*On this date, 1600, the East India Company (EIC) was founded. This Slave labor business was an English, and later British, joint-stock company. The East India Company was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies and later with East Asia. The company gained control of large parts of the […]
learn more*On this date in 1502, the island of Saint Helena was discovered. Founded by the Portuguese Armada, it is a remote British overseas territory. Saint Helena is a volcanic and tropical island in the South Atlantic Ocean, some 1,165 miles west of mainland Africa. Geographically, Angola and Namibia are the closest nations. Between January and May […]
learn more*The birth of Willie McGee is celebrated on this date in c. 1916. He was a Black laborer who was executed in 1951 after being controversially convicted for the rape of a white woman during the Jim Crow Era. Early life Willie McGee was born in Pachuta, Mississippi, to Bessie and Jasper McGee Sr. at […]
learn more*Joe Dudley was born on this date in 1937. He was a Black businessman and hair-care entrepreneur. Joe Louis Dudley Sr. was born in Aurora, North Carolina, the fifth of 11 children. When he was in the first grade, he was mistakenly labeled as mentally retarded because of a speech impediment. He had twice been […]
learn more*Black history and modern colonialism are affirmed on this date in 1415. The Ancient historical phenomenon of colonization stretches around the globe and across time. The Phoenicians, Greeks, Turks, and Arabs practiced age-old and medieval colonialism. Colonialism, in the modern sense, began in the 15th century with the “Age of Discovery.” The Portuguese were expansionists […]
learn more*Henrique of Portugal, Duke of Viseu, was born on this date in 1394. Known as Prince Henry the Navigator, he was a white Portuguese slave trader and a central figure in the early days of the Portuguese Empire. Henry was the third surviving son of King John I and his wife Philippa, sister of King […]
learn moreMatthew Jenkins is a professional photographer. In this segment, he shares his career advice for this profession.
learn more*The birth of Marie Coincoin is celebrated on this date in 1742. She was a Black nurse, planter, slave owner, and businesswoman at the colonial Louisiana outpost of Natchitoches Parish. A Louisianan Creole, Marie Theresa Coincoin was born into the slavery of Louis Antoine Juchereau de St. Denis. Her parents were François and Marie Françoise; she […]
learn more*Hobart Armstrong was born on this date in 1851. He was a Black Miner, businessman, and small-town administrator. Born in Tennessee as a young man, Hobart A. Armstrong migrated to Iowa in the mid-1870s. After developing close business ties with the Iowa Central Coal Company, he set up his own business, purchasing mules for the […]
learn more*The Fort of Arguin is celebrated on this date in 1443. This was a slave fort island off the western coast of Mauritania in the Bay of Arguin. The first European to visit the island was the Portuguese explorer Nuno Tristão. In 1445, Prince Henry the Navigator set up a trading post on the island, which acquired […]
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