BlackFacts.com: Learn/Teach/Create Black History

BlackFacts.com presents the black fact of the day for June 25.

Sonia Sotomayor was born.

She is an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States,  the first woman of color, first Hispanic, and first Latina member of the Court.

Sotomayor was raised in a housing project in the Bronx.

After the death of her father, her mother worked long hours as a nurse to support the family.

She graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University before attending Yale Law School on a scholarship. In 1979, Sotomayor was awarded a Juris Doctor. She was admitted to the New York Bar the following year.

When President Bill Clinton nominated Sotomayor to be a judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in 1997, Republican senators delayed her appointment for more than a year because of their concerns that the position might lead to a Supreme Court nomination. 

In May 2009 Pres. Barack Obama nominated Sotomayor to the Supreme Court in order to fill the vacancy left by departing justice David Souter.

Sotomayor’s confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee in July 2009 went smoothly, and the following month she was confirmed (68–31) by the Senate.

During her tenure on the Supreme Court, Sotomayor has been identified with concern for the rights of defendants, calls for reform of the criminal justice system, and making impassioned dissents on issues of race, gender and ethnic identity.

Learn black history, teach black history at blackfacts.com

BlackFacts.com presents the black fact of the day for June 24.

John R. Lynch became first African-American to preside over deliberations of a national political party.

Born into slavery in Louisiana, he became free in 1863 under the Emancipation Proclamation. 

He became active in the Republican Party by the age of 20. Although too young to participate as a delegate, he attended the state's constitutional convention of 1867, studying its developments closely. 

At the age of 26 in 1872, Lynch was elected as the youngest member of the US Congress from Mississippi's 6th congressional district, as part of the first generation of African-American Congressmen. 

Lynch introduced many bills and argued on their behalf. Perhaps his greatest effort was in the long debate supporting the Civil Rights Act of 1875 to ban discrimination in public accommodations. 

He was one of seven African-American Congressmen present, who all testified in 1874 as to personal and known experience of the effects of discrimination in this area.

In 1884, Lynch became the first African American to chair a political party's National Convention. 

Learn black history, teach black history at blackfacts.com

BlackFacts.com presents the black fact of the day for June 23.

Wilma Rudolph was born.

She was an American sprinter, the first American woman to win three track-and-field gold medals in a single Olympics.

Physically disabled for much of her early life, Rudolph wore a leg brace until she was twelve years old.

Because there was little medical care available to African American residents of Clarksville in the 1940s, Rudolph's parents sought treatment for her at the historically black Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee, about 50 miles away.

She attended Tennessee State University from 1957 to 1961. At age 16 she competed in the 1956 Olympic Games at Melbourne, Australia, winning a bronze medal in the 4 × 100-metre relay race. 

At the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, Italy, Rudolph competed in three events on a cinder track in Rome's Stadio Olimpico: the 100- and 200-meter sprints, as well as the 4 × 100-meter relays. She won a gold medal in each of these events.

These games launched Rudolph into the public spotlight and the media cast her as America's athletic "leading lady" and a "queen," with praises of her athletic accomplishments.

Her strikingly fluid style made Rudolph a particular favorite with spectators and journalists. 

Learn black history, teach black history at blackfacts.com

BlackFacts.com presents the black fact of the day for June 22.

Arthur Ashe leads UCLA to the NCAA tennis championship.

Ashe was coached and mentored by Robert Walter Johnson at his tennis summer-camp home in Lynchburg, Virginia.

Johnson helped fine-tune Ashe's game and taught him the importance of racial socialization through sportsmanship, etiquette and the composure that would later become an Ashe hallmark. 

In 1958, Ashe became the first African American to play in the Maryland boys' championships. It was also his first integrated tennis competition.

In 1963, he became the first black player ever selected for the United States Davis Cup team. 

In 1965, ranked the number 3 player in the United States, Ashe won both the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) singles title and the doubles title (with Ian Crookenden of New Zealand), helping UCLA win the team NCAA tennis championship.

His criticism of South African apartheid racial policy led to denial of permission to play in that country’s open tournament, and, as a consequence, on March 23, 1970, South Africa was excluded from Davis Cup competition.

He was the only black man ever to win the singles title at Wimbledon, the US Open, and the Australian Open.

