May 24, 1856, marks the start of the Pottawatomie Massacre. Initiated by John Brown, the five pro-slavery supporters were dead by dawn.   BLEEDING KANSAS May was a bloody month for Kansas and the Pottawatomie Massacre was part of a larger border conflict. Since it is a volatile topic, the ...

John Trusty Gibson was a prominent businessman in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Gibson's entrepreneurial spirit led him to become the first black man to own all three major black theaters in the Philadelphia. Gibson was born in Baltimore, Maryland. While growing up in Maryland, he attended the ...

Famous Civil Rights Leader Malcolm X was a powerforce and poignant speaker for black people during his lifetime. After his return from Mecca, Malcolm X used the name El Hajj Malik el Shabazz. In an interview explaining the name and his continued usage of the X, Malcolm called to task the ...

  March 6th, 1957 is a date of huge importance to not only Ghanaian history, but Africa as a whole. As the first African country to win its independence, Ghana’s move toward self-rule broke the official hold of colonialism by European powers on African soil, beginning the wave of other ...

Katherine 'Kittie' Knox earned a living as a seamstress and dressmaker. Her first love was cycling which she excelled at doing, later becoming one of the most accomplished cyclists of her time. Since mostly men were seen riding bicycles at that time, Knox drew a lot of attention as a woman cyclist ...

By Bashir Muhammad Akinyele Editor: Victor Trammell Photo credits: ©2016 Brittany Starr  Artifacts attributed to the ancient vizier Ptahhotep were found in Kemet (Egypt). However, in that same country, there exists a book older than the Teachings of Ptahhotep. It was called ...

Frank and Edward Mallory were big names of the minstrel and vaudeville stage. The two appeared from the early 1880s to the early 1900s. They often used saxophones, handbells, and other brass instruments. After the brothers married, their wives were included in the act. The Mallory Brothers began ...

James Alexander Chiles was one of the first African American lawyers to argue a case before the Supreme Court. He was also the first black person to practice law in Lexington, Kentucky. Chiles was one of eight children, born in 1860 to Richard and Martha Chiles. After completing high school, he ...

Four #African American children, probably three girls and one boy, pose in a living room next to a piano in white dresses. c1910 Want to know more about #Black History ? Visit Discover Black Heritage. Found On Flicker.com in Black History Album

Pharmacist Frank Barbour Coffin owned and operated the first drug store in Little Rock, Arkansas which served the black community. Coffin was also a poet during the nineteenth and twentieth century. Coffin was born on January 12, 1870, in Holly Springs, Mississippi to Samuel and Josephine Barton ...

BY WALTER OPINDE On this day, May 23, 1975, the first African-American standup comedian, Jackie Moms Mabley, dies. She achieved a great professional and commercial success during the age in which there were very few African-American females on the comedy platforms. Famous with her stage name, ...

The city of New York hired Gertrude Hadley Jeanette, as its first woman licensed taxi driver in 1942. Jeanette also later became a notable  film and stage actress and playwright. Jeanette was born in Urbana, Arkansas in 1914 to a mother who was a homemaker and father who taught on a Native ...