February 8, 1968 The Orangeburg Massacre occurred in Orangeburg, South Carolina. Police fired into a crowd of approximately 200 mostly students who were protesting segregation at a local bowling alley. Samuel Hammond, Henry Smith, students at South Carolina State University, and Delano Middleton, a high school student, were killed and 27 other protesters were injured. [...]
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Thomas Kilgore – February 4th in African American History
February 4, 1998 Thomas Kilgore, one of the few men to lead two major national Baptist organizations, died. Kilgore was born February 20, 1913 in Woodruff, South Carolina. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from Morehouse College in 1935 and earned his Bachelor of Divinity degree from Union Theological Seminary in 1957. Kilgore began [...]
Margaret Bush Wilson – January 30th in African American History
January 30, 1919 Margaret Bush Wilson, lawyer and activist, was born in St. Louis, Missouri. Wilson earned her Bachelor of Science degree in economics from Talladega College in 1939 and her law degree from the Lincoln University of Missouri School of Law. After passing the bar, she was the second woman of color admitted to [...]
Paul LeRoy Bustill Robeson – January 23rd in African American History
January 23, 1976 Paul LeRoy Bustill Robeson, concert singer, scholar, stage and film actor, athlete, and multi-lingual orator, died. Robeson was born April 9, 1898 in Princeton, New Jersey. He won a full academic scholarship to Rutgers University, the third African American student accepted at Rutgers. Although he was the only black student on campus [...]
Clarence LaVaughn “C.L.” Franklin – January 22nd in African American History
January 22, 1915 Clarence LaVaughn “C.L.” Franklin, minister and civil rights activist, was born in Sunflower County, Mississippi. At the age of 16, Franklin became a preacher working the black preaching circuit before settling at churches in Memphis, Tennessee and Buffalo, New York. In 1946, he became pastor of New Bethel Baptist Church in Detroit, [...]
Barak Obama’s 2nd Term Inauguration on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day – January 21st 2013 in African American History
January 21, 2013 Today is only the second time in history when the Presidential Inauguration and the federal holiday for Martin Luther King Jr. converge. Making this day even more historic is that Barack Obama, the first African-American President is being sworn into office on a day dedicated to a man who dreamed of the [...]
January 10th in African American History – The Southern Christian Leadership Conference
January 10, 1957 The Southern Christian Leadership Conference was founded to coordinate and support nonviolent direct action as a method to end all forms of segregation. Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. was the first president and Ella Baker was the first staff person. During the first few years, SCLC focused on education, voter registration, and [...]