#blackhistorymonth

BlackFacts.com presents the black fact of the day for June 20.

Harry Belafonte became the first African American to win an Emmy award.

As one of the most successful African-American pop stars in history, he was dubbed the “King of Calypso” for popularizing the Caribbean musical style with an international audience in the 1950s. 

He was an early supporter of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and 1960s, and one of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s confidants. 

He financed the 1961 Freedom Rides, supported voter registration drives, and helped to organize the 1963 March on Washington.

Throughout his career, he has been an advocate for political and humanitarian causes, such as the anti-apartheid movement and USA for Africa. Since 1987, he has been a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador.

He was awarded an Emmy for his television special, Tonight Show with Harry Belafonte.

In 1989, he received the Kennedy Center Honors.

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BlackFacts.com presents the black fact of the day for June 19.

Solidarity Day March

In November 1967 civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., and the staff of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) met and decided to launch a Poor People’s Campaign to highlight and find solutions to many of the problems facing the country’s poor. 

The Poor People’s Campaign was still in the planning stages when King was assassinated in April 1968.

The plan for the march was that protestors would come together in Washington, D.C., and demonstrate daily from May 14 to June 24, 1968. 

June 19th was declared Solidarity Day, and a rally was held, attracting between 50–100,000 people. Addresses were made by Ralph Abernathy, Hubert Humphrey, Eugene McCarthy, Walter Reuther as well as Coretta Scott-King.

In 1969, a Poor People's Campaign delegation, including Abernathy, met with President Nixon and asked him to address hunger and malnutrition.

The 2nd Solidarity March came near the 10 year anniversary of the first and drew between 250,000 and 325,000 people. 

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BlackFacts.com presents the black fact of the day for June 18.

W.H. Richardson patents Baby Buggy.

He was born in Baltimore, Maryland, and he made a huge improvement to the baby carriage.

Richardson decided to create a stroller  to be shaped more like a symmetrical basket, rather than a shell, as it was back then.

This new design made it easier for parents and nannies to move the carriage around 360 degrees, compared to only 90 degrees before.

The big part of Richardson’s change to the baby carriage is that it was now reversible, making it possible to have anyone pushing the baby face them instead of facing in the opposite direction.

The use of prams became widespread among all economic classes by the 1900s.

Many of Richardson's design modification are still in use today.

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BlackFacts.com presents the black fact of the day for June 17.

Tuskegee Boycott began. 

The issue of the boycott was segregation and voting rights.  The voting districts for the city of Tuskegee were changed dramatically to prevent black citizens from electing local officials. 

The Tuskegee Civic Association (TCA), a predominantly black organization working for civil rights, challenged the new district  boundaries and took it to court.

The leader of the Civic Association was Dr. Charles Gomillion, a Tuskegee Institute professor. As a strategy to gain victory, he told the citizens to "Trade with your friends". 

This had an immediate result on the local businesses because even though blacks were to enter stores from the rear, and had to wait for white customers before they were served, they were significant consumers of goods in Tuskegee.

The Boycott also resulted in local Macon County black businesses thriving and multiplying. 

It effectively created devastating economic consequences for Whites, who preferred to go out of business than give Blacks the right to vote. 

The use of redrawing voting district lines was ruled illegal and became a landmark case for the United States Civil Rights Movement.

Participants in the Tuskegee boycott engaged in unwavering civil activism to end the expulsion of black city residents and re-establish their voting rights.

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BlackFacts.com presents the black fact of the day for June 16.

Kenneth A. Gibson became the first African American mayor of Newark.

He entered politics in the 1960s, during the Civil Rights Movement, by joining the National Urban League, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE).

Gibson ran for mayor in 1966. He joined the mayoral race only six weeks before the election. Mayor Hugh J. Addonizio was reelected, but Gibson got more votes than expected. Gibson would spend the next four years preparing for the 1970 mayoral campaign.

In July of 1967, African Americans in Newark rebelled when a black taxi driver was arrested and beaten by white police officers. Over five days, 26 people died, but the violence sent a message that Newark’s African Americans were no longer willing to be treated as second-class citizens.

In 1970, Gibson ran for office again and won. He became the first African American mayor of a Northeastern city. 

He inspired other African Americans to enter politics. Following his term in office, other Northeastern cities like Philadelphia, Baltimore, and New York have elected black mayors.

Since leaving city government, Gibson has headed Gibson Associates, a consulting firm that advises building developers and investment bankers on public financing and other construction management issues. 

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BlackFacts.com presents the black fact of the day for June 15.

Henry Ossian Flipper became the first African American to graduate from the United States Military Academy at West Point.

He was born into slavery in Thomasville, Georgia, the eldest of five brothers. His mother, Isabelle Flipper, and his father, Festus Flipper, a shoemaker, and carriage-trimmer were owned by Ephraim G. Ponder, a wealthy slave dealer.