After his retirement, Ashe took on many roles, including writing for Time magazine and The Washington Post, commentating for ABC Sports and HBO from the early 1980s.

Learn black history, teach black history at blackfacts.com

JUNETEENTH - A Celebration of Freedom.

Juneteenth (a portmanteau of June and nineteenth) is also known as Freedom Day, Jubilee Day, Liberation Day, and Emancipation Day.

It is a holiday celebrating the emancipation of those who had been enslaved in the United States. It is now celebrated annually on the 19th of June throughout the United States.

HISTORY

During the American Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on September 22, 1862. It became effective on January 1, 1863.

This Proclamation declared that all enslaved persons in the Confederate States of America in rebellion and not in Union hands were freed.

More isolated geographically, planters and other slaveholders had migrated into Texas from eastern states to escape the fighting, and many brought enslaved people with them.

Although most lived in rural areas, more than 1,000 resided in both Galveston and Houston by 1860. By 1865, there were an estimated 250,000 enslaved people in Texas.

Despite the surrender of General Robert E. Lee at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865, the western Army of the Trans-Mississippi did not surrender until June 2.

On Monday, June 19, 1865, Union Major General Gordon Granger arrived to Galveston, Texas, to enforce the emancipation of its slaves and oversee a peaceful transition of power.

The Texas Historical Commission and Galveston Historical Foundation report that Granger’s men marched

Throughout Galveston reading General Order No 3:

              “The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute... 

              ...equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes...

              ...that between employer and hired labour. The freedmen are advised to remain quietly at their present homes and work for wages. They are informed that they will not...

              ...be allowed to collect at military posts and that they will not be supported in idleness either there or elsewhere.”

It was from that moment that Juneteenth would be born.

EARLY CELEBRATIONS

Formerly enslaved people in Galveston celebrated after the announcement. The following year, freedmen in Texas organized the first of what became the annual celebration of "Jubilee Day."

On January 2, 1866, a Galveston newspaper, reported on an Emancipation Celebration:

“The colored people of Galveston celebrated their emancipation from slavery yesterday by a procession.

Notwithstanding the storm some eight hundred or a thousand men, women and children took part in the demonstration.”

Flake’s Bulletin, 2 January 1866.

Early celebrations were used as political rallies to give voting instructions to newly freed slaves. Early independence celebrations often occurred on January 1 or 4.

OFFICIAL RECOGNITION

In the late 1970s the Texas Legislature declared Juneteenth a “holiday of significance, particularly to the blacks of Texas", becoming the first state to establish Juneteenth as a state holiday.

The bill passed through the Texas Legislature in 1979 and was officially made a state holiday on January 1, 1980.

Recognition of Juneteenth varies across the United States. It is not officially recognized by the federal government, although the Senate unanimously passed...

...a simple resolution in 2018 in honour of the day, and legislation has been introduced in Congress to make it either a "national day of observance" or a full-scale federal holiday.

The only three states yet to legally recognize Juneteenth as either a state or ceremonial holiday are Hawaii, North Dakota, and South Dakota.

In 2020, Juneteenth was formally recognized by New York City (as an annual official city holiday and public school holiday, starting in 2021)

CELEBRATIONS

The holiday is considered the "longest-running African-American holiday" and has been called "America’s second Independence Day".

Juneteenth is usually celebrated on the third Saturday in June. It was common for former slaves and their descendants to make a pilgrimage to Galveston.

Observance today is primarily in local celebrations. In many places Juneteenth has become a multicultural holiday, Including lectures and exhibitions on African-American culture.

Traditions include public readings of the Emancipation Proclamation, singing traditional songs and reading of works by noted African-American writers.

Celebrations include picnics, rodeos, street fairs, cookouts, family reunions, park parties, historical reenactments, blues festivals and Miss Juneteenth contests.

Historian Mitch Kachun considers that celebrations of the end of slavery have three goals: "to Celebrate, to Educate, and to Agitate."

To learn more about black history visit www.blackfacts.com.

BlackFacts.com presents the black fact of the day for June 21.

Painter Henry Ossawa Tanner was born.

He was an American artist and the first African-American painter to gain international acclaim.

After a childhood spent largely in Philadelphia, Tanner began an art career in earnest in 1876,painting harbour scenes, landscapes, and animals from the Philadelphia Zoo.

