*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.
learn more*Jimmy Carter was born on this date in 1924. He was a white-American politician and humanitarian. James Earl Carter Jr. was born and raised in Plains, Georgia. As a child, Carter’s family moved several times, settling on a dirt road near Archery, GA. This community was made up of underprivileged Black families. He had three […]
learn more*Pik Botha was born on this date in 1932. He was a white South African politician who served as the country’s foreign minister in the last years of the apartheid era. Roelof Frederik “Pik” Botha was born at Rustenburg in the Transvaal, to Roelof Frederik Botha and Maria Elizabeth Dreyer. At the age of four, […]
learn more*Samora Machel was born on this date in 1933. He was a Black African politician and revolutionary. Samora Moisés Machel was born in Gaza Province, Mozambique, to a family of farmers. His grandfather had been an active collaborator of Gungunhana. Under Portuguese rule, his father, like most Black Mozambicans, was classified as “indígena” (native). He […]
learn more*Graça Machel was born on this date in 1945. She is a Black Mozambican politician and humanitarian. Graça Sembène was born 17 days after her father’s death, the youngest of six children, in rural Incadine, Gaza Province (modern-day Mozambique). She attended Methodist mission schools before gaining a scholarship to the University of Lisbon in Portugal, […]
learn more*Forbes Burnham was born on this date in 1923. He was an Afro Guyanese politician and leader. Linden Forbes Sampson Burnham was born in Kitty, a suburb of Georgetown, Demerara County, British Guiana, as one of four (Olga, Freddie, Jessica, and Flora)[3] children. His parents were James Ethelbert Burnham, a schoolmaster,[2] and Rachel Abigail Sampson, and he grew up in […]
learn more*Jerry Rawlings was born on this date in 1947. He was a Black Ghanaian military officer, aviator, and politician. Jerry John Rawlings was born in Accra, Ghana, to Victoria Agbotui, an Anlo Ewe from Dzelukope, Keta, and James Ramsey John, a British chemist from Scotland. His father never lived with him and his mother and […]
learn more