*On this date in 1961, the Revolutionary Action Movement (RAM) is affirmed. RAM was a Marxist-Leninist, Black nationalist organization. They were the first group to apply the philosophy of Maoism to the conditions of Black people in the United States. They informed the revolutionary politics of the Black Power movement. Group formation. In 1961, students […]
learn more*Owen Lovejoy was born on this date in 1811. He was a White-American lawyer, Congregational minister, abolitionist, and politician. Born in Albion, Maine, Owen Lovejoy was one of five brothers born to Elizabeth (Patee) and Daniel Lovejoy, a Congregational minister and farmer. He worked with his family on the farm until he was 18, and his parents […]
learn more*Luís Gama was born on this date in 1830. He was an Afro Brazilian self-taught lawyer, abolitionist, orator, journalist, and writer. He was a black intellectual in 19th-century slave-owning Brazil who spent his life fighting for the abolition of slavery and for the end of the monarchy in Brazil. Luís Gonzaga Pinto da Gama was born in […]
learn more*On this date in 1980, the National Association of Black & White Men Together (NABWMT) was formed. The NABWMT is a gay, multiracial, multicultural organization committed to fostering supportive environments wherein racial and cultural barriers can be overcome, and the goal of human equality realized. To these ends, we engage in educational, political, cultural, and social […]
learn more*Hughes Van Ellis was born on this date in 1921. He was a Black Soldier, mechanic, and survivor of one of the most extensive racial holocaust episodes in America. Van Ellis was born in Holdenville, Okla., and was not yet five months old at the time of the Tulsa Massacre, after which his parents fled Tulsa with […]
learn more*Ruth Ellis was born on this date in 1899. She was a Black lesbian printer, photographer, and LGBT rights activist. Ruth Charlotte Ellis was born in Springfield, Illinois, the youngest of four children and the only daughter. Her parents were from Tennessee. Ellis’ mother, Carrie Farro Ellis, died when she was a teen, while her father, Charles […]
learn more*Jackie Copeland was born on this date in 1962. She is a Black environmentalist women’s activist, author, administrator, and philanthropist. Jackie “Bouvier” Copeland was born in Philadelphia, the daughter of James and Willette Copeland. She received her B.A. in literature from the School of Arts and Sciences with an African Studies Certification from the School […]
learn more*On this date in 1935, The International African Friends of Abyssinia (IAFA) was formed. Also known as the International African Friends of Ethiopia, it was established in London, England, to protest Italian aggression against Abyssinia. Its membership comprised many important Pan-African figures, several of whom later formed the International African Service Bureau. C. L. R. […]
learn more*The West African Students’ Union (WASU) was founded on this date in 1925. WASU was an association of students from various West African countries studying in the United Kingdom. WASU was founded in London, England, by twenty-one law students led by Ladipo Solanke and Herbert Bankole-Bright. The previous year, Solanke founded the Nigerian Progress Union […]
learn more*The Comité des Citoyens is celebrated on this date in 1891. This committee was an equal rights organization comprised of Blacks, whites, and Creoles. In 1890, the State of Louisiana passed the Separate Car Act, which required separate accommodations for Black and white people on railroads, including separate railroad cars. At the suggestion of Aristide Mary, […]
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