| July 1 |
Frederick Carlton “Carl” Lewis, hall of fame track and field athlete, was born in Birmingham, Alabama, 1961. |
| July 2 |
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson, 1964. |
| July 3 |
Macon Bolling Allen became the first African American licensed to practice law in the United States, 1844. |
| July 4 |
Arthur George “A. G.” Gaston, entrepreneur and businessman, was born in Demopolis, Alabama, 1892. |
| July 5 |
Andrew Jackson Beard of Woodlawn, Alabama received patent number 478,271 for an improved rotary steam engine, 1892. |
| July 6 |
Donnie L. Cochran, first African American to command the U.S. Navy Blue Angels, was born near Pelham, GA, 1954. |
| July 7 |
Leroy Robert “Satchel” Paige, hall of fame baseball player, was born in Mobile, Alabama, 1906. |
| July 8 |
The Clotilda, the last known United States slave ship to bring enslaved Africans to the U. S., arrived in Alabama with 110 African captives, 1860. |
| July 9 |
Dr. Daniel Hale Williams performs first successful open heart surgery, 1893. |
| July 10 |
Mary Jane McLeod Bethune, hall of fame educator and civil rights leader, was born in Mayesville, South Carolina, 1875. |
| July 11 |
W.E.B. DuBois and William Monroe Trotter organize the Niagara Movement, a forerunner of the NAACP, 1905. |
| July 12 |
Frederick McKinley Jones received three patents (numbers 2,475,841 – 2,475,843). Patent 2,475,841 was for a portable air-cooling unit for trucks, 1949. |
| July 13 |
Thurgood Marshall becomes first African American appointed U.S. solicitor general, 1965. |
| July 14 |
Sarah E. Goode, first African American woman to receive a patent (322,177) for her invention of the cabinet bed, 1885. |
| July 15 |
Maggie Lena Walker, hall of fame businesswoman, educator and the first female bank president, was born in Richmond, Virginia, 1864. |
| July 16 |
Ida Bell Wells-Barnett, journalist and civil and women’s rights activist, was born enslaved in Holly Springs, Mississippi, 1862. |
| July 17 |
Billie Holiday, hall of fame Jazz singer and songwriter known as “Lady Day,” died, 1959. |
| July 18 |
Nelson R. Mandela, first South African president to be elected in a fully representative democratic election, was born in Mvezo, South Africa, 1918. |
| July 19 |
William Henry Hastie was confirmed as Judge of the Third U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the first African American federal circuit judge, 1950. |
| July 20 |
Violet Palmer, the first woman to officiate a National Basketball Association game, was born in Compton, California, 1964. |
| July 21 |
The National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs, Inc. was founded in Washington, D.C., 1896. |
| July 22 |
Emlen Lewis Tunnell, the first African American inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, died, 1975. |
| July 23 |
Jackie Robinson becomes first African American baseball player in the major leagues inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, 1962. |
| July 24 |
Alexander Dumas, playwright and novelist, was born Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie in Picardy, France, 1802. |
| July 25 |
Garrett A. Morgan, Sr. used his gas mask to rescue men trapped in an underground tunnel, 1916. |
| July 26 |
President Harry S. Truman issues Executive Order 9981, ending segregation in armed forces, 1948. |
| July 27 |
The Chicago Race Riots, the worst of the country’s riots during the Red Summer of 1919, began, 1919. |
| July 28 |
14th Amendment, granting African Americans full citizenship rights, becomes part of the Constitution, 1868. |
| July 29 |
Keeth Thomas Smart, the first American to be named the top-ranked fencer internationally, was born in Brooklyn, New York, 1978. |
| July 30 |
Elizabeth R. Haynes, first African American woman to serve on the national board of the YWCA, was born in Lowndes County, AL, 1883. |
| July 31 |
Whitney Moore Young, Jr., civil rights leader, was born in Lincoln Ridge, Kentucky, 1921. |
