August 24, 1987 Bayard Rustin, civil rights leader and the chief organizer of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, died. Rustin was born March 17, 1912 in West Chester, Pennsylvania. In 1942, Rustin assisted in the founding of the Congress of Racial Equality. A declared pacifist, he was imprisoned from 1944 to […]
Archive | August, 2011
August 24th in African American History – John Melville Burgess
August 24, 2003 John Melville Burgess, the first African American diocesan bishop in the Episcopal Church, died. Burgess was born March 11, 1909 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He earned his Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees in social work from the University Michigan in 1930 and 1931, respectively. He earned a divinity degree from […]
August 23rd in African American History – The National Negro Business League
August 23, 1900 The National Negro Business League was founded in Boston, Massachusetts with Booker T. Washington as its first president. Its membership included the elite of black business leaders as well as a large number of the upwardly aspiring black middle class. In 1966, the organization was renamed the National Business League and reincorporated […]
August 23rd in African American History – Phillip Emeagwali
August 23, 1954 Phillip Emeagwali, engineer, computer scientist, and geologist, was born in Akure, Nigeria. Emeagwali earned his Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics from Oregon State University in 1977, his Master of Science degree in civil engineering from George Washington University in 1981, and his Master of Arts degree in applied mathematics from the […]
August 22nd in African American History – Jomo Kenyatta
August 22, 1978 Jomo Kenyatta, first Prime Minister and President of Kenya, died. Kenyatta was born in the village of Ngende, Gatundu, in British East Africa (now Kenya) in the early to mid-1890s. No formal birth records of native Africans were kept at that time. In 1929, Kenyatta moved to Europe for education and work. […]
August 22nd in African American History – Huey Percy Newton
August 22, 1989 Huey Percy Newton, co-founder and leader of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, was fatally shot. Huey Percy Newton was born February 17, 1942 in Monroe, Louisiana but raised in Oakland, California. In 1966, while at Oakland City College, he and Bobby Seale organized the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense. Seale became chairman […]
August 21st in African American History – James Anderson, Jr.
August 21, 1968 James Anderson, Jr. posthumously received the Medal of Honor, America’s highest military decoration, for heroism while serving in Vietnam, making him the first African American United States Marine recipient of the medal. Anderson was born January 22, 1947 in Los Angeles, California and enlisted in the marines in 1966. He was promoted […]