The “Saltwater Railroad” refers to the coastal waterway followed by many enslaved people escaping from the Southern slave states into the British-controlled Bahamas. The saltwater railroad served a similar function as the Underground Railroad, a land pathway, that allowed enslaved people to flee to northern … Read More … Read MoreThe Saltwater Railroad (1821-1861)
By 1964 George C. Wallace, the Governor of Alabama, had become the national symbol of opposition to the civil rights movement and to federal governmental intervention to protect the rights of African Americans. In the address below he denounces President Lyndon B. Johnson for signing … Read More … Read More(1964) George C. Wallace, “The Civil Rights Movement: Fraud, Sham, and Hoax”
American television broadcaster Robin René Roberts is the anchor of Good Morning America, an ABC morning news show broadcast from its studios in New York, New York. In December 2013, she quietly came out as a lesbian in a Facebook post that acknowledged her long-time … Read More … Read MoreRobin René Roberts (1960- )
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]BlackPast.org now has an environmental justice page that brings together all of the entries on this website related to environmental justice broadly defined as the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income with respect to the … Read More … Read MoreThe Environmental Justice Page
In the article below, Dr. Uchenna Umeh, a former San Antonio, Texas physician, briefly describes how mental health among African Americans was viewed and treated by the American medical community from the antebellum period until today. In the process she describes how those attitudes have … Read More … Read MoreMental Illness in Black Community, 1700-2019: A Short History
Freedom Summer (June-August, 1964) was a nonviolent effort by civil rights activists to integrate Mississippi’s segregated political system. It began late in 1963 when the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) decided to recruit several hundred northern college students, … Read More … Read MoreFreedom Summer (1964)
Robert Brown Elliott, Reconstruction-era Congressman, was born in 1842 in Liverpool, England. He attended High Holborn Academy in London, England and then studied law, graduating from Eton College in 1859. From there he joined the British Royal Navy. Elliott decided to settle in South Carolina … Read More … Read MoreRobert Brown Elliott (1842-1884)
Holy Cross Catholic Church, the first church for African American Catholics in Corpus Christi, Texas, was organized before the parish obtained a physical building. Before African Americans in that area had a church, they attended Saint Patrick’s Church, and some joined the Mexican Church, Our Lady of … Read More … Read MoreHoly Cross Catholic Church, Corpus Christi, Texas (1914- )
The first African American players in the National Basketball Association in the twentieth century all came into the league in 1950. They were Earl Francis Lloyd (Washington Capitols), Charles Henry Cooper (Boston Celtics), and Nathaniel Clifton (New York Knicks). They all began their college careers … Read More … Read MoreThe First Black Players in the NBA (1950)
Beginning in the late 1960s, Ruby Duncan led the Welfare Rights Movement in Las Vegas, Nevada. She and her group, the Nevada Welfare Rights Organization (NWRO), brought the Federal Food Stamps Program and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women Infants and Children (WIC) to … Read More … Read MoreRuby Duncan (1932- )
