Mance Jackson died in Decatur, Georgia on March 16, 2007.

Rebel troops in Zaire take the major city of Kisangani in an effort to overthrow President Mobutu Sese Seko.

Hiram R. Revels made his first speech in the Senate, opposing the readmission of Georgia without adequate safeguards for Black citizens. This was the first official speech by a Black in Congress.

Frederick McKinley Jones (1892-1961) - Frederick McKinley Jones built the first automatic refrigeration system for long haul trucks. Later, the system was adapted to various other carriers, including railway cars and ships. Mr. Jones new method initiated a change in the eating habits and patterns of the entire nation and allowed for the development of food production facilities in almost any geographic location.

The University of the Virgin Islands  (UVI) is a public university located on the islands of St. Thomas and St. Croix, the United States Virgin Islands. It was established in 1962  In 1986 it officially became one of the 117 U.S. Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). It remains the only HCBU not on the mainland of the United States.

The University of the Virgin Islands was founded on March 16, 1962, as the College of the Virgin Islands.  Its founding legislation authorized the campus as a publicly funded, coeducational, liberal arts institution. According to that legislation, Act No. 862 of the Fourth Legislature of the U.S. Virgin Islands, the colleges prime objective was to provide for “...the stimulation and utilization of the intellectual resources of the people of the Virgin Islands and the development of a center of higher learning whereby and where from the benefits of culture and education may be extended throughout the Virgin Islands.” The institution changed its name in 1986 to the University of the Virgin Islands to reflect the growth and development of its academic programs.  

Today there are two are two campuses situated on the two major islands of St. Thomas and St. Croix.  The St. Thomas campus is three miles from Charlotte Amalie, the capital of the territory. About 94% of the campuss 2,392 students are from the Virgin Islands.  As a consequence, academic leaders have attempted to craft attractive programs that would diversify the student body.  They have worked to recruit students from the U.S. mainland and international students.  Students from across the United States for example, are allowed to participate in a semester or year-long exchange to UVI through the National Student Exchange with tuition paid by the students home campus.  UVI students are encouraged to enter exchanges with mainland campuses in all 50 states as well as Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Canada.

The university has five academic divisions: Business, Education, Humanities and Social Sciences, Nursing, and

Irvin Hicks was born March 16, 1938, in Baltimore, Maryland.

African American LDS activist Eugene Orr was born on March 16, 1946, to David Orr and Martha Wilder Orr in Ashburn, Georgia.

First Black newspaper, Freedoms Journal, published in New York City.

Cole was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on March 16, 1846.

Freedom’s Journal was the first African American owned and operated newspaper in the United States. A weekly four column publication printed every Friday, Freedom’s Journal was founded by free born African Americans John Russwurm and Samuel Cornish on March 16, 1827 in New York City, New York. The newspaper contained both foreign and domestic news, editorials, biographies, births and deaths in the local African American community, and advertisements. Editorials deriding slavery, racial discrimination, and other injustices against African Americans were aimed at providing a counterweight to many of the white newspapers of the time period which openly supported slavery and racial bias.  

Freedom’s Journal was not born solely out of the perceived need to defend African Americans as much as a desire within the black community to create a forum that would express their views and advocate for their causes.  Russwurm and Cornish placed great value on the need for reading and writing as keys to empowerment for the black population and they hoped a black newspaper would encourage literacy and intellectual development among African Americans.  Relatedly the newspaper sought to broaden its readers awareness of world events and developments while simultaneously strengthening ties among black communities across the Northern United States.  Subscriptions were $3 per year and Freedoms Journal at its peak circulated in eleven states, the District of Columbia, Haiti, Europe, and Canada.

In September 1827 Russwurm became sole editor of Freedoms Journal following the resignation of Cornish over differences regarding African American colonization of Africa. Russwurm had begun to promote the colonization movement lead by the American Colonization Society which wanted to free African American slaves and offer them the opportunity of transport back to Africa. The papers support of colonization, however, was unpopular with its readers and subscriptions began to decline.  With the loss of circulation in March 1829, Freedoms