced to work the sugarcane fields during the Jim Crow era. Archaeologists in the Houston suburb of Sugar Land are exhuming and testing their remains. The gravesites were uncovered in April during the construction […]
learn more*On this date in 2018, Ethiopia elected the country’s first female president. Sahle-Work Zewde, a seasoned diplomat, assumed the largely ceremonial post, and many celebrated Africa’s only current female head of state. The continent’s first female president, Liberia’s Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, left office this year. “In a patriarchal society such as ours, the appointment of […]
learn more*On this date in 2018, Alabama State University (ASU) colleagues came to pay their respects to soldiers who died one hundred years ago. They Gathered at Oakwood Cemetery in Montgomery, Ala. More than 350,000 Blacks served in segregated units during World War I. They were fighting for rights they didn’t have in America then. Derryn […]
learn more*On this date in 2018, the Texas Board of Education voted to change how its students learn about the American Civil War. Beginning in the 2019-2020 school year, students will be taught that slavery played a “central role” in the war. The state’s previous social studies standards listed three causes for the Civil War: sectionalism, states’ […]
learn more*On this date in 2019, the first Black woman was elected mayor of Chicago, Illinois. Former federal prosecutor Lori Lightfoot easily won the Chicago mayor’s race, earning support from every part of the city to defeat a longtime political insider. She also became the first openly Gay person to lead the United States of America’s […]
learn more*On this date in 2019, the United State Department of the Interior renamed Runaway Negro Creek to Freedom Creek. The body of water is a stream in Chatham County, Georgia, in the United States. The creek runs along the edge of Skidaway Island State Park. This former name of the creek attracted the attention of media commentators, and on […]
learn more*On this date in 2019, Black women simultaneously finished a sweep of the world’s five major beauty pageants. For the first time, top beauty pageants Miss USA, Miss Teen USA, Miss America, Miss Universe, and Miss World have crowned Black women their winners in one year. Early in their history, some dating back to the 1920s, beauty pageants barred non-white women […]
learn more*On this date in 2020, Ahmaud Arbery was murdered. He was an unarmed 25-year-old black man murdered while jogging near Brunswick in Glynn County, Georgia. Three white residents had pursued Arbery—Travis McMichael and his father Gregory, who was armed and driving a pickup truck, and William “Roddie” Bryan, who followed Arbery in a second vehicle. […]
learn more*On this date in 2020, Breonna Taylor was killed by white Louisville Metro Police Department officers Jonathan Mattingly, Brett Hankison, and Myles Cosgrove. Taylor was a 26-year-old Black emergency medical technician. The three plainclothes officers used a no-knock search warrant to enter her apartment in Louisville, Kentucky. Gunfire was exchanged between Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, […]
learn more*On this date in 2020, George Floyd was murdered by Derek Chauvin of the Minneapolis police department. Floyd was Black, and Chauvin was white. The combined arresting officers were Derek Chauvin (18 police conduct complaints), Tou Thao (6 police conduct complaints), Thomas Lane, and J. Alexander Kueng. (no police conduct complaints). Floyd purchased a pack […]
learn more*On this date in 2020, Major League Baseball reclassified Negro Baseball League baseball as Major League Baseball. This statistically combines Negro League player statistics with Major League Baseball players. The league will work with the Elias Sports Bureau to review Negro League statistics and records and figure out how to incorporate them into Major League […]
learn more*On this date in 2021, the Chicago suburb of Evanston became the first U.S. city to offer reparation money. This will go to Black residents whose families suffered lasting damage from decades of segregation and discriminatory practices. The city council voted 8-1 to distribute $400,000 to eligible Black residents. This is through $25,000 grants for […]
learn more*On this date in 2021, Daunte Wright, another young Black man, was fatally shot by police. Officer Kimberly Ann Potter killed him during a traffic stop and attempted arrest for an outstanding arrest warrant in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota. After a brief struggle with officers, Wright was shot and then drove off but crashed his vehicle […]
learn more*On this date in 2021, Juneteenth National Freedom Day became a federal holiday. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris signed into law a bill establishing Juneteenth National Independence Day, a celebration designating the end of slavery in the United States, as a federal holiday. Biden said during remarks in the East Room of the […]
learn more*On this date in 2021, the first African American won the Scripps National Spelling Bee. Zaila Avant-garde, a 14-year-old from New Orleans, Louisiana, won. Her victory made her the first African American contestant to win in the competition’s 93-year history. The only Black winner before was Jody-Anne Maxwell, representing Jamaica in 1998. Zaila triumphed after […]
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