*On this date in 1940, Alston v. The School Board of Norfolk was decided. This was a suit instituted by Melvin O. Alston, a Black school teacher of Norfolk, Va., and the Norfolk Teachers’ Association, an association composed of the Black school teachers of that city. From the beginning of segregated public schooling in Norfolk, […]
learn more*Jim Clyburn was born on this date, in 1940. He is a Black politician and retired educator. James Enos Clyburn was born in Sumter, South Carolina, the son of Enos Lloyd Clyburn, a fundamentalist minister, and his wife, Almeta (née Dizzley), a beautician. He is a distant relative of George W. Murray, an organizer for the Colored […]
learn more*The Double V Victory of Black history is celebrated on this date in 1941. President Franklin Roosevelt gave his “Four Freedoms” speech on that date. During World War II, the black press and several prominent black leaders called for a “Double V” victory against fascism abroad and against Jim Crow at home. It was easy […]
learn more*On this date in 1941, the 758th Tank Battalion was established. This was a Black military tank battalion of the United States Army that served during World War II in Italy. History In March 1941, the U.S. Army’s first black armored unit tankers reported to Fort Knox, Kentucky, to begin armored warfare training. On May […]
learn more*Wellington Webb was born on this date in 1941. He is an African American politician and administrator and the first African American Mayor of Denver, CO.
learn more*Joseph Reason was born on this date in 1941. He is a retired Navy officer. Joseph Paul Reason was born in Washington, D.C. he is the son of Joseph Reason and his wife, Bernice. His father was a professor of romance languages and director of libraries at Howard University; his mother was a high school biology teacher. Young Reason grew up in a multiracial […]
learn more*On this date in 1941, Ethiopia Regained Its Independence from Italy. This helped Black Africa repair the invasion of the 1884 Berlin Conference, the high point of white European competition for territory in the continent, a process commonly known as the Scramble for Africa. The independence of Ethiopia was interrupted by the Second Italo-Ethiopian War, beginning […]
learn moreOn this date in 1941, the Marine Corps formally integrated. This was a result of President Roosevelt signing Executive Order 8802 months before Pearl Harbor.
learn more*The Fair Employment Practice Committee (FEPC) was created on this date in 1941. Officially termed Executive Order 8802 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, its purpose was: “banning discriminatory employment practices by Federal agencies and all unions and companies engaged in war-related work.” This was a great advancement for African America, initiated mainly by three people/organizations. Brotherhood […]
learn more*On this date in 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 8802, which prohibited ethnic or racial discrimination in the nation’s defense industry. It also established the Fair Employment Practice Committee, the first federal action, though not a law, to promote equal opportunity and prohibit employment discrimination in the United States. Many citizens of […]
learn moreRon Brown was born on this date in 1941 in Washington, D. C. He was a businessman and politician who was the first African American to serve as chairman of a national political party.
learn more*William Gray III was born on this date in 1941. He was a Black politician and minister. William Herbert Gray III was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, but grew up in St. Augustine, Florida, where his father was president of Florida Normal and Industrial Institute (later renamed Florida A and M University), and later in North Philadelphia, Pennsylvania where he graduated from Simon […]
learn more*On this date in 1941, Bernie Sanders was born. He is a white Jewish-American (former) civil rights activist and politician from Brooklyn, New York City. Bernard Sanders’ father, Elias Ben Yehuda Sanders, was born to a Jewish family in Słopnice, Galicia, in Austria-Hungary (now part of Poland). In 1921, Elias immigrated to the United States to become a paint […]
learn more*Mae Jackson was born on this date in 1941. She was a Black social worker. Mae Allison Jackson was born in the east-central Texas town of Teague. Despite the difficulties of growing up in a Jim Crow Southern town during the 1940s and 1950s, Jackson determined a successful course for her life. Jackson learned the value of […]
learn more*Ernest Green was born on this date in 1941. He is a Black lawyer, administrator, and one of the Little Rock Nine. Ernest Gideon Green was born in Little Rock, Arkansas, to Lothaire and Ernest Green, Sr. Ernest had a brother, Scott, and a sister, Treopia Washington. As a child, Green attended church and was a […]
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