Flipper attended Atlanta University during Reconstruction. There, as a freshman, Representative James C. Freeman appointed him to attend West Point, where four other black cadets were already attending. The small group had a difficult time at the academy, where they were rejected by white students.

Nevertheless, Flipper persevered, and in 1877, became the first of the group to graduate, earning a commission as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army cavalry.

He was assigned to the 10th Cavalry Regiment, one of the four all-black "buffalo soldier" regiments in the Army, and became the first black officer to command regular troops in the U.S. Army.

In 1881, while serving at Fort Davis, Flipper's commanding officer accused him of embezzling $3,791.77 from commissary funds.. A court-martial found him not guilty of embezzlement but convicted him of conduct unbecoming an officer and ordered him dismissed from the Army.

In 1976, the Army granted him an honorable discharge, and in 1999, President Bill Clinton issued him a full pardon.

After his discharge was changed, a bust of Flipper was unveiled at West Point. Since then, an annual Henry O. Flipper Award has been granted to graduating cadets at the academy who exhibit "leadership, self-discipline, and perseverance in the face of unusual difficulties.

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BlackFacts.com presents the black fact of the day for June 14.

William H. Gray was elected Democratic Whip of the House of Representatives.

He graduated from Simon Gratz High School in 1959 and enrolled in Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, majoring in sociology.

In 1972, Gray succeeded his father as the senior minister at Bright Hope Baptist Church in Philadelphia, succeeding not only his father but also his grandfather, who had founded the 4,000-member church. 

He was elected as a Democrat to represent Philadelphia in the United States House of Representatives in 1978. 

Throughout his tenure, he was dedicated to promoting civil rights and economic advancement in Philadelphia, the United States, and the world. 

With his ascent to Majority Whip, the third-ranking leadership position in the House, Gray became the highest-ranking African American in congressional history.

Outside politics he was also a businessman who has been a director at Dell, J.P. Morgan, Chase & Co., Prudential Financial Inc., Rockwell International Corporation, Visteon Corporation and Pfizer.

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BlackFacts.com presents the black fact of the day for June 13.

Thurgood Marshall named the first African-American Court's justice.

After being rejected by the University of Maryland Law School because he was not white, Marshall attended Howard University Law School; he received his degree in 1933, ranking first in his class.

He established a private legal practice in Baltimore before founding the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, where he served as executive director.

As an attorney, he successfully argued before the Court the case of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954), which declared unconstitutional racial segregation in American public schools.

In September 1961 Marshall was nominated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit by President John F. Kennedy, but opposition from Southern senators delayed his confirmation for several months.

Marshall’s nomination was confirmed (69–11) by the U.S. Senate on August 30, 1967.

He served on the Court for the next 24 years, compiling a liberal record that included strong support for Constitutional protection of individual rights. 

Thurgood Marshall's Bible was used by Vice President Kamala Harris at her inauguration in Washington on January 20, 2021, when she was sworn into office.

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BlackFacts.com presents the black fact of the day for June 12.

Michael Jordan leads Chicago to 1st NBA Title.

The Chicago Bulls defeated the Los Angeles Lakers 108-101 at the Great Western Forum to capture the NBA Finals in five games. It was the Bulls’ first-ever NBA title in their 25th anniversary season in the league.

Jordan scored 30 points and teammate Scottie Pippen hit for 32. 

This was no easy task for the Bulls going up against the Lakers Big Three in Magic Johnson, Vlade Divac and James Worthy.

This was just the beginning for Jordan and the Bulls dynasty. The Bulls would eventually win again in 1992 and 1993, marking the first such “three-peat” since the Celtics won eight straight from 1959-66.

After Jordan retired in 1993 to join the White Sox, he came back in 1995. And beginning in the 1995-96 season another three-peat was cemented into the history books, with Jordan leading the Bulls to three consecutive championships from 1996-98.

His biography on the official NBA website states: "By acclamation, Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player of all time."

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BlackFacts.com presents the black fact of the day for June 11.

Kennedy's Report to the American People on Civil Rights.

It was a speech on civil rights, delivered on radio and television by President John F. Kennedy from the Oval Office in which he proposed legislation that would later become the Civil Rights Act of 1964. 

Kennedy was initially cautious in his support of civil rights and desegregation in the United States. As his term continued, African Americans became increasingly impatient with their lack of social progress and racial tensions escalated.

His administration had sent National Guard troops to accompany the first black students admitted to the University of Mississippi and the University of Alabama. 

In the speech, Kennedy announced that he would be sending civil rights legislation to Congress; that legislation was passed after his death and signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson.

Kennedy called Americans to recognize civil rights as a moral cause to which all people need to contribute and was "as clear as the American Constitution."

