On August 3, 1857, Frederick Douglass delivered a “West India Emancipation” speech at Canandaigua, New York, on the twenty-third anniversary of the event. Most of the address was a history of British efforts toward emancipation as well as a reminder of the crucial role of the West Indian slaves in that own freedom struggle. However shortly after he began Douglass sounded a foretelling of the coming Civil War when he uttered two paragraphs that became the most quoted sentences of all of hi...| BlackPast.org
Morgan State University is the largest historically black college in Maryland. Located in Baltimore, the school was established in 1867 as the Centenary Biblical Institute by the Baltimore Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Members of the Methodist Churches in Baltimore recognized the need for a school to train ministers. The Centenary Biblical Institute was chartered on January 3, 1867, with its first class consisting of 20 students taught by Reverend James H. Brown and Revere...| Welcome to Blackpast
The John Hope Franklin Reconciliation Park, on two and a half acres at the intersection of the African American community of Greenwood (Black Wall Street) and downtown Tulsa, is one of the most unusual parks in the United States. Situated in Tulsa, which currently has … Read MoreJohn Hope Franklin Reconciliation Park| www.blackpast.org
Wilmont A. Barclay, a professional escape artist, mind reader, and hypnotist, was one of the most successful Black magicians of the early 20th Century. Barclay was born in St. Andrew Parish (now the Kingston and St. Andrew Corporation), Jamaica, West Indies, on February 28, 1877. … Read MoreWilmont A. Barclay (1877-1944)| www.blackpast.org
Six-foot-eight NBA Superstar legend Connie Hawkins, one of the first basketball players capable of swooping and soaring in flights to the hoop, was born Cornelius Lance Hawkins on July 17, 1942, in Brooklyn, New York. A playground legend, he was dunking at the age of … Read MoreConnie Hawkins (1942-2017)| www.blackpast.org
Vince Lamar Carter Jr, a former National Basketball Association (NBA) basketball player and T.V. producer, was born on January 26, 1977, in Daytona Beach, Florida. He is the son of Michelle and Vince Carter Sr, who divorced when he was seven. Carter attended Mainland High … Read MoreVince Lamar Carter Jr. (1977- )| www.blackpast.org
Anthony “Spice” Adams is a former American football player for the National Football League (NFL), actor, comedian, and television host. He was born on June 18, 1980, to Anthony Adams Sr. and Constance Davis in Detroit, Michigan. Adams, who had two siblings, attended Martin Luther … Read MoreAnthony “Spice” Adams (1980- )| www.blackpast.org
David Isom, Jr., a 19-year-old African American civil rights activist born in 1939, broke the color line at a segregated pool in the city of St. Petersburg, Florida, in 1958. At the time, African Americans were in Tampa-St. Petersburg area was relegated to swimming in … Read MoreDavid Isom, Jr. (1939-1970)| www.blackpast.org
George F. Bowles, born enslaved in 1844 in Charleston, South Carolina, was one of the most prominent figures in Reconstruction and post-Reconstruction era Mississippi. He was a lawyer, newspaper editor, politician, and businessman. His early life remains somewhat unclear, with conflicting accounts of his parent’s … Read MoreGeorge F. Bowles (1844-1899)| www.blackpast.org
Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Incorporated, one of the five fraternities for African American men, was founded on November 17, 1911 on the campus of Howard University in Washington, D.C. It is the first African American fraternity established at a historically black college. The three founders—Edgar … Read MoreOmega Psi Phi Fraternity (1911- )| www.blackpast.org
Leah Penniman is a farmer and food sovereignty activist who cofounded Soul Fire Farm near Grafton, New York, in 2010. Penniman was born in 1980 to Adele Smith, an African American woman and a White father in Central Massachusetts. Penniman’s parents divorced at an early … Read MoreLeah Penniman (1980- )| www.blackpast.org
An American professor of physics and a co-founder of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity Inc., he was a student and mentee of eminent biologist Dr. Ernest Everett Just.| www.blackpast.org
Edgar Amos Love was an American bishop with the Methodist Episcopal Church and cofounder of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity. Love was born on September 10, 1891, to Julies C. Love, a minister in the Methodist Episcopal Church, and Susie Love, a licensed minister and the … Read MoreEdgar Amos Love (1891-1974)| www.blackpast.org
Dr. Oscar James Cooper, a physician, is most remembered as one of the co-founders of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc., the first Greek letter fraternity founded by students at an HBCU (Howard University). Other cofounders were his classmates Edgar Amos Love and Frank Coleman and … Read MoreOscar James Cooper (1888–1972)| www.blackpast.org
Alice Ruth Moore Dunbar-Nelson was an educator, poet, activist, and playwright. Moore was born on July 19, 1875 in New Orleans, Louisiana, into a family of mixed black, white, and Indian ancestry. Her mother, Patricia Wright, was formerly enslaved, and worked as a seamstress and … Read MoreAlice Ruth Moore Dunbar-Nelson (1875-1935)| www.blackpast.org
Benjamin Franklin Kelly made history on September 19, 1953, when he became the first African American to play at an all-white college in Texas, San Angelo College (later Angelo State University, ASU). His San Angelo College debut came eight months before the U.S. Supreme Court’s … Read MoreBen Kelly (1931-2014)| www.blackpast.org
On July 5, 1852, Frederick Douglass was invited to address the citizens of his hometown, Rochester, New York. Whatever the expectations of his audience on that 76th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Douglass used the occasion not to celebrate the nation’s … Read More(1852) Frederick Douglass, “What, To The Slave, Is The Fourth Of July”| www.blackpast.org
We are a collective of Black feminists who have been meeting together since 1974. [1] During that time we have been involved in the process of defining and clarifying our politics, while at the same time doing political work within our own group and in coalition with other progressive organizations and movements. The most general statement of our politics at the present time would be that we are actively committed to struggling against racial, sexual, heterosexual, and class oppression, and s...| BlackPast.org
In February, 1982, Audre Lorde delivered the address, “Learning from the 60s” as part of the celebration of the Malcolm X weekend at Harvard University. Her presentation appears below. MALCOLM X is a distinct shape in a very pivotal period of my life. I stand … Read More(1982) Audre Lorde, “Learning from the 60s”| www.blackpast.org
