February 5
1866—Congressman Thaddeus Stevens, one of the great White heroes of Black history, offers his famous amendment to the Freedman’s Bureau bill to...
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on the picket line at the Scripto plant in Atlanta, Ga., December, 1964. AP
by Peter Cole, Western Illinois University
If...
JANUARY 15
1908—Alpha Kappa Alpha, the first Black Greek letter sorority, is founded on the campus of Howard University in Washington, D.C., by Ethel...
January 8
1866—Fisk University is founded in Nashville, Tenn., for recently freed slaves by the American Missionary Association. The college grows to become one...
Mamie Till-Mobley watches the body of her son, Emmett, being lowered into his grave. Robert Abbott Sengstacke/Getty Images
JANUARY 1
1804—Jean Jacques Dessalines proclaims the...