People, Locations, Episodes

Margaret Sloan-Hunter, Feminist, and Publisher born

Margaret Sloan-Hunter was born on this date in 1947. She was an African American writer, publisher, feminist, and civil rights activist.

She was born in Chattanooga, TN., and grew up in Chicago. She was just 14 years old when she joined the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), a group that worked on poverty and urban issues on behalf of the African American community in Chicago. She organized tenants’ unions, rent strikes, and campaigned against the lead poisoning plaguing housing on the West Side, all before she was even old enough to vote.

Mala Sen, Activist born

*Mala Sen was born on this date in 1947.  She was a Bengali Indian-British writer and human rights activist.   Born in Mussoorie in Uttarakhand, Mala Sen was the daughter of Lt-Gen Lionel Proteep Sen and Kalyani Gupta. Following her parents’ divorce in 1953, her father brought her up.  Sen was of Bengali heritage.  After […]

Mark Clark, Black Panther Activist born

*Mark Clark was born on this date in 1947. He was a Black activist and member of the Black Panther Party. Mark Clark was born in Peoria, Illinois, to Elder William Clark and Fannie Bradley Clark. Family members said Clark enjoyed reading and art and drew portraits well. He attended Manual High School and Illinois […]

Assata Shakur, Writer born

Assata Olugbala Shakur was born on this date in 1947. She is an African American writer exiled from America.

E. ‘Geronimo’ Pratt, Activist born

*Geronimo Pratt was born on this date in 1947. He was an African American activist and was a high-ranking member of the Black Panther Party.

Michael Lomax, Administrative Activist born

*Michael Lomax was born on this date in 1947.  He is a Black educator, college professor, administrator, and activist.  Born in Los Angeles, California, Michael Lucius Lomax is the son of Lucius W. Lomax, Jr., a Los Angeles attorney, and Hallie Almena Davis Lomax, a journalist.  Lomax was the brother of Los Angeles civil rights […]

Mamphela Ramphele, Academic, and Activist born

*Mamphela Ramphele was born on this date in 1947. She is a Black South African activist, doctor, academic, and businesswoman. Mamphela Aletta Ramphele was born in the Bochum District in Northern Transvaal (now Limpopo, South Africa. Her mother, Rangoato Rahab, and her father, Pitsi Eliphaz Ramphele, were primary school teachers. In 1955, Ramphele witnessed a conflict […]

Ben Chavis, Minister, and Activist born

*Ben Chavis was born on this date in 1948.  He is a Black minister and civil rights activist.   Benjamin Franklin Chavis Jr. was born and grew up in Oxford, North Carolina. In 1960 at the age of twelve, Chavis became the first Black to be issued a library card at the public library. He […]

Frank Wills, Security Guard born

*Frank Wills was born on this date in 1948. He was an African American Security guard at the Watergate office complex in Washington D. C.

Fred Hampton, Black Panther Activist born

*Fred Hampton was born on this date in 1948. He was a Black activist, Marxist-Leninist, and revolutionary socialist. Fredrick Allen Hampton was born in present-day Summit Argo, Illinois, and moved with his parents to Maywood, Illinois, ten years later, where he grew up. Both are suburbs of Chicago. His parents had moved north from Louisiana […]

Theresa Venable, Librarian and Administrator born.

*Theresa Venable was born on this date in 1948.  She is a Black educator, historian, and retired librarian. From Knoxville, TN, Theresa Evans Venable earned a B.S. in Elementary Education and an M.S. in Information Sciences from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN. For thirty years, she was an elementary and middle school reading and […]

The African National Congress Women’s League is formed

*On this date in 1948, the African National Congress Women’s League (ANCWL) was formed. The ANCWL is an auxiliary women’s political organization of the African National Congress (ANC) of South Africa. This organization has its precedent in the Bantu Women’s League, and it oscillated from being the Women’s Section to the Women’s League from its founding, through […]

Algeania Freeman, Educator, and Administrator born

*On this date in 1949, Algeania Freeman was born. She is a Black educator, administrator, author, consultant, and community activist. Algeania Marie Warren Freeman, a native of Benson, North Carolina, was born in Betsy Johnson Memorial Hospital in Dunn, North Carolina, to Ms. Ada Mae Warren and Mr. Al Woodard, Jr. Until seven years old, […]

Reggie Forte, Black Panther Activist born

*Reggie Forte was born on this date in 1949.  He was an African American civil rights activist and one of the founding members of the Black Panther Party. Forte was born in Birmingham, Alabama, to Leavy II and Helen (Demand) Forte; he had two brothers, Sherwin and Leavy III.  At age ten, his family relocated to Emeryville, California, in 1959 and later to Oakland, […]

The Isitwalandwe/Seaparankoe Medal, a story

*The Isitwalandwe/Seaparankoe Medal is celebrated on this date in 1949. It is the highest award given by the African National Congress (ANC) “to those who have made an outstanding contribution and sacrifice to the liberation struggle,” that is, those who resisted the apartheid regime in South Africa (1949−1991) in various ways. Isitwalandwe means “the one who wears the plumes […]