Jan 1 |
President Abraham Lincoln issues Emancipation Proclamation, 1863. |
Jan 2 |
Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander, the first African American woman to receive a Ph.D. in the United States, was born in Philadelphia, 1898. |
Jan 3 |
William Tucker, the first recorded African American born in the American colonies, was born in Jamestown, Virginia, 1624. |
Jan 4 |
Grace Bumbry, opera singer, was born in St. Louis, Missouri, 1937. |
Jan 5 |
Alvin Ailey, Jr., hall of fame choreographer and activist, was born in Rogers, Texas, 1931. |
Jan 6 |
Louis Allen Rawls, soul, jazz and blues singer, died in 2006. |
Jan 7 |
Zora Neale Hurston, authorand playwright, was born in Notasulga, Alabama, 1891. |
Jan 8 |
Charles Deslondes leads slave revolt in Louisiana, 1811. |
Jan 9 |
Earl Gilbert Graves, Sr., publisher, entrepreneur, philanthropist, and founder of Black Enterprise magazine was born in Brooklyn, New York, 1935. |
Jan 10 |
George Washington Carver, agricultural scientist, inventor, and educator born in 1864. |
Jan 11 |
Reuben V. Anderson, first African American to be appointed to Mississippi Supreme Court, 1985. |
Jan 12 |
U.S. Supreme Court rules that African Americans have the right to study law at state institutions, 1948. |
Jan 13 |
Douglas Wilder becomes first African American U.S. governor (Virginia) since Reconstruction, 1990. |
Jan 14 |
Dudley Randall, founder of Broadside Press, was born in Washington, D.C, 1914. |
Jan 15 |
Martin Luther King, Jr., clergy-man, activist and leader of the Civil Rights Movement, was born in Atlanta, Georgia, 1929. |
Jan 16 |
Marcelite Jordan Harris, the first African American female general in the United States Air Force, was born in Houston, Texas, 1943. |
Jan 17 |
Three-time heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali was born in Louisville, Kentucky, 1942. |
Jan 18 |
Dr. Daniel Hale Williams, pioneer heart surgeon, was born in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania, 1856. |
Jan 19 |
John Harold Johnson, publisher (Ebony and Jet magazines), author, and businessman was born in Arkansas City, Arkansas, 1918. |
Jan 20 |
Colin Luther Powell became the first African American United States Secretary of State, 2001. |
Jan 21 |
Leonard Roy Harmon, the first African American to have a navy ship named in his honor, was born In Cuero, Texas, 1917. |
Jan 22 |
Susan Rice confirmed as U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., the first African American female to hold that position, 2009. |
Jan 23 |
“Roots” the television miniseries based on Alex Haley’s book “Roots: The Saga of an American Family,” began airing on ABC, 1977. |
Jan 24 |
Jackie Robinson is first African American elected to Baseball Hall of Fame, 1962. |
Jan 25 |
Black Entertainment Television began broadcasting, 1980. |
Jan 26 |
Angela Yvonne Davis, political activist and educator, was born in Birmingham, Alabama, 1944. |
Jan 27 |
Leontyne Price made her Metropolitan Opera debut, 1961. |
Jan 28 |
Ronald Ervin McNair, physicist & NASA astronaut, died, along with six other crew members, during the launch of the Space Shuttle Challenger, 1986. |
Jan 29 |
Violette Nealy Anderson becomes the first African American woman admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court, 1926. |
Jan 30 |
Franklin Thomas named president of Ford Foundation, 1979. |
Jan 31 |
Benjamin Lawson Hooks, attorney, minister and civil rights leader, was born in Memphis, Tennessee, 1925. |