| Mar 1 |
The Civil Rights Act of 1875 was signed into law by President Ulysses Grant, 1875. |
| Mar 2 |
David Satcher, physician, United States Surgeon General and Assistant Secretary for Health, was born in Anniston, Alabama, 1941. |
| Mar 3 |
Thomas L. Jennings, first African American to receive a U.S. patent (number 3306x) for a dry-scouring process, now known as dry-cleaning, 1821. |
| Mar 4 |
Garrett Augustus Morgan, Sr., inventor and entrepreneur, was born in Paris, Kentucky, 1877. |
| Mar 5 |
Crispus Attucks, one of the first casualties of the American Revolution, was killed in the Boston Massacre, 1770. |
| Mar 6 |
The Supreme Court decided Dred Scott v. Sandford. This opinion declared that slaves were not U.S. citizens and could not sue in Federal courts, 1857. |
| Mar 7 |
The first Selma to Montgomery march ended when marchers were attacked by state and local police at the Edmund Pettus Bridge “Bloody Sunday”, 1965. |
| Mar 8 |
Alexander T. Augusta, surgeon, Civil War veteran, and highest- ranking African American officer in the Union Army, born in Norfolk, Virginia, 1825. |
| Mar 9 |
Oscar Stanton De Priest, the first African American elected to Congress in the 20th century, was born in Florence, Alabama., 1871. |
| Mar 10 |
Harriet Tubman, abolitionist, Union Army spy and suffragist, died. Tubman was buried with military honors, 1913. |
| Mar 11 |
Ralph David Abernathy, minister and civil rights leader, was born in Linden, Alabama, 1926. |
| Mar 12 |
Virginia Hamilton, children’s books author, was born in Yellow Springs, Ohio, 1936. |
| Mar 13 |
Cowtown/Work to Ride polo team from Philadelphia, PA, first African American team to win the National Interscholastic Polo Championship, 2011. |
| Mar 14 |
Quincy Delight Jones, Jr., trumpeter, music conductor and arranger, record producer, and film composer, was born in Chicago, Illinois, 1933. |
| Mar 15 |
Joseph Jenkins Roberts, the first President of the Republic of Liberia, was born in Norfolk, Virginia, 1809. |
| Mar 16 |
Mississippi became the last state to ratify the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution which abolished slavery, 1995. |
| Mar 17 |
Nathaniel Adams “Nat King” Cole, hall of fame jazz pianist and singer, was born in Montgomery, Alabama, 1919. |
| Mar 18 |
Fred Shuttlesworth, minister and civil rights activist, was born Freddie Lee Robinson in Mount Meigs, Alabama, 1922. |
| Mar 19 |
Rev. Leon Sullivan elected to board of directors of General Motors, 1971. |
| Mar 20 |
Jan E. Matzeliger received patent 274,207 for his Automatic Method for Lasting Shoes, 1883. |
| Mar 21 |
Lewis H. Latimer of New York City shared patent number 255,212 for a Globe Supporter for Electric Lamps, 1882. |
| Mar 22 |
Joseph Paul Reason, the first African American four-star admiral in the United States Navy, was born in Washington, D. C., 1941. |
| Mar 23 |
Maynard Holbrook Jackson, Jr., the first African American mayor of Atlanta, Georgia, was born in Dallas, Texas, 1938. |
| Mar 24 |
Janet Harmon Waterford Bragg, the first African American female to hold a commercial pilot license, was born in Griffin, Georgia, 1907. |
| Mar 25 |
Aretha Louise Franklin, hall of fame pianist, singer and songwriter, was born in Memphis, Tennessee, 1942. |
| Mar 26 |
Thomas J. Martin of Dowagiac, Michigan received patent number 125,063 for improvements in the fire extinguisher, 1872. |
| Mar 27 |
Arthur Mitchell, hall of fame dancer and choreographer, was born in Harlem, New York, 1934. |
| Mar 28 |
William Christopher “W. C.” Handy, hall of fame blues composer and musician, died, 1958. |
| Mar 29 |
Andrew Jackson Beard, hall of fame inventor, was born in Woodland, Alabama, 1849. |
| Mar 30 |
The Fifteenth Amendment was adopted into the Constitution granting African American men the right to vote, 1870. |
| Mar 31 |
Thomas M. Peterson of Perth Amboy, NJ cast the first vote by an African American after the passage of the 15th Amendment, 1870. |
