People, Locations, Episodes

The ‘Burma Road Project’ Begins

*This date in 1942 celebrates the beginning of the Burma Road construction project, which was a three-year WW II military excavation project.  Black soldiers who worked to re-open the Burma Road were the single largest group of Blacks in World War II-era China. They were present in many WW II construction projects, including the Red Ball Express […]

Lloyd Newton, Aviator, and Educator born

he birth of Lloyd Newton in 1942 is marked on this date. He is an African American Air Force general (retired), educator, and administrator.

Sherian Cadoria, General born

*Sherian Grace Cadoria was born on this date in 1943. She is a retired Black Brigadier General military officer.  Born in Marksville, Louisiana. She is a graduate of Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and holds a Master of Arts in Social Work from the University of Oklahoma. Initially in the Women’s Army Corps, she […]

Charles David Saves Many Of His Shipmates Aboard The USS Dorchester

*On this date in 1943, Charles W. David of the USS Dorchester gave his life for his country.

At a time when segregation was still practiced in the armed forces, he bravely set out to save lives. The incident occurred when a convoy of three ships and three escorting Coast Guard cutters passed through “torpedo alley” some 100 miles off the coast of Greenland during World War II. At about 1 a.m. that morning the submarine U-223 fired three torpedoes, one of which hit the midsection of the Dorchester, a U.S. Army troopship with more than 900 men on board.

The 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion is Activated

*The 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion was officially activated on this date in 1943.   Activated at Fort Benning, Georgia, the Battalion, nicknamed The Triple Nickels, was an all-Black airborne unit of the United States Army during World War II.    The unit was activated due to a recommendation made in December 1942 by the Advisory Committee on Negro Troop Policies, chaired by the Assistant Secretary of War, John J. McCloy. […]

The Golden Thirteen Begin Military Training

*This date in 1944 celebrates “The Golden Thirteen.” This was the first African American naval officer-training group in Ameria.

In January of that year, the naval officer corps was all white. There were some one hundred thousand African American enlisted men in the Navy, yet none were officers. In response to growing pressure from American civil rights organizations, the leaders of the Navy reluctantly tackled commissioning a few as officers. Sixteen Black enlisted men were summoned to Camp Robert Smalls, Great Lakes Naval Training Station in Illinois, they were:

Black history and The USS Mason, (WW II Warship) a story

*On this date we remember the USS Mason, a WWII warship manned by a predominantly Black crew that served as a role model for the integration of U.S. Navy ships.

Though launched November 17, 1943 at Boston Navy Yard’s Pier 6, the ship wasn’t commissioned until March 1944. The USS Mason (DE-529) was a Destroyer Escort. Length: 289’5″, Beam: 35’1″, Draft: 11’10″. Speed of 21 knots, with 6 officers, and 150 Black enlisted men. By the time the Mason was decommissioned; all the chief petty officers were Black. The ship escorted six convoys across the North Atlantic.

Jerry Rawlings, Soldier and Politician born.

*Jerry Rawlings was born on this date in 1947. He was a Black Ghanaian military officer, aviator, and politician. Jerry John Rawlings was born in Accra, Ghana, to Victoria Agbotui, an Anlo Ewe from Dzelukope, Keta, and James Ramsey John, a British chemist from Scotland. His father never lived with him and his mother and […]

Americas Armed Service Integrates Its Women’s Ranks

On this date in 1948, the Armed Services integrated its women’s defense organizations.

Ensign Edith De Voe was sworn into the Regular Navy Nurse Corps and in March, First Lieutenant Nancy C. Leftenant entered the Regular Army Nurse Corps, becoming the corps’ first Black members. Following World War II, racial and gender discrimination as well as segregation persisted in the military. Entry quotas and segregation in the Women’s Army Corps (WACs) deterred many from re-entry between 1946 and 1947. By June 1948, only four Black officers and 121 enlisted women remained in the WAC.

Lillian Fishburne, Navy Admiral born

*Lillian Fishburne was born on this date in 1949. She is an African American Rear Admiral (RADM) and Administrator.

Thomas Sankara, Soldier and Pan-Africanist born.

*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 […]

Libya Gains Independence From Italy

*Libya gained its independence on this date in 1951. Under the 1947 peace treaty with the Allies, Italy relinquished all claims to Libya. The officially the State of Libya is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad to the south, […]

Algeria Gains Independence From France

On this date in 1954, Algeria gained independence from France.

For more than a century, the Algerian people fought a permanent armed, moral, and political struggle against the invader and all its forms of oppression. This began after the aggression of 1830 against the Algerian State and the occupation of the country by the French colonialist forces. In the conflict the National Liberation Front called for the mobilization of all the energies of the nation, the process of struggle for independence having reached its final realization stage.

uMkhonto we Sizwe is formed

*uMkhonto we Sizwe was formed on this date in 1961. This Army was the paramilitary wing of the African National Congress (ANC). Nelson Mandela founded uMkhonto we Sizwe after the Sharpeville massacre. Its mission was to fight against the South African government. Its name is Xhosa, and its pronunciation is “Spear of the Nation,” abbreviated MK. After warning […]

The Nigerian Civil War Begins

*The Nigerian Civil War, also known as the Biafran War, began on this date in 1967. It was a civil war fought between Nigeria and the Republic of Biafra. This secessionist state had declared its independence from Nigeria earlier in 1967. General Yakubu Gowon and Biafra led Nigeria by Lieutenant Colonel Chukwuemeka Ojukwu. The conflict […]