#BlackHistory Every Day ~Today in Black History
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March 1, 1780 ~ Pennsylvania passed “An Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery,” which stopped the importation of slaves into the State, required all slaves to be registered, and established that all children born in the State were free.
While individuals who were slaves before 1780 remained in slavery, this was the first Act abolishing slavery in a democratic society. It became the model for abolition laws across the Northern states.
#BlackHistory Every Day ~Today in Black History
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March 2, 1807 ~ Congress passes legislation banning the slave trade. The law which was to go into effect on Jan. 1, 1808 prohibited the importation of slaves into the U.S. or any of its territories. Despite the law, however, the illegal importation of slaves continued for years.
The domestic slave trade within the United States was not affected by the 1807 law.
#BlackHistory Every Day ~Today in Black History
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March 3, 1973 ~ Roberta Flack's "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" is named Song and Record of the Year at the Grammys.
#BlackHistory Every Day ~Today in Black History
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March 4, 1965 ~ Bill Russell of the Boston Celtics honored as NBA MVP for the 4th time in five years.
With Russell as their starting center and defensive anchor, the Celtics went on to win their first NBA championship in 1957 and won an NBA record eight consecutive championships from 1959 to 1966. A five-time NBA MVP and a 12-time NBA All-Star, Russell's rebounding, defense, and leadership made him one of the dominant players of his era.
#BlackHistory Every Day ~Today in Black History
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March 6, 1882 ~ Virginia State University is founded as the Virginia Normal and Collegiate Institute.
VSU is a public historically Black land-grant university in Ettrick, VA. and developed as the United States's first fully state-supported four-year institution of higher learning for Black Americans. The university is a member school of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund and a PROUD host of a 2024 presidential debate.
#BlackHistory Every Day ~Today in Black History
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March 7, 1927 ~ Supreme Court decision (Nixon v. Herndon) struck down Texas law which barred Blacks from voting in its Democratic Party primary.
This case was one of four supported by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) that challenged the Texas Democratic Party's all-white primary, which was finally prohibited in the Supreme Court ruling Smith v. Allwright in 1944.
#BlackHistory Every Day ~Today in Black History
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March 8, 1945 ~ Phyllis Mae Daley was sworn into the Navy Nurse Corps as an ensign becoming the first African American woman either to serve in the United States Navy or to become a commissioned Navy officer.
She left the service on May 9, 1951, having earned the rank of lieutenant (junior grade).
#BlackHistory Every Day ~Today in Black History
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March 9 , 1891 ~ North Carolina A&T is founded by the North Carolina General Assembly as the Agricultural and Mechanical College for the Colored Race.
It was the second college established under the provisions of the Morrill Act of 1890, as well as the first for people of color in North Carolina. NC A&T is the largest historically black college or university (HBCU) in the United States, a position it has held since 2014.
#BlackHistory Every Day ~Today in Black History
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March 10 , 1969 ~ James Earl Ray pleaded guilty in a Memphis court to charges of killing Martin Luther King Jr. He was sentenced to ninety-nine years in prison. The House Select Committee on Assassinations said later that Ray fired the shot that killed King but that he was probably one element in a larger conspiracy.
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March 11, 1959 ~ Lorraine Hansberry’s “A Raisin In the Sun” opens at Barrymore Theater, New York, the first play by a black woman to premier on Broadway.
#BlackHistory Every Day ~Today in Black History
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March 12, 1971 ~ The Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) was established by 13 founding members.
Rep. Shirley A. Chisholm
Rep. William L. Clay, Sr.
Rep. George W. Collins
Rep. John Conyers, Jr.
Rep. Ronald V. Dellums
Rep. Charles C. Diggs, Jr.
