January 17, 1990 Anna Arnold Hedgeman, educator, author and civil rights leader, died. Hedgeman was born July 5, 1899 in Marshalltown, Iowa. In 1918, she enrolled at Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota, becoming their first African American student, and earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in English in 1922.
Archive | January 17, 2012
January 17th in African American History – Barbara Charline Jordan
January 17, 1996 Barbara Charline Jordan, the first African American woman to serve in the United States House of Representatives from a southern state, died. Jordan was born February 21, 1936 in Houston, Texas. In 1966, she became the first black woman to be elected to the Texas State Senate. She served in that body [...]