*George Foreman was born on this date in 1949. He was a Black professional boxer, businessman, minister and author. George Foreman was born in Marshall, Texas. He grew up with six siblings in the Fifth Ward community of Houston, Texas. Although he was raised by J. D. Foreman, whom his mother had married when George was […]
learn more*The Five Spot Café opened on this date in 1956. The Five Spot Café was a jazz club in the Bowery neighborhood of New York City, between the East and West Village. Its friendly, non-commercial, low-key atmosphere, affordable drinks and food, cutting-edge bebop, and progressive jazz attracted many avant-garde artists and writers. In 1937, Salvatore […]
learn more*Taft, Oklahoma is affirmed on this date in 1902. Taft began as an all-Black town on land allotted to Creek Freedmen. This community was initially named Twine, for William H. Twine, and had a post office by 1902. When Twine moved to Muskogee, the citizens voted to rename the town as Taft for President William […]
learn moreGary Cunningham is a public and private policy administrator and community activist. In this segment, he shares a business philosophy directed at the African American community.
learn more*Debra Lee was born on August 8, 1954. She is a Black lawyer and media administrator. Debra L. Lee was born in Fort Jackson, South Carolina, and grew up in Greensboro, North Carolina. She attended James B. Dudley High School. In 1976, Lee graduated from Brown University with a bachelor’s degree in political science, emphasizing […]
learn more*Anna M. Mangin’s birth is celebrated on this date in 1844. She was a Black inventor, educator, and caterer. She was born Anna Matilda Barker in Louisiana. On her 1877 marriage application, she listed her parents as Jacob Barker and P. [Polly?] Shelton. Jacob Barker was a white-American planter, merchant, and politician. Barker, a native […]
learn more*Black history and the term ‘Mammy’ is affirmed on March 24, 1830. This is a historical American labeled stereotype describing Black women, usually enslaved, doing domestic work, including nursing white children of slave owners. The fictionalized mammy character is often a dark-skinned woman with a motherly personality. The origin of the mammy figure stereotype is […]
learn more*The Fairvue Plantation is affirmed on this date in 1832. The Fairvue was a plantation house in Gallatin, Tennessee. It was built for Isaac Franklin. Franklin retired to be a planter there after a career as a partner in the South’s largest slave-trading firm before the American Civil War. After his death, his widow inherited […]
learn more*WDIA radio went on the air on this date in 1947. WDIA (1070 AM) is a Black radio station in Memphis, Tennessee. Active since WW 2, it soon became the first radio station in the United States programmed entirely for African Americans. It featured Black radio personalities; its success in building an audience attracted radio […]
learn moreDr. Peter Rachleff is an author, professor, administrator, historian, and activist. In this segment, he chronicles his essential research into the black-and-white compensation episode efforts right after the American Civil War.
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