*On this date from 1200 the Yoruba people are briefly affirmed. They are an African ethnic group that lives in western Africa. October 1st was chosen to coincide the article with Nigeria’s independence. Documented since 1200, the Yoruba are mainly Nigeria, Togo, Ghana and Benin. The Yoruba constitute about 44 million people in total. The vast majority of this population is from Nigeria, where the Yoruba make […]
learn more*On this date in 1960, Togo gained independence from France. In Togo’s first presidential elections in 1961, Sylvanus Olympio became the first president of the Togolese Republic. The elections were boycotted by the opposition. On April 9, 1961 the Constitution of the Togolese Republic was adopted, according to which the supreme legislative body was the National Assembly of Togo. Historically, the Berlin Conference resulted […]
learn more*Botswana gained independence from Britain on this date in 1966. Botswana is near South Africa on the continents west side and in June 1966, Britain accepted proposals for democratic self-government. The seat of government was moved from Mafikeng in South Africa, to newly established Gaborone in 1965. The 1965 constitution led to the first general elections. Previously known as Bechuanaland, Botswana […]
learn more*The birth of Matilda McCrear in c1857 is celebrated on this date. She was an African (Yoruba) woman who was enslaved and transported to America. Matilda McCrear was captured by slave traders in West Africa when she was just two years old and taken to the USA on the Clotilda, the last ship to transport enslaved Africans to […]
learn more*On this date in 1920, Byron De La Beckwith Jr. was born. He was a white-American Klansman and white supremacist. De La Beckwith was born in Colusa, California, the son of Susan Southworth Yerger and Byron De La Beckwith Sr., who was the town’s postmaster. His father died of pneumonia when he was 5. One year later, hee and his mother settled in Greenwood, Mississippi, […]
learn more*The White Citizens’ Councils was formed on this date in 1954. They were an associated network of white supremacist, extreme right organizations in the United States, concentrated in the American South. They were also called the White Citizens’ Councils. After 1956, the name was Citizens’ Councils of America. With about 60,000 members across the United States, in the South, the groups were founded primarily to oppose racial integration of public […]
learn more*The Council of Federated Organizations (COFO) was formed on this date in 1962. They were a coalition of the major Civil Rights Movement organizations operating in Mississippi. The COFO was the effort of local activists and indigenous leadership. The prelude to the Civil Rights Movement in Mississippi began after World War II when veterans such as Medgar Evers, his brother Charles Evers, Aaron Henry, and Amzie Moore returned home […]
learn more*On this date in 1965, the Selma to Montgomery marches began. Lasting three weeks, they were three American Civil Rights protest marches, held along the highway from Selma, Alabama, to the state capital of Montgomery (54 miles). The marches were organized by nonviolent activists to demonstrate the desire of African American citizens to exercise their constitutional right to vote, in defiance of segregationist repression; they were part […]
learn more*The Black Seminole town of Pilaklikaha, Florida is celebrated on this date in 1813. Established about one mile east of Bushnell and two miles north of Tarrytown, Florida it was a needed refuge from white-American oppression against Africans and indigenous Native people. Pilaklikaha means “many ponds” in the Mikasuki language and Pilaklikaha was the largest and […]
learn more*The founding of Palenque de San Basilio is celebrated on this date in 1691. This was the first established African town in Columbia. San Basilio de Palenque or Palenque de San Basilio is a Palenque village and corregimiento and is located in Mahates, Bolivar in northern Colombia. Palenque is also considered one of the first free African town in the Americas.Spaniards introduced kidnapped African slaves in South America through the Magdalena River […]
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