Half-Month, Inclusive History

March/Part II

Do you know March Black History also includes:

• 16^th – Mississippi (finally) ratified the 19^th Amendment (1995);

• 17^th – Chemical engineer and Egyptologist Norbert Rillieux was born (1806); Former Alabama U.S. House Rep. Benjamin Sterling Turner was born (1825); William F. Cosgrove patented the automatic stop plug for gas and oil pipes (1885); Charles B. Brooks patented street sweeper (1890); Civil rights leader Bayard Rustin was born (1912); Entertainer Nat King Cole was born (1919); Myrlie Evers-Williams was born (1933); Jacob Lawrence was awarded Spingarn Medal (1970);

• 18^th – The Phoenix Society, a literary and educational group, founded by Blacks in New York City (1822); 200 free Blacks left Savannah, GA for Liberia (1895); Charley Pride was born (1934); Wilson Pickett was born (1941); Irene Cara was born (1959); Vanessa Williams was born (1963); The USS Jesse L. Brown, was launched in honor of the first Black naval aviator (1972);

• 19^th – Lloyd Gaines was murdered after winning his Missouri desegregation case (1939); Langston Hughes founded The New Negro Theater in Los Angeles, CA (1939); Leon Sullivan was elected to the board of directors of General Motors (1971);

• 20^th – Martin R. Delany, father of Black Nationalism, publishes The Condition, Elevation, Emigration and Destiny of the Colored People of the United States (1852); Jan. E. Matzeliger patented the shoe-making machine (1883); Carter Woodson received a doctorate from Harvard University (1912); Rock ‘N’ Roll pioneer Sister Rosetta Tharpe was born (1915); Spike Lee was born (1957);

• 21^st – Former Alabama U.S. House Rep. Benjamin Sterling Turner succumbed (1894); Lois Jean White, the first Black President of the National Parent Teacher Association (PTA) was born (1938); March from Selma to Montgomery, AL ended (1965); Michael Donald lynched by Klansman in Mobile, AL (1981); Chinua Achebe succumbed (2013);

• 22^nd – J.W. Smith patented the lawn sprinkler (1898); George Benson was born (1942);

• 23^rd – Slavery was abolished in Puerto Rico (1873); Tennessee legalized racial discrimination in public spaces three weeks after the Federal Civil Rights Act was enacted (1875); Moses Malone was born (1955);

• 24^th – Canada gave African male citizens the right to vote (1837); Art dealer Zoë Dusanne was born (1884); Civil rights activist Dorothy Height was born (1912); Marcus Garvey arrived in the United States (1916); Halle Berry made history as the first Black woman to win Best Actress Oscar (2002);

• 25^th – Explorer Jacob Dodson set out in Search of the Northwest Passage (1843); Scottsboro Nine arrested (1931); Journalist Ida B. Wells-Barnett succumbed (1931); Aretha Franklin was born (1942);

• 26^th – Inventor Thomas J. Martin received a patent for the fire extinguisher (1862); William H. Lewis becomes U.S. Assistant Attorney General (1911); Diana Ross was born (1944); Teddy Pendergrass was born (1950);

• 27^th – Alonzo “Lonnie” Clayton, youngest jockey to win the Kentucky Derby, was born (1876); Jazz singer Sarah Vaughan was born (1924); Arthur Mitchell, the first Black principal dancer with NYC Ballet Company, was born (1934); The Black Academy of Arts and Letters founded (1969);

• 28^th – Jonathan S. Wright became the first Black State Supreme Court justice in South Carolina (1870);

• 29^th – W.J. Ballow patented the combined hat rack and table (1898); Johnnie Cochran succumbed (2005);

• 30^th – Fifteenth Amendment ratified, guaranteeing voting rights to African Americans (1870); Tracy Chapman was born (1964); and

• 31^st – Singer Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield, also known as “The Black Swan,” succumbed (1876); Heavyweight Champion Jack Johnson was born (1878); Jesse Owens succumbed (1980); Toni Morrison won the Pulitzer Prize for Beloved (1988).