On This Day in Black History: May 20
1743
Toussaint L'Ouverture was born.
1782
Deborah Samson Gannett enlisted in the Fourth Massachusetts Regiment in disguise as Robert Shurtliff.
1851
Henry Bibb founded Canada's first black newspaper, Voice of the Fugitive.
1861
North Carolina became the last state to secede from the Union.
1942
Black recruits were allowed to serve in the U.S. Navy.
1961
A mob attacked Freedom Riders with baseball bats, pipes, and sticks in Montgomery, Alabama. One black rider was covered with kerosene and set on fire.
1972
The federal structure was dissolved and a new constitution was adopted as the United Republic of the Cameroon was formed.
1983
A car bomb explosion outside the headquarters of the South African Air Force resulted in 19 dead and over two hundred injured. The African National Congress (ANC) claimed responsibility for the blast.
Today's Featured Page
The Dogon of Mali
For centuries, the Dogon of Mali have had an excellent understanding of the solar system, particularly the Sirius star system. More...
For centuries, the Dogon of Mali have had an excellent understanding of the solar system, particularly the Sirius star system. More...
Previously Featured Pages
Samori Ture
Born about 1830 in Sanankaro, a village southeast of Kankan in present-day Guinea, Samori Ture chose the path of confrontation, using warfare and diplomacy, to deal with the French colonial incursion into West Africa and established himself as the leading African opponent of European imperialism. More...
The Sharpeville Massacre
March 21, 1960: A large crowd of Black South Africans assembled in front of the Sharpeville police station to protest the pass laws imposed by apartheid. The pass laws were statutes requiring all black men and women of South Africa to carry a reference book with them when they travelled outside of their homes. More...
Frederick McKinley Jones
Growing up as an orphan and not attending school beyond grade eight, Frederick McKinley Jones was ultimately to become one of the most prolific black inventors. More...
The Rastafarian Movement
The Rastafarian Movement takes its name from Ras Tafari, later crowned as Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia in 1930. Rastafarian philosophy stresses anti-colonialism and an affirmation of African social and cultural history. It offers both historical and political alternatives and its focus is on Africa. More...
Philip Emeagwali
Philip Emeagwali, a Nigerian presently living in the US, won the International Gordon Bell Prize in computer science. More...
Mary Seacole
Born in Kingston, Jamaica, a quarter-century before the abolition of slavery to a free black woman and a Scottish army officer, Mary Seacole (née Grant) went on to become famous for her outstanding humanitarian work in the Crimean War. More...
Born about 1830 in Sanankaro, a village southeast of Kankan in present-day Guinea, Samori Ture chose the path of confrontation, using warfare and diplomacy, to deal with the French colonial incursion into West Africa and established himself as the leading African opponent of European imperialism. More...
The Sharpeville Massacre
March 21, 1960: A large crowd of Black South Africans assembled in front of the Sharpeville police station to protest the pass laws imposed by apartheid. The pass laws were statutes requiring all black men and women of South Africa to carry a reference book with them when they travelled outside of their homes. More...
Frederick McKinley Jones
Growing up as an orphan and not attending school beyond grade eight, Frederick McKinley Jones was ultimately to become one of the most prolific black inventors. More...
The Rastafarian Movement
The Rastafarian Movement takes its name from Ras Tafari, later crowned as Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia in 1930. Rastafarian philosophy stresses anti-colonialism and an affirmation of African social and cultural history. It offers both historical and political alternatives and its focus is on Africa. More...
Philip Emeagwali
Philip Emeagwali, a Nigerian presently living in the US, won the International Gordon Bell Prize in computer science. More...
Mary Seacole
Born in Kingston, Jamaica, a quarter-century before the abolition of slavery to a free black woman and a Scottish army officer, Mary Seacole (née Grant) went on to become famous for her outstanding humanitarian work in the Crimean War. More...
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