*On this date in 1917, the 92nd Infantry Division was formed. This was a segregated infantry division of the United States Army that served in World War I and II. The 92nd Division was first constituted on paper in the National Army over six months after the U.S. entry into World War I. The division […]
learn moreOn this date in 1917, the U.S. Supreme Court conceded that states cannot restrict and officially segregate African Americans in residential districts.
The decisions (Buchanan v Warley) struck down a (then) Louisville, Ky., ordinance requiring blacks & whites to live in separate areas.
learn more*Samuel W. Allen was born on this date in 1917. He was a Black writer, poet, literary scholar, and lawyer. From Columbus, Samuel Washington Allen graduated as valedictorian of Fisk University in 1938 with an AB in sociology, where he studied with James Weldon Johnson. He received a JD from Harvard Law School in 1941. Drafted into the […]
learn moreThis date marks the birth of Bruce M. Wright in 1917. He was an African American judge, lawyer, and poet.
He was born in Princeton, N.J., and raised in Harlem, New York. Bruce McMarion Wright’s father was Black and his mother was white. He was awarded a scholarship to attend Princeton in 1939, but denied admission when the university learned that he was Black. Wright was denied admission to Notre Dame on the same grounds.
learn more*The birth of Donald Hollowell on this date in 1917 is marked. He was an African American attorney who specialized in Civil Rights.
learn moreTom Bradley, an African American administrator and politician, was born on this date in 1917.
Thomas Bradley was born in Calvert, TX. His family later moved to Los Angeles where he attended UCLA. He served 22 years in the police department, rising to the rank of lieutenant, and earned a law degree from Southwestern University Law School in Georgetown, TX, in 1956. In 1963, Bradley became the first Black elected to the Los Angeles city council. In 1973, he became the city’s first Black mayor, a position he held until his retirement from politics in 1993.
learn more*On this date we mark the birth of Charles Arthur Hayes in 1918. He was an African American unionist, politician, and a member of the House of Representative from Illinois.
learn more*This date celebrates the birth of Charity Edna Adams Earley in 1918. A Black soldier and officer from Columbia, South Carolina, she was the oldest of four children of a minister and a teacher.
learn moreEmile Zinsou was born on this date in 1918. He was an African nationalist, and politician.
learn more*On this date, 1918, the Minnesota Home Guard was formed. This was formed in St. Paul, Minnesota, in two all-Black Sixteenth Battalion Companies, A and B., and C and D. These Black men, led by Cap Wigington, met at the old state capitol building. Wigington became captain of Company A. Orrington C and gave an address after […]
learn moreOn this date in 1918, Coleman Young, an African American politician, was born.
learn more*On this date in 1918, the 805th Pioneer Infantry was formed. During World War I, it was an all-Black segregated United States Army infantry regiment. The 805th contained black soldiers from the state of Mississippi. The battalion landed in France in July 1918 to support the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, which began on September 26, 1918. The […]
learn more*On this date in 1918 Nelson Mandela was born. He was a South African activist and leader who helped end apartheid, the first Black president of South Africa, and a winner of the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize.
learn moreThis date marks the birth of Frank M. Johnson, a White American lawyer and Federal judge, in 1918.
learn more*George Iles was born on this date in 1918. He was a Black U.S. Army Air Force officer. George Jewell Iles was born in Quincy, Illinois, Adams County, to George D. Iles and Juanita Howell Iles. The elder George worked as a barber and later as an employee at Firestone’s Electric Wheel Works. The family […]
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