Martin Luther King, Jr., called the speech “one of the most eloquent, profound, and unequivocal pleas for Justice and Freedom of all men ever made by any President.”

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BlackFacts.com presents the black fact of the day for June 10.

Howlin' Wolf was born.

Born as Chester Arthur Burnett, he was an American blues singer and composer who was one of the principal exponents of the urban blues style of Chicago.

He was brought up on a cotton plantation, and the music he heard was the traditional tunes of the region. He started singing professionally when quite young and in the 1920s and ’30s performed throughout Mississippi, playing in small clubs.

He accompanied himself on guitar and harmonica, but his main instrument was his guttural and emotionally suggestive voice, which gave his songs power and authenticity. 

After his first record, “Moanin’ at Midnight” (1951), became a hit, he moved to Chicago, where he, along with Muddy Waters, made the city a center for the transformation of the (acoustic) Mississippi Delta blues style into an electrically amplified style for urban audiences. 

Wolf traveled to Europe as part of the Chess blues revival series. His intense, energetic performances of brought him a new generation of blues-influenced rock ‘n’ roll fans.

His work was known only to blues audiences until the Rolling Stones and other British and American rock stars of the 1960s and ’70s acknowledged his influence.

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BlackFacts.com presents the black fact of the day for June 9.

Oliver W. Hill became the 1st Black person elected to the city council in Richmond, Virginia.

He was a prominent civil rights attorney. His work against racial discrimination helped end the doctrine of "separate but equal."

Hill first practiced law in Roanoke, Virginia, before settling in Richmond in 1939.  

He joined the legal team of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

Hill’s first civil rights victory was in 1940 when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that African American teachers had to be paid the same as white teachers.

He served as an officer or on the board of many national, state, and local organizations, including the NAACP and the National Bar Association.

In 1947, he first ran for the City Council of Richmond but came in 10th in a race for 9 seats.  

Hill ran again in 1949 and became the first African American on the City Council of Richmond since Reconstruction.

He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1999.

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BlackFacts.com presents the black fact of the day for June 8.

James Earl Ray, the suspect in Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination, was captured.

On April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Martin Luther King Jr, was fatally wounded by a sniper’s bullet while standing on the balcony outside his second-story room at the Motel Lorraine.  

During the next several weeks, the rifle, eyewitness reports, and fingerprints on the weapon all implicated a single suspect: escaped convict James Earl Ray.

In May 1968, a massive manhunt for Ray began. The FBI eventually determined that he had obtained a Canadian passport under a false identity, which at the time was relatively easy.

On June 8, Scotland Yard investigators arrested Ray at a London airport. He was trying to fly to Belgium, with the eventual goal, he later admitted, of reaching Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe).  

Extradited to the United States, Ray stood before a Memphis judge in March 1969 and pleaded guilty to King’s murder in order to avoid the electric chair. He was sentenced to 99 years in prison.

During the 1990s, the widow and children of Martin Luther King, Jr., spoke publicly in support of Ray and his claims, calling him innocent and speculating about an assassination conspiracy involving the U.S. government and military.

According to his family and friends, he was an outspoken racist who told them of his intent to kill King. Ray died in 1998.

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BlackFacts.com presents the black fact of the day for June 7.

Nikki Giovanni was born.

She is an American poet, writer, commentator, activist, and educator.

Giovanni grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio, and Knoxville, Tennessee, and in 1960 she entered Nashville’s Fisk University. By 1967, when she received a B.A., she was firmly committed to the civil rights movement and the concept of black power.  

Her experiences as a single mother then began to influence her poetry. Loneliness, thwarted hopes, and the theme of family affection became increasingly important in her writings during the 1970s.  

She returned to political concerns in "Those Who Ride the Night Winds" (1983), with dedications to black American heroes and heroines.

For children, she wrote "Jimmy Grasshopper Versus the Ants" (2007) and "Rosa" (2005), a picture book about legendary civil rights figure Rosa Parks.

She taught at various universities, including Virginia Tech. In 2007 the school was the site of a mass shooting. The gunman was a former student of Giovanni’s, and she had earlier alerted school authorities about his troubling behaviour.

At a memorial service she gave a powerful reading of a poem she had written following the tragedy.

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BlackFacts.com presents the black fact of the day for June 6.

Marian Wright Edelman was born.

She is an American attorney and civil rights activist who founded the Children’s Defense Fund in 1973.

After work registering African American voters in Mississippi, she moved to New York City as a staff attorney for the Legal Defense and Educational Fund of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

Edelman was the first African American woman admitted to The Mississippi Bar in 1964, and the first Black woman elected on the Yale board of trustees in 1971.

In 1973, she founded the Children's Defense Fund as a voice for poor children, children of color, and children with disabilities.  

