April 15, 2010 Benjamin Lawson Hooks, attorney, minister and civil rights leader, died. Hooks was born January 31, 1925 in Memphis, Tennessee. After earning his Bachelor of Arts degree from Howard University in 1944, he joined the army where he found that the prisoners he was responsible for guarding could eat in restaurants from which […]
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April 14th in African American History – William Henry Hastie
April 14, 1976 William Henry Hastie, lawyer, judge, educator and civil rights advocate, died. Hastie was born November 17, 1904 in Knoxville, Tennessee. Hastie earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from Amherst College in 1925, graduating first in his class and magna cum laude. He then earned his law degree and a doctorate in Judicial […]
Howard Thurman – April 10th in African American History
April 10, 1981 Howard Thurman, author, theologian, educator, and civil rights leader, died. Thurman was born November 18, 1900 in Daytona Beach, Florida. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from Morehouse College in 1923 and his Bachelor of Divinity degree from Colgate Rochester Theological Seminary in 1926. In 1929, he earned his Ph. D. […]
The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) – April 8th in African American History
April 8, 1960 The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), one of the principal organizations of the Civil Rights Movement, was founded after a series of student meetings led by Ella Baker at Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina. Future leaders attending those meetings included Stokely Carmichael, Julian Bond, Diane Nash, John Lewis, James Bevel, and […]
Marian Anderson – April 8th in African American History
April 8, 1993 Marian Anderson, contralto, died. Anderson was born February 27, 1897 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. At the age of six, she began singing at local functions for small change. She got her first big break in 1925 when she won a singing competition sponsored by the New York Philharmonic. In 1939, the Daughters of the […]
Martin Luther King, Jr. – April 4th in African American History
April 4, 1968 Martin Luther King, Jr., clergyman, activist and leader of the Civil Rights Movement, was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee. King was born January 15, 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia. He entered Morehouse College at the age of 15 and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology in 1948. He then earned a Bachelor […]
March 24th in African American History – Zephaniah Alexander Looby
March 24, 1972 Zephaniah Alexander Looby, civil rights lawyer, died. Looby was born April 8, 1899 in Antigua and moved to the United States in 1914. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Howard University in 1922, a law degree from Columbia University School of Law in 1925, and a doctorate in jurisprudence from New York […]