*Wendell Gunn was born on this date in 1942. He is a retired African American corporate executive and Administrator. Wendell Wilkie Gunn was born on Decatur Street in Tuscumbia, Alabama. His birth was reported two days late by the midwife, a fact he only discovered when he met his future wife and discovered they shared the same birthday. One of four […]
learn more*On May 17, 1957, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his “Give Us the Ballot” speech. Dr. King address 25,000 people in Washington D.C. at the Lincoln Memorial for the Payer Pilgrimage for Freedom. He suggested that the “betrayal” of disenfranchised Americans by all politicians offered the ultimate argument for why the struggle for voting rights is essential […]
learn more*On this date in 1962, (thanksgiving 2020), Operation Breadbasket is celebrated. This was a civil rightsorganization dedicated to improving the economic conditions of Black communities across the United States. Operation Breadbasket was founded as a department of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). It was operated by Rev. Fred C. Bennette and the first activities were in Atlanta and other Southern cities. A […]
learn more*On this date in 1894 wee mark the birth of Lovett Fort-Whiteman. He was an African American political activist and Communist International functionary. Lovett Huey Fort-Whiteman was born in Dallas, Texas. His father, Moses Whiteman, was a slave in South Carolina and relocated to Texas at some time prior to 1887, where he worked as a janitor and a small-scale cattle rancher. At the age of 35, […]
learn more*Joan Maynard was born on this date in 1928. She was an African American commercial artist, art administrator and community preservation activist. Joan Cooper Bacchus Maynard was born in Brooklyn, NY the daughter of John W. Cooper, a ventriloquist, and Juliana St. Bernard Cooper of Grenada. She graduated from Bishop McDonnell Memorial High School and became […]
learn more*On this date in 1823, Thomas Higginson was born. He was a white-American Unitarian minister, author, abolitionist, and soldier. Thomas Wentworth Higginson was born in Cambridge, MA. He entered Harvard College at age thirteen and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa at sixteen. He graduated in 1841 and was a schoolmaster for two years. In 1842 he became engaged to Mary Elizabeth Channing. He then studied theology […]
learn more*Nellie Francis was born on this date in 1874. She was an African American suffragist, racial justice advocate, and civil rights activist. Nellie F. Griswold was born in Nashville, Tennessee. Her parents were Maggie Seay and Thomas Garrison Griswold, and she had a sister, Lula Griswold Chapman, who died in 1925. Her grandmother was Nellie Seay, a house slave […]
learn more*On this date in 1914, The Universal Negro Improvement Association was formed. and African Communities League (UNIA-ACL). This is a African American nationalist fraternal organization founded by Marcus Mosiah Garvey. The organization was founded to work for the advancement of people of African ancestry around the world. Its motto is “One God! One Aim! One Destiny!” and its slogan was “Africa […]
learn more*On this date in 1889, A. Philip Randolph. He was an African American Civil Rights, American Labor Movement, and Socialist Political party leader. Asa Phillip Randolph was born in Crescent City, Florida, the second son of the Rev. James William Randolph, a tailor and minister in an African Methodist Episcopal Church, and Elizabeth Robinson Randolph, a […]
learn more*On this date in 1963, we affirm 100 Black Men of America. They are a men’s civic organization and service club whose stated goal is to educate and empower African American children and teens. 100 Black Men has 110 chapters in different cities in the United States and throughout the world. The organization’s mission statement is “to improve the quality of life within […]
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