May 1, 1867 - First four students enter
Howard University.
May 2, 1920 - Indianapolis ABCs defeat
Chicago Giants in first Negro
National League Game.
May 3, 1964 - Frederick O'Neal becomes first
Black president of the
Actor's Equity Association.
May 4, 1961 - "Freedom Riders" begin
protesting segregation of
interstate bus travel in the South.
May 5, 1988 - Eugene Marino becomes first
African American installed
as a Roman Catholic archbishop in the U.S.
May 6, 1991 - The Smithsonian Institution
approves the creation of
the National African American Museum.
May 7, 1878 - Joseph R. Winters patents
first fire escape ladder.
May 8, 1983 - Lena Horne awarded the
Springarm Medal for
distinguished career in the field of
entertainment.
May 9, 1899 - John Albert Burr patents lawn.
May 10, 1950 - Boston Celtics select Chuck
Cooper first Black player
drafted to play in the NBA.
May 11, 1895 - Composer William Grant Still,
the first African
American to conduct a major American
symphony orchestra, born.
May 12, 1820 - The New York African Free
School population reaches 500.
May 13, 1872 - Matilda Arabella Evans, first
African American woman
to practice medicine in South Carolina,
born.
May 14, 1888 - Slavery abolished in Brazil.
May 15, 1820 - U.S. Congress declares
foreign slave trade an act of
piracy, punishable by death.
May 16, 1927 - William Harry Barnes becomes
first African American
certified by any American surgical board.
May 17, 1954 - U.S. Supreme Court declares
segregation in public
schools unconstitutional in Brown v. Board
of Education decision.
May 18, 1896 - Plessy vs. Ferguson, Supreme
Court upholds the
doctrine of "separate but equal" education
and public accommodations.
May 19, 1925 - Malcolm X born Malcolm Little
in Omaha, Neb.
May 20, 1961 - U.S. Attorney General Robert
Kennedy dispatches U.S.
Marshals to Montgomery, Ala., to restore
order in the "Freedom Rider"
disturbance.
May 21, 1833 - African Americans enroll for
the first time at Oberlin
College, Ohio.
May 22, 1921 - Shuffle Along, a musical
featuring a score by Eubie
Blake and Noble Sissle, opens on Broadway.
May 23, 1900 - Sgt. William H. Carney
becomes the first African
American awarded the Congressional Medal of
Honor for valor at Fort
Wagner, S.C., 1863.
May 24, 1854 - Lincoln University (Pa.), the
first black college, is
founded.
May 25, 1926 - Jazz trumpeter Miles Davis
born.
May 26, 1961 - Marvin Cook named ambassador
to Niger Republic; first
Black envoy named by Kennedy Administration
to an African nation.
May 27, 1919 - Madame C.J. Walker, cosmetics
manufacturer and first
Black female millionaire, died.
May 28, 1948 - National Party wins
Whites-only election in South
Africa and begins to institute policy of
apartheid.
May 29, 1901 - Granville T. Woods patents
overhead conducting system
for the electric railway.
May 30 1965 - Vivian Malone becomes the
first African American to
graduate from the University of Alabama.
May 31, 1870 - Congress passes the first
Enforcement Act, providing
stiff penalties for those who deprive others
of their civil rights.
|
Attn: Black History Speakers!
Need an online way to market? 