Little Known Black History Facts
The late Wayman Tisdale is a name known to basketball and smooth jazz fans, but some might not know of his earlier achievements in sports. Tisdale was the first college basketball to be elected to the Associated Press All-American Team for the first three years of of his collegiate career. Born June 9, 1964 […]
The history of the Negro Baseball Leagues is well-documented, with many stars from the league going on to careers in major league baseball and beyond the sport itself. What might not be as well known is that a large number of athletes who played in the Negro Leagues were well-educated men who used the […]
Marian Wright Edelman has made her mark on history in a variety of ways as an advocate for the rights of children and families. Edelman founded the Children’s Defense Fund in the early ’70’s, and still remains passionate about her mission to this day. Edelman was born in Bennettsville, S.C. on June 6, 1939. […]
Black Music Month, also known as African-American Music Month, was established in 1979 by then-President Jimmy Carter. The month looks at the achievements and contributions Black musicians have made to American culture. Today is singer/songwriter Brian McKnight’s 46th birthday so it seems a bit unfair to point out that he shares a dubious distinction […]
World War I hero Henry Johnson was finally awarded the nation’s highest military honor by President Barack Obama on Tuesday, nearly a century after his daring feat. Johnson fought off two dozen German soldiers with just a gun and a knife, suffering multiple wounds before causing the advancing forces to retreat. Johnson, a Virginia […]
[/audio] The legacy of the civil rights movement resonates to this day and the State Bar of Georgia and the Center for Civil and Human Rights will recognize over 120 men and women who participated in securing legal rights for African-Americans. On Wednesday at the State Bar Center in Atlanta, legal professionals, activists, scholars […]
The Roxbury section of Boston, Massachusetts, a predominantly Black section of the city, was one of the few northern areas that in the early 60’s, hadn’t experienced race riots. That all changed on this day in 1967 when mothers on welfare staged a sit-in that later turned into a violent three-day riot fueled by […]
Alcorn State University men’s basketball coach Davey “The Wiz” Whitney coached at the school for nearly three decades. Whitney led the Braves to a 1980 NCAA tournament win over South Alabama, making it the first HBCU to notch a win in the men’s contest. Whitney died last month in Biloxi, Miss. at the age […]
Raymond Hill, the owner of New Jersey-based Sequin City, claims his business is the only one of its kind in America. Hill started his business after he was let go from a Fortune 500 company for apparently being too good at the task of selling fabrics. Over the past decade, Sequin City has become […]
Betty Shabazz, the widow of el-Hajj Mailk el-Shabazz, better known as slain civil rights leader Malcolm X, would have been 81 today. Despite losing her husband in such a violent way and facing raising six daughters alone, Shabazz found the will to achieve. Born Betty Dean Sanders in 1934, Shabazz married Malcolm during his […]
Misty Copeland has become a household name as a standout dancer for the prestigious American Ballet Theatre company. Although she is often billed as the ABT’s first African-American soloist, Copeland acknowledges that she is actually the second and that the overlooked Nora Koito Kimball-Mentzos was the first to achieve the feat. Ballet historians often […]
The Crenshaw House of Southern Illinois, better known as the “Old Slave House,” rests in Gallatin County and is the site of one of most atrocious crimes against the freedom of Black people in the state. Although Illinois was a free state, John Crenshaw, the owner of Crenshaw House, was permitted to own slaves […]
