The Free African Society was a benevolent organization grounded in Christian religious faith and operating outside denominational differences to serve the social needs of Black Philadelphians.
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The 1968 Fair Housing Act was signed into law after years of struggle and grassroots organizing.
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Thaddeus Stevens gave a speech in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in defense of the Free Schools Act of 1834, which moved the state House to vote against repeal and the Senate to take another vote in support of free public schools.
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During a Spring filled with pro-immigrant activism, on this day the largest number of people gathered in over 100 cities in the United States to protest new anti-immigrant legislation.
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The first freedom ride, the Journey of Reconciliation, