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Category: Black History 365

Black History 365

Lee P. Brown at 89: Houston’s First Black Mayor — and the Cop Who Changed the Department First

From a Wewoka, Oklahoma birth certificate that read "Baby Brown" to Houston's first Black mayor: Lee P. Brown turns 89…

Frank Robinson in a Cleveland Indians uniform in 1975.
Black History 365

Frank Robinson at 52 Years: The First Black Manager in Major League Baseball

Fifty-two years ago today, the Cleveland Indians named Frank Robinson manager — the first Black manager in MLB history. He…

The Prince Hall Masonic Temple on Auburn Avenue in Atlanta, home of WERD radio.
Black History 365

WERD at 77: The First Black-Owned Radio Station — and Its Houston Chapter

Seventy-seven years ago today, Jesse B. Blayton Sr. signed WERD on the air in Atlanta — the first Black-owned radio…

Engraving of Nat Turner conferring with his confederates in the woods before the 1831 rebellion.
Black History 365

Nat Turner at 226: The Preacher Who Read the Sky and Started a Rebellion

Born October 2, 1800, Nat Turner led the deadliest slave rebellion in U.S. history — then Virginia tried to erase…

Thurgood Marshall in judicial robes with his family at the Supreme Court, October 1967.
Black History 365

Thurgood Marshall at 59: The Lawyer Who Carried a Briefcase Into Jim Crow’s Courtroom

Fifty-nine years ago today, Thurgood Marshall was sworn in as the first Black Supreme Court justice. Before that, he won…

Black-and-white 1919 photograph of U.S. Army soldiers of the 57th Infantry in pup tents during the Elaine race riot in Arkansas.
Black History 365

The Deadliest Race Riot in U.S. History Started Today — And They Never Taught Us About It

One hundred seven years ago today, Black sharecroppers in Elaine, Arkansas, sat in a church and talked about getting paid…

Koko Taylor performing at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, 2006, in a sparkling outfit, mid-song.
Black History 365

Koko Taylor at 98: The Queen of Chicago Blues Earned the Crown the Hard Way

Ninety-eight years ago today, sharecropper's daughter Cora Ann Walton was born on a farm near Memphis — the girl who…

Mabel Fairbanks mid-leap in a feathered show costume during an ice revue performance
Black History 365

Mabel Fairbanks: The Figure Skating Legend Told “We Don’t Have Negroes in Ice Shows”

Twenty-five years ago today, figure skating lost Mabel Fairbanks — the Black woman told "we don't have Negroes in ice…

Exterior of the former WGPR-TV studios at 3146 East Jefferson Avenue in Detroit, now home to the William V. Banks Broadcast Museum & Media Center.
Black History 365

WGPR-TV Turns 51: The Detroit Station That Proved Black People Could Run a TV Network

Fifty-one years ago today, WGPR-TV Channel 62 signed on in Detroit — the first Black-owned and Black-operated television station in…

Engraved frontispiece from David Walker's Appeal, showing an enslaved man on a mountaintop reaching toward the words 'libertas justitia.'
Black History 365

David Walker’s Appeal at 197: The Pamphlet So Dangerous the South Criminalized It

One hundred ninety-seven years ago today, a free Black clothing dealer in Boston published a pamphlet so dangerous that the…