June 14, 1941 John Edgar Wideman, author and educator, was born in Washington, D. C. but grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Wideman earned his Bachelor of Arts degree, Phi Beta Kappa, from the University of Pennsylvania, where he was also an All-Ivy League basketball player, in 1963. He was the second African American to win […]
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June 14th in African American History – Paul Yaw Boateng
June 14, 1951 Paul Yaw Boateng, the first black cabinet minister in the United Kingdom, was born in Hackney, London, but, raised in Ghana. In 1966, his family was forced into exile in Britain after the coup against Kwame Nkrumah. Boateng earned his LLB degree from the University of Bristol in 1976 and began to […]
June 13th in African American History – Clyde McPhatter
June 13, 1972 Clyde McPhatter, rhythm and blues singer, died. McPhatter was born November 15, 1932 in Durham, North Carolina. From 1950 to 1953, he performed with Billy Ward & the Dominoes who recorded “Sixty Minute Man” (1951) and “Have Mercy Baby” (1952). In 1953, McPhatter quit that group and formed the Drifters who released […]
June 13th in African American History – Walter Rodney
June 13, 1980 Walter Rodney, prominent Guyanese historian and political activist, was assassinated by a bomb placed in his car. Rodney was born March 23, 1942. He graduated from the University of the West Indies in 1963 and earned his Ph. D. in 1966 at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London. His […]
June 12th in African American History – Supreme Court Case Loving v. Virginia
June 12, 1967 The United States Supreme Court in the case of Loving v. Virginia ruled that Virginia’s anti-miscegenation statue, the Racial Integrity Act of 1924, was unconstitutional. This ruling ended all race-based legal restrictions on marriage in the United States. The Racial Integrity Act was a state law that banned marriage between any white […]
June 12th in African American History – Medgar Wiley Evers
June 12, 1963 Medgar Wiley Evers, civil rights activist, was assassinated. Evers was born July 2, 1925 in Decatur, Mississippi. In 1943, he was inducted into the army where he fought in France during World War II and was honorably discharged in 1945 as a sergeant. Evers earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in business […]
June 11th in African American History – Earl Shinhoster
June 11, 2000 Earl Shinhoster, civil rights leader, died in a car accident. Shinhoster was born July 5, 1950 in Savannah, Georgia. He got involved in the NAACP’s Savannah branch youth council at a young age and was president of the council at 16. Shinhoster earned his bachelor’s degree in political science from Morehouse College […]