Although many artists refused to accept an African-American apprentice, in 1879 Tanner enrolled at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia, becoming the only black student.

In 1891 he traveled to Paris, France, to study at the Académie Julian. He also joined the American Art Students Club. Paris was a welcome escape for Tanner; within French art circles the issue of race mattered little. 

In 1893 on a short return visit to the United States, Tanner painted his most famous work, The Banjo Lesson, while in Philadelphia.

Tanner was not limited to one specific approach to painting and drawing. His works reflect at times meticulous attention to detail and loose, expressive brushstrokes in others. 

Tanner's Sand Dunes at Sunset hangs in the Green Room at the White House; it is the first painting by an African-American artist to have been purchased for the permanent collection of the White House.

Learn black history, teach black history at blackfacts.com

BlackFacts.com presents the black fact of the day for June 20.

Harry Belafonte became the first African American to win an Emmy award.

As one of the most successful African-American pop stars in history, he was dubbed the “King of Calypso” for popularizing the Caribbean musical style with an international audience in the 1950s. 

He was an early supporter of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and 1960s, and one of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s confidants. 

He financed the 1961 Freedom Rides, supported voter registration drives, and helped to organize the 1963 March on Washington.

Throughout his career, he has been an advocate for political and humanitarian causes, such as the anti-apartheid movement and USA for Africa. Since 1987, he has been a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador.

He was awarded an Emmy for his television special, Tonight Show with Harry Belafonte.

In 1989, he received the Kennedy Center Honors.

Learn black history, teach black history at blackfacts.com

BlackFacts.com presents the black fact of the day for June 19.

Solidarity Day March

In November 1967 civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., and the staff of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) met and decided to launch a Poor People’s Campaign to highlight and find solutions to many of the problems facing the country’s poor. 

The Poor People’s Campaign was still in the planning stages when King was assassinated in April 1968.

The plan for the march was that protestors would come together in Washington, D.C., and demonstrate daily from May 14 to June 24, 1968. 

June 19th was declared Solidarity Day, and a rally was held, attracting between 50–100,000 people. Addresses were made by Ralph Abernathy, Hubert Humphrey, Eugene McCarthy, Walter Reuther as well as Coretta Scott-King.

In 1969, a Poor People's Campaign delegation, including Abernathy, met with President Nixon and asked him to address hunger and malnutrition.

The 2nd Solidarity March came near the 10 year anniversary of the first and drew between 250,000 and 325,000 people. 

Learn black history, teach black history at blackfacts.com

BlackFacts.com presents the black fact of the day for June 18.

W.H. Richardson patents Baby Buggy.

He was born in Baltimore, Maryland, and he made a huge improvement to the baby carriage.

Richardson decided to create a stroller  to be shaped more like a symmetrical basket, rather than a shell, as it was back then.

This new design made it easier for parents and nannies to move the carriage around 360 degrees, compared to only 90 degrees before.

The big part of Richardson’s change to the baby carriage is that it was now reversible, making it possible to have anyone pushing the baby face them instead of facing in the opposite direction.

The use of prams became widespread among all economic classes by the 1900s.

Many of Richardson's design modification are still in use today.

Learn black history, teach black history at blackfacts.com

BlackFacts.com presents the black fact of the day for June 17.

Tuskegee Boycott began. 

The issue of the boycott was segregation and voting rights.  The voting districts for the city of Tuskegee were changed dramatically to prevent black citizens from electing local officials. 

The Tuskegee Civic Association (TCA), a predominantly black organization working for civil rights, challenged the new district  boundaries and took it to court.

The leader of the Civic Association was Dr. Charles Gomillion, a Tuskegee Institute professor. As a strategy to gain victory, he told the citizens to "Trade with your friends". 

This had an immediate result on the local businesses because even though blacks were to enter stores from the rear, and had to wait for white customers before they were served, they were significant consumers of goods in Tuskegee.

The Boycott also resulted in local Macon County black businesses thriving and multiplying. 

It effectively created devastating economic consequences for Whites, who preferred to go out of business than give Blacks the right to vote. 

The use of redrawing voting district lines was ruled illegal and became a landmark case for the United States Civil Rights Movement.

Participants in the Tuskegee boycott engaged in unwavering civil activism to end the expulsion of black city residents and re-establish their voting rights.

Learn black history, teach black history at blackfacts.com