On October 20, 2014, Laquan McDonald, a 17-year-old African American teenager, was shot 16 times within 14 seconds by Jason Van Dyke, a 36-year-old white Chicago, Illinois policeman. McDonald’s death was another catalyst for the growing national Black Lives Matter Movement. It also had significant local ramifications including the defeat … Read MoreLaquan McDonald (1997-2014)
Michael Anthony Donald was a nineteen-year-old African American man who was murdered by the Ku Klux Klan in 1981 near Mobile, Alabama. His killing was one of the last known lynchings in the United States. Donald was born on July 24, 1961, in Mobile to Beullah Mae Donald and … Read MoreMichael Anthony Donald (1961-1981)
Roger Owensby Jr. was a twenty-nine-year-old African-American who died at the hands of Cincinnati Police officers during a scuffle in the Roselawn neighborhood of Cincinnati, Ohio in November 2000. Owens’ death at the hands of police—as well as the death the following year of Timothy Thomas under similar … Read MoreRoger Owensby Jr. (1971-2000)
Eula Mae Love’s tragic death made history on the evening of January 3rd, 1979, in the front yard of her home, in the West Athens area of South Los Angeles, California. She died at the hands of two Los Angeles Police Department officers, Lloyd O’Callaghan (white) and Edward … Read MoreEula Mae Love (1939-1979)
Born in 1842, in Williamson County, Tennessee, Green I. Currin (sometimes referred to as G.I. or Jacob Curran) was the first African American to serve in the Oklahoma Territorial Legislature, winning election to its inaugural session in 1890. During the territorial period, Currin also served as a U.S. deputy marshal … Read MoreGreen I. Currin (1842–1918)
Wendell Allen, a 20-year old black male, was fatally shot on March 7, 2012 by New Orleans police officer Joshua Colclough during a drug raid in that city. Officer Colclough fired a single bullet into Allen’s chest, killing him instantly. Allen was the son of Natasha Allen … Read MoreWendell James Allen (1992-2012)
Dr. Donnis Hazel Thompson was an athlete, coach, University of Hawaii Women’s Athletic Director, State of Hawaii Department of Education school superintendent, Martin Luther King, Jr. Commission chair in Hawaii, and champion for Title IX women’s athletics in Hawaii. Thompson was born in Chicago, Illinois, … Read MoreDonnis Hazel Thompson (1933-2009)
Frank R. Crosswaith was born on July 16, 1892, in La Croix, Virgin Islands, to William Ignatius and Anne Elizabeth Crosswaith. He immigrated to the United States in 1910 and became a socialist labor leader. He settled in New York City, New York where he … Read MoreFrank R. Crosswaith (1892-1965)
Marion Thompson Wright, educator and historian, was the first African American woman to earn a Ph.D. in history in the United States. Wright was born on September 12, 1902, in East Orange, New Jersey, the daughter of Moses R. Thompson and Minnie Homes Thompson. Her … Read MoreMarion Thompson Wright (1902-1962)
The 1896 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson made segregationist laws permissible anywhere in the United States as long as railroads, streetcars, and other public conveyances provided equal accommodations for blacks and whites. The decision, which served as the constitutional underpinning for the … Read MoreNashville Streetcar Boycott (1905-1907)
