June 1 |
Morgan Porterfield Freeman, Jr., actor and film director was born in Memphis, Tennessee, 1937. |
June 2 |
Charles Sifford, hall of fame golfer who helped to desegregate the PGA of America, was born in Charlotte, NC, 1922. |
June 3 |
Josephine Baker, entertainer and actress, was born Freda Josephine McDonald in St. Louis, Missouri, 1906. |
June 4 |
Roland G. Fryer, Jr., youngest African American ever granted tenure at Harvard University, was born in Daytona Beach, 1977. |
June 5 |
John Wesley Carlos, hall of fame track and field athlete and 1968 Olympics medal ceremony protester, was born in Harlem, New York, 1945. |
June 6 |
Tommie Smith, hall of fame track and field athlete and 1968 Olympics medal ceremony protester, was born in Clarksville, Texas, 1944. |
June 7 |
Gail Fisher became the first African American to win an Emmy Award, 1970. |
June 8 |
William D. “Willie” Davenport, hall of fame track and field athlete, was born in Troy, Alabama, 1943. |
June 9 |
William Pinkney became the fourth American and the first African American to sail solo around the world, 1992. |
June 10 |
Marcus Mosiah Garvey, Jr., publisher, entrepreneur, orator and Black Nationalist, died., 1940. |
June 11 |
George Wallace stood in the doorway of Foster Auditorium blocking Malone and Hood, from enrolling, 1963. |
June 12 |
Medgar W. Evers, civil rights leader, is assassinated in Jackson, Mississippi, 1963. |
June 13 |
Thurgood Marshall nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court by President Lyndon Johnson, 1967. |
June 14 |
Nat (pronounced Nate) Love, one of the most famous cowboys of the Old West, was born in Davidson County, Tennessee, 1854. |
June 15 |
Ella Jane Fitzgerald, hall of fame jazz and pop vocalist also known as the “First Lady of Song,” died, 1996. |
June 16 |
Eddie Levert, lead vocalist of the R&B vocal group The O’Jays, was born in Bessemer, Alabama, 1942. |
June 17 |
Minuteman Peter Salem fights in the Battle of Bunker Hill, 1775. |
June 18 |
Sallie Martin, the “Mother of Gospel Music” and entrepreneur, died, 1988. |
June 19 |
African Americans in Texas are notified of Emancipation Proclamation, issued in 1863. “Juneteenth,” marks the event, 1865. |
June 20 |
Lionel Brockman Richie, Jr., singer, songwriter and record producer, was born in Tuskegee, Alabama, 1949. |
June 21 |
James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner, civil rights activist, were murdered near Philadelphia, MS, 1964. |
June 22 |
Joe Louis knocked out Max Schmeling at 2:04 of 1st round at Yankee Stadium, 1938. |
June 23 |
Wilma Rudolph, first American woman to win 3 Gold medals in track and field in a single Olympic Games, was born in Clarksdale, TN, 1940. |
June 24 |
Jeanine Menze became the first African American female to earn United States Coast Guard aviation designation, 2005. |
June 25 |
James H. Meredith, the first African American student at the University of Mississippi, was born in Kosciusko, Mississippi, 1933. |
June 26 |
James Weldon Johnson, author, diplomat, poet, songwriter of “Lift Every Voice and Sing”, and civil rights activist died, 1938. |
June 27 |
Paul Laurence Dunbar, poet, was born in Dayton, Ohio, 1872. |
June 28 |
U.S. Supreme Court overturned the conviction of Muhammad Ali for refusing to be inducted into the military, 1971. |
June 29 |
Charles Everett Dumas became the first person to high jump seven feet, 1956. |
June 30 |
Lena Mary Calhoun Horne, singer, actress, dancer and civil rights activist, was born in Brooklyn, New York, 1917. |