Little Known Black History Facts
The Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka decision on May 17, 1954 by the U.S. Supreme Court set into motion the desegregation of public schools across the nation. On this day that same year, Washington, D.C. and Maryland public schools racially integrated their classrooms on the heels of the landmark ruling. The integration of […]
Kimberly Anyadike made history in 2009 after she completed a cross-country flight from Compton, Calif. to Newport News, Va. when she was just 15 years of age. The feat made Anyadike, who is of Nigerian heritage, the youngest known Black pilot to ever complete such a journey. Anyadike began her training as a pilot when […]
Jane Bolin was the first African-American woman to earn a degree from the prestigious Yale Law School on her way to becoming the nation’s first woman to serve as a judge. For 40 years, Judge Bolin presided over what is now known today in New York as the Family Court. Jane Matilda Bolin was born […]
Baritone opera singer Todd Duncan made history by becoming the first African-American to sing with a major American opera company, and the first to perform with an all-white cast. Duncan was also a music professor at Howard University during a period where his career was just beginning to take off. Born Robert Todd Duncan on […]
The 1904 Summer Olympics, held in St. Louis, Mo., were poorly organized yet featured a number of historic firsts. George Coleman Poage, a track athlete from the University of Wisconsin, would become the first African-American to compete in the Games and the first to win a medal. Poage, born November 8, 1880 in Hannibal, Mo., […]
The racial tensions between Black and white citizens in Benton Harbor, Michigan have been ongoing since the ’60’s. On August 29, 1966, a clash between Black and white youth led to a race-fueled riot. At the end of it, 18-year-old Cecil Hunt was dead. Benton Harbor, which rests across the St. Joseph River across from […]
The city of Easley in South Carolina has a legal superstar in the making with the recent swearing in to the judge’s bench for Jasmine Twitty. According to reports, Twitty, 25, is the youngest judge ever appointed in the city and the state. A report from For Harriet had the most detailed information about Twitty’s […]
Amelia Boynton Robinson passed away Wednesday morning at the age of 104, and the nation is mourning one of the most storied individuals from the Civil Rights Movement. Boynton Robinson’s dedication to the voting rights and equality for southern Blacks and all African-Americans has been well-documented, and her iconic image from the “Bloody Sunday” event […]
Susie King Taylor landed in the history books by becoming the Army’s first Black nurse, and the first and only Black woman to detail her experiences in the Civil War. Additionally, Taylor is the first Black woman to teach openly at a freedmen’s school in Georgia. Taylor was born August 6, 1848 into slavery in […]
Marlon D. Green has been considered the “Jackie Robinson of Aviation,” although he didn’t set out to make that distinction. The former Air Force pilot was determined to fly for a commercial airline but was denied because he was Black. Undaunted, he decided to sue for his right to fly. In 1963, the U.S. Supreme […]
Oseola McCarty was a washerwoman who saved up enough of her earnings to become the University of Southern Mississippi’s most famous financial supporter. Despite earning low wages during her back-breaking career, McCarty gave Southern Miss a $150,000 gift in order to aid incoming students. McCarty was born March 7, 1908 in Wayne County, Mississippi. She […]
Dr. Henry Thomas Sampson Jr. is the first Black person to earn a Ph.D. in Nuclear Engineering. Though Dr. Thomas has been incorrectly named as the inventor of the modern cell phone, one of his inventions did go on to inspire technology that powers the devices. Sampson was born in Jackson, Miss. in 1934. Graduating […]