Rep. Augustus F. Hawkins
Rep. Ralph H. Metcalfe
Rep. Parren J. Mitchell
Rep. Robert N.C. Nix, Sr
Rep. Charles B. Rangel
Rep. Louis Stokes
Del. Walter E. Fauntroy
#BlackHistory Every Day ~Today in Black History
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March 13, 1865 ~ Confederate President Jefferson Davis signed a bill authorizing the employment of Blacks as soldiers in the confederate army. The law culminated a long period of dispute in the south over the use of Blacks as soldiers. While southerners willingly used Blacks for fatigue duties and personal service, the idea of Black combat soldiers was repugnant to them. The war ended before any Blacks faced combat.
#BlackHistory Every Day ~Today in Black History
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March 14, 1917 ~ First training camp for "colored" officers is established by the U.S. Army in Des Moines, Iowa.
Originally planned as a three-month endeavor running from July to September, the COTC was extended by more than a month, causing many to quit believing that the “War Department never intended to commission colored men as officers in the army. Some returned home but the 639 who remained graduated, all ready for assignment.
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March 15, 1999 ~ Maurice Ashley becomes the first African-American chess player to attain the rank of International Grand Master.
#BlackHistory Every Day ~Today in Black History
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March 16, 2024 ~ The 55th NAACP Image Awards, with the support of Unilever, is proud to honor award-winning writer, poet, and activist Amanda Gorman with the prestigious Chairman’s Award for her dedication to education and the political power of verse to evoke systemic and individual change.
#BlackHistory Every Day ~Today in Black History
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March 17, 1896 ~ A Black man from Newark, New Jersey, Charles B. Brooks, invented the U.S.' first self-propelled street sweeper truck which was patented on this day.
Unlike other sweepers at that time, Brooks’ sweeper was the first self-propelled street sweeping truck. His design had revolving brushes attached to the front fender, and the brushes were interchangeable so that when snow fell, scrapers could be attached for snow removal.
#BlackHistory Every Day ~Today in Black History
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March 18, 1877 ~ Frederick Douglass appointed the U.S. Marshal of the District of Columbia by President Rutherford Hayes making him the first African American confirmed for a Presidential appointment by the U.S. Senate.
#BlackHistory Every Day ~Today in Black History
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March 19, 1939 ~ Langston Hughes founds The New Negro Theater in Los Angeles, CA. Emerging during the Harlem Renaissance, a time of flourishing Black art and identity, the New Negro Theater provided a stage for Black voices and stories. This theater company defied stereotypes, celebrating Black culture in all its richness.
#BlackHistory Every Day ~Today in Black History
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March 20, 1883 ~ Jan. Earnst Matzeliger patents shoe-lasting machine. This not only revolutionized the shoe industry but also made Lynn, Massachusetts, the "shoe capital of the world."
A skilled hand laster could produce 50 pairs in a ten-hour day. Matzeliger's machine could produce between 150 and 700 pairs of shoes a day, cutting shoe prices across the nation in half.
#BlackHistory Every Day ~Today in Black History
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March 21, 1947 ~ James Baskett won an Academy Award for his part in Disney's "Song Of The South". He became the second African American to receive an Academy Award and the first African American male to do so.
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March 23, 1971 ~ Rev. Walter Fauntroy, a former aide of Martin Luther King Jr., became the first nonvoting congressional delegate from the District of Columbia since the Reconstruction period.
#BlackHistory Every Day ~Today in Black History
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March 24, 2002 ~ Halle Berry becomes the first Black woman to win an Oscar for Best Actress. She won for her role in the movie “Monster’s Ball.”
She is still the only Black woman to have won Best Actress.
@nursefrombirth I loved this film as a child.
#BlackHistory Every Day ~Today in Black History
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March 5, 1985 ~ The Mary McLeod Bethune commemorative stamp is issued by the U.S. Postal Service as the eighth stamp in its Black Heritage USA series.
Bethune was consumed with her life’s central mission-education. She was a straightforward woman who learned to be strong-willed and forceful as she pursued her ideals. She founded the National Council of Negro Women and what is now known as Bethune–Cookman University.
https://postalmuseum.si.edu/exhibition/the-black-experience-shaping-education/mary-mcleod-bethune