The first intercollegiate football contest between Black colleges took place on this day in 1892. Biddle College, now Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, N.C., and Livingstone College in Salisbury, N.C., played against one another on Livingstone’s snowy front lawn and gave way to a bowl game that celebrates HBCU football’s excellance. According to historians of […]
The Birmingham Bus Boycotts in Alabama took place on this day in 1956, led by the efforts of late minister and civil rights figure Dr. Fred Shuttlesworth. The boycott lasted until 1958 and while it wasn’t as effective as other such protests across the Deep South, the movement laid plenty of necessary groundwork and bolstered the […]
Fans of the long-running Star Trek franchise will be witness to a new era next year. A new spin-off series, Star Trek: Discovery, features a historic first as Sonequa Martin-Green will become the first Black female lead character of the show. Mrs. Martin-Green will be familiar to fans of AMC’s zombie apocalypse smash hit, The […]
Viola Irene Desmond became a part of Canadian history for her defiant act in 1946 against a racist movie theater’s seating policy. While Desmond never saw justice during her lifetime, the country will honor her by making the late hairdresser and civil rights figure the face of its $10 bill. Desmond was born July 6, […]
Over the course of its history, The Negro Leagues spawned a series of baseball legends with many going on to dominate in the formerly all-White Major League Baseball organization. Catcher Josh Gibson, the home run king of the Negro League, never got a chance to go to the big show, but was properly recognized […]
Kofi Annan, the former United Nations Secretary-General, was elected to the post on December 18, 1996 after serving decades as an international civil servant for the organization. Mr. Annan’s efforts with the U.N. a led to he and the organization jointly being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2001. Kofi Atta Annan was born April […]
The Baton Rouge lunch counter protests of 1960 were inspired by the Greensboro protests of that same year. A group of Southern University students were expelled from school because of their peaceful protests in support of Greensboro, but their case was overturned on December 11, 1961 with help from the NAACP and President John F. […]
Judge Saundra Brown Armstrong is currently the Senior Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. Since 1970, Judge Armstrong has made epic strides in her career both as a policewoman and as an attorney with a couple of historic achievements along the way. Mrs. Armstrong was born in 1947 […]
Colonel Abrams as one of dance music’s most influential pioneers. House and dance music fans from around the globe joined in mourning one of its most notable legends who died last week. Abrams was born in 1949 in Detroit, Mich., relocating to Manhattan at a young age with his family. Influenced by the Motown soul […]
The island nation of Cuba is both celebrating and mourning the death of longtime leader Fidel Castro this weekend, a mixed reaction to the loss of one of the world’s most controversial figures. While Castro is viewed as both a dictator or a revolutionary, one of the hallmarks of his rise to power was his […]
Gwen Ifill was a pioneering Black journalist, providing a role model for young Blacks aspiring to media careers, especially women. Ms. Ifill succumbed to her battle with cancer Monday at the age of 61, prompting a nation to mourn one of its most respected journalists. Ifill was born September 29, 1955 in New York City […]
When Zena Stephens officially swears in at the Jackson County Sheriff in Texas, she will become the first Black woman elected to the role in state history. Stephens beat out a Republican rival in a tight race, and expects there will be tough challenges ahead. Little information on Stephens’ personal life exists online but what […]
