July 23, 1962 Georgia native Jackie Robinson, the first black player to play Major League Baseball in the modern era, becomes the first black person […]
Tag: This Week in Black History
This Week in Black History
July 18, 1863 The 54th Massachusetts volunteer army, composed of free black men, charges Fort Wagner in Charleston, S.C. The attack, featured in the film […]
This Week in Black History
July 9, 1893 Chicago physician Daniel Hale Williams, the nation’s first black cardiologist, performs the first successful open heart surgery at Provident Hospital, the nation’s […]
This Week in Black History
July 6, 2002 Former Compton resident Serena Williams wins her first Wimbledon tennis tournament, defeating her sister Venus, winning her first Grand Slam singles title […]
This Week in Black History
July 1, 1991 Georgia-born attorney Clarence Thomas is nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court to replace Thurgood Marshall, the high court’s first black justice. Despite […]
This Week in Black History
June 24, 1936 Bethune-Cookman College President Mary McLeod Bethune, the 15th child of former slaves, is named director of negro affairs for the National Youth […]
This Week in Black History
June 13, 1967 Former NAACP chief counsel Thurgood Marshall – who led the 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education case that outlawed segregation in public […]
This Week in Black History
May 29, 1973 Despite a sometime hostile and racially tinged campaign, former Los Angeles City Councilman Tom Bradley, the grandson of a former slave, defeats […]
This Week in Black History
May 27, 1958 Ernest Green, who joined eight black classmates in challenging racial segregation in public schools, becomes the first member of the “Little Rock […]
This week in Black History
April 30, 1983 Pioneering journalist Bob Maynard buys the Oakland Tribune, becoming the nation’s first black owner of a metro newspaper. That accomplishment, coupled with […]