*On this date in 1828, the American Democratic Party was founded. Sometimes called the Democratic Farmer Labor Party (DFL), they are a center-left political party in the United States. One of the major parties of the U.S., it is the world’s oldest active political party. Its main adversary since the 1850s has been the right-wing […]
learn more*Herbert Bright was born on this date in 1883. He was a Black African doctor and political activist. Herbert Christian Bankole-Bright was born in Okrika, Sierra Leone, the son of Jacob Galba Bright and his wife Letitia (née Williams), Creole descendants of Sierra Leone Liberated Africans. Bright’s paternal grandfather, John Bright, was an ex-slave who […]
learn more*François Duvalier was born on this date in 1907. Also known as Papa Doc, he was a Haitian politician and Vodouisant. Duvalier was born in Port-au-Prince, the son of Duval Duvalier, justice of the peace, teacher, and journalist, whose family came from Martinique, and Ulyssia Abraham, a baker. His aunt, Madame Florestal, raised him as […]
learn more*Jean-Claude Duvalier was born on this date in 1951. Nicknamed ‘Baby Doc,’ he was a Black Haitian president. The son of Simone Ovide, a Mulatto-Haitian woman, and François Duvalier, a Black Nationalist anti-mulatto leader who became dictator of Haiti, Duvalier was born in Port-au-Prince and was brought up in an isolated environment. He attended Nouveau […]
learn more*On this date in 1881, the United Links Party held its first convention. In 1880, Benjamin Singleton was called to testify at Congressional hearings on the migration of Blacks from the South. By 1881, however, Singleton had begun a new phase in his campaign to aid his people, organizing a party called the ‘United Colored […]
learn more*The Readjuster Party was founded on this date in 1879. They were a bi-racial state-level political party formed in Virginia across party lines. Formed during the turbulent period following the Reconstruction era, they sought to reduce the state’s outstanding debt. Readjusters aspired “to break the power of wealth and established privilege” among the planter elite […]
learn more*On this date in 1956, the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission was created. This commission was a state agency in Mississippi, active from 1956 to 1973, tasked with fighting integration and controlling American civil rights activism. After James P. Coleman won Mississippi’s gubernatorial election in 1955, he proposed to the Legal Educational Advisory Committee the creation […]
learn more*Joshua Nkomo was born on this date in 1917. He was a Black African revolutionary and politician. Joshua Mqabuko Nyongolo Nkomo was born in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) to a poor Ndebele family, one of eight children. His father (Thomas Nyongolo Letswansto Nkomo) was a preacher and a cattle rancher for the London Missionary Society. […]
learn more*The Pan Africanist Congress of Azania was formed on this date in 1959. Often shortened to the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC), it is a South African pan-Africanist national liberation movement that has evolved into a political party. It was founded by an Africanist group, led by Robert Sobukwe, that broke away from the African National […]
learn moreAndrea Jenkins is Transgender politician and community activist. In the segment, she shares her motivation to enter politics.
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