President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1968, prohibiting discrimination in the sale, rental and financing of housing. It was designed as a follow-up to […]
Category: This Week in Black History
This Week in Black History April 4, 1968
The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., a leader of the American civil rights movement, is assassinated by James Earl Ray on a balcony of the Lorraine motel in Memphis, […]
This Week in Black History March 28, 1990
U.S. President George H. W. Bush posthumously awards Olympic track and field athlete Jesse Owens with the Congressional Gold Medal. Owens won four gold medals in […]
This Week in Black History March 19, 1966
The Texas Western Miners defeated the University of Kentucky 72-65 to win the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, becoming the first team with an all-Black starting […]
This Week in Black History March 16, 1827
Jamaican immigrant John Brown Russwurm and New York abolitionist Samuel Cornish launch “Freedom’s Journal,” America’s first Black newspaper. “Too long have others spoken for us,” […]
This Week in Black History March 7, 1965
A group of 600 civil rights marchers was brutally attacked by state and local police in Selma, Alabama, on what would become known as Bloody Sunday. Amelia Boynton, […]
This Week in Black History Feb. 29, 1940
Los Angeles actress-activist Hattie McDaniel becomes the first African American to win a coveted Academy Award when she captures Best Supporting Actress honors for her […]
This Week in Black History, Feb. 21, 1965
Malcolm X, an African-American Muslin minister and human rights activist who led the Nation of Islam, was shot to death by three assassins while giving […]
This Week in Black History, Feb. 13, 1920
Led by Rube Foster, owner and manager of the Chicago American Giants, the Negro National League was established by a coalition of team owners at a […]
This Week in Black History, Feb. 8, 1986
Stanford student Debi Thomas becomes the first Black skater to win the women’s singles of the U.S. National Figure Skating Championship. In 1988, she captured […]