William Peyton Hubbard, the first notable Black elected official in Toronto, and will be honored this weekend with the unveiling of a park in his name. Hubbard, the son of slaves, came to politics when he was in his fifties. Hubbard was born in 1842 in an area just outside of Toronto known as “The Bush,” […]
Mae Mallory as an activist and freedom fighter who was at the forefront of some of the civil rights movement’s major events. Ms. Mallory was a founder of the Harlem Nine who railed against New York’s segregated school system and was a supporter of Black radical Robert F. Williams. Born June 9, 1927 in […]
The town of Lyles Station, Indiana was one of the early farming settlements for free Blacks in the North, and remains the only such community of its sort today. The community was featured at the recently opened Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Named after Black farmer Joshua Lyles, the town was […]
Jack Greenberg was an attorney who was at the center of the civil rights movement and argued over 40 civil rights cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. Mr. Greenberg, a longtime director of the NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund, was the last surviving attorney to work on the landmark 1954 “Brown v. Board of Education” case. […]
Dr. Justina L. Ford was a pioneering physician who practiced medicine in Colorado, despite facing the barriers of race and gender. Dr. Ford, better known as the “Lady Doctor,” was rumored to have delivered 7,000 babies in her lifetime and was the lone Black female doctor in the state for the first half of […]
Comedian and author Dick Gregory has been active since the ’60’s and is showing no signs of slowing down. Gregory turns 84 today and the activist remains fiery and opinionated as ever. Richard Claxton Gregory was born in 1932 in St. Louis. A star track and field athlete, Gregory ran for two years as a […]
The NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund is the first civil and human rights law firm, established in 1940 by late Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. The early seeds of the LDF can be traced to the year before when prominent Black attorney Charles Hamilton Houston helped bolster the NAACP’s legal department. Houston, a former vice-dean and dean […]
Racial cleansings have occurred in America at various instances throughout history. But in 1912, an incident in Forsyth County, Ga. is remembered as the largest case of Black expulsion ever recorded. Back in September of that year, two white women were attacked at separate intervals, allegedly by Black residents of the predominately white county. Ellen […]
Marvel’s Luke Cage on Netflix is one of the best-reviewed shows to debut this fall, proving that a leading Black man in a superhero action role can find success. Throughout the series, several nuggets referencing Black history and culture appear that gives Luke Cage a flavor all its own. Luke Cage was created by Marvel in […]
The 89th annual National Bankers Association convention are meeting in Detroit Oct. 5 and 6th. The group is a collective of banking institutions owned by people and women of color. The convention will honor Grammy Award-winning record producer, valued Association member, and banking pioneer Don Davis, who operated Michigan’s first Black-owned and operated bank. Davis, […]
On Tuesday, vice-presidential candidates Tim Kaine and Mike Pence squared off in the small Virginia town of Farmville. While the debate between the party rivals was the centerpiece, the town itself was home to an incident some consider to be one of the earliest protests that helped focus the Civil Rights Movement. On April 23, […]
The murder trial of former football legend O.J. Simpson was one for the ages. The explosive trial was one of the biggest media event of the ’90’s, concluding with Simpson being acquitted on this day in 1995. Thirteen years later to the exact day, Simpson was convicted of a second crime after a botched armed […]
