Little Known Black History Facts
After selling over 75 million albums worldwide, Tupac Shakur has gone down in history as one of the top selling music artists in the world. In 2006, MTV ranked Shakur as number two on the list of The Greatest MC’s of All Time, behind Jay-Z. Born Lesane Parish Crooks to Billy Garland and Afeni Shakur, […]
Julian Abele was a prominent black architect who built more than 400 buildings. Some of them were the Harvard University Widener Memorial Library, Monmouth University’s Shadow Lawn Mansion, the Central Branch of the Free Library of Philadelphia and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Most importantly, Abele was known for building the Duke University Chapel. Abele […]
Michael Joseph Jackson was born August 29, 1958 as the 7th child to a poor family in Gary, Indiana. He and his brothers of the Jackson 5 became one of the few groups in history to have their first four major singles reach the top of the Billboard Hot 100. They got their start by […]
Lloyd “Little Willie” Adams was a black businessman and well-known gangster who gave opportunities to a number of black entrepreneurs by funding their dreams. When there were no black savings and loan, there was Lloyd “Little Willie” Adams. Adams later became a venture capitalist, building small empires, from liquor stores to mortuaries. The Zebulon, North […]
“Black Like Me” is a non-fiction book by white journalist John Howard Griffin first published in 1961. The title of the book is taken from the last line of the Langston Hughes poem “Dream Variations.” The book describes Griffin’s six-week experience traveling on Greyhound buses throughout the racially segregated states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and […]
On Wednesday, June 19th, writer, orator, statesman and prominent abolitionist Frederick Douglass was honored by Vice President Joe Biden, House Speaker John Boehner and other members of Congress in Washington D.C. In a ceremony held in Emancipation Hall on the Capitol, a seven-foot bronze statue was unveiled in the likeness of Douglass. Boehner remarked on […]
Today, June 19th, marks the Juneteenth holiday, which celebrates the day in 1865 that slaves in Galveston, Texas were told that slavery had ended. President Abraham Lincoln had actually ended slavery two and a half years prior to the Texas slaves being notified. Union soldiers led by Major General Gordon Granger delivered the good news […]
Blanche Kelso Bruce was born an American slave in 1841 in Prince Edward County, Va. He was tutored by his slave master’s son, who was also his half-brother. During the war, he escaped from his plantation in Mississippi. He was rejected by the Union Army and, in turn, opened a school for black children in […]
Peter Salem was a legendary black soldier of the American Revolutionary War. Born a slave in Framingham, Massachusetts to Jeremiah Belknap, he was sold to Major Lawson Buckminister, who offered him his freedom if he enlisted as one of the Massachusetts Minutemen. He served in April 1775 under Colonel John Nixon’s 6th Massachusetts Regiment. On […]
Edwin Bancroft Henderson, also known as the “Father of Black Sports” introduced African Americans to the game of basketball in 1904. He was the first black basketball player at Harvard University and the first physical education teacher in the nation. Henderson was later appointed honorary president of the North American Society for Sport History. E.B. […]
The 1984 film “Beat Street” by Steven Hager was the first American film featuring two soundtracks. The film, which was originally titled “Looking for the Perfect Beat” featured popular rap groups of the 1980’s like the Rock Steady Crew, Afrika Bambaataa & the Soul Sonic Force, the Treacherous Three (featuring Kool Moe Dee), Grandmaster Melle […]
Slain civil rights activist Medgar Evers was the first Mississippi Field Secretary of the NAACP. After running sit-ins and boycotts in Mississippi, the Evers’ home was fire bombed by the KKK in May 1963. The family survived, but Medgar Evers was assassinated in his driveway one month later. Evers was assassinated long before the nation […]