The organization has served as an advocacy and research center for children's issues, documenting the problems and possible solutions to children in need.

She also worked to persuade United States Congress to overhaul foster care, support adoption, improve child care and protect children who are disabled, homeless, abused or neglected.  

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BlackFacts.com presents the black fact of the day for June 5.

American Negro Theater was formed.

It was an African American theatre company that was active in the Harlem district of New York City from 1940 to 1951.

It provided professional training and critical exposure to African American actors, actresses, and playwrights by creating and producing plays concerning diverse aspects of African American life.

It was established by two African Americans, the playwright Abram Hill and the actor Frederick O’Neal.

In the beginning, Hill spent his time mailing out postcards to invite as many people as he could to meetings and within just a few weeks, the group grew to thirty people.

Initially, the ANT held its performances in the basements of the Abyssinian Baptist Church and the 135th Street library.

Soon after its founding, the ANT won attention and praise for its first major production, a staging of Hill’s On Striver’s Row.

Between 1940 and 1949 the ANT produced a total of 19 plays, 12 of which were based on original scripts.

Well-known actors and actresses who worked with the ANT, in some cases starting their theatrical careers there, included Ruby Dee, Sidney Poitier, Harry Belafonte, and Clarice Taylor amongst others.

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BlackFacts.com presents the black fact of the day for June 4.

Angela Davis was acquitted by a white jury.

She is an American political activist, philosopher, academic, and author of over ten books on class, feminism, race, and the US prison system.

Born to an African-American family in Birmingham, Alabama, Davis studied French at Brandeis University and philosophy at the University of Frankfurt in West Germany.  

After returning to the United States, she joined the Communist Party and became involved in numerous causes, including the second-wave feminist movement and the campaign against the Vietnam War.

Championing the cause of black prisoners in the 1960s and ’70s, Davis grew particularly attached to a young revolutionary, George Jackson, one of the so-called Soledad Brothers (after Soledad Prison).  

Jackson’s brother Jonathan was among the four persons killed—including the trial judge—in an abortive escape and kidnapping attempt from the Hall of Justice in Marin County, California.

Suspected of complicity, Davis was sought for arrest and became one of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s most wanted criminals.

Arrested in New York City in October 1970, she was returned to California to face charges of kidnapping, murder, and conspiracy. Across the nation, thousands of people began organizing a movement to gain her release.

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BlackFacts.com presents the black fact of the day for June 3.

Physician Charles Drew was born. 

He was an African American physician and surgeon who was an authority on the preservation of human blood for transfusion.

Drew was educated at Amherst College, McGill University, Montreal, and Columbia University.

While earning his doctorate at Columbia in the late 1930s, he researched the properties and preservation of blood plasma. 

He soon developed efficient ways to process and store large quantities of blood plasma in “blood banks.”

As the leading authority in the field, he organized and directed the blood-plasma programs of the United States and Great Britain in the early years of World War II, while also agitating the authorities to stop excluding the blood of African Americans from plasma-supply networks.

He resigned his official posts in 1942 after the armed forces ruled that the blood of African Americans would be accepted but would have to be stored separately from that of whites.

He then became a surgeon and professor of medicine at Freedmen’s Hospital, Washington, D.C., and Howard University (1942–50).

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BlackFacts.com presents the black fact of the day for June 2.

James Augustine Healy became the first Black Roman Catholic Bishop in USA.

Healy was one of 10 children born on a Georgia cotton plantation to an Irish immigrant and his common-law wife, a mixed-race slave.

Because Healy and his siblings were legally considered illegitimate and slaves, they were barred from attending school in the state, and their parents were forced to send the boys to schools in the North.

After college Healy attended seminary in Montreal and in Paris and was ordained a priest in 1854. He was the first African American to be ordained a Roman Catholic priest.

He did mission work in Boston, where he opposed state anti-Catholic laws. He then served as chancellor of the diocese and, during the Civil War, as secretary to the bishop.

Healy was consecrated as Bishop of Portland on June 2, 1875, becoming the first African American to be consecrated a Catholic bishop.

Two months before his death, Healy was called as assistant to the Papal throne by Pope Leo XIII, a position in the Catholic hierarchy just below that of cardinal.

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BlackFacts.com presents the black fact of the day for June 1st.

White House Conference on Civil Rights

The aim of the conference was built on the momentum of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 in addressing discrimination against African Americans.  

The four areas of discussion were housing, economic security, education, and the administration of justice.

President Lyndon Johnson had promised this conference in his commencement address at Howard University the year before.

Like that address, the conference was named "To Fulfill These Rights." The title was a play on "To Secure These Rights," a report issued by Truman's civil rights commission in 1947.

There were over 2,400 participants, representing all the major civil rights groups. Out of the conference came a hundred-page report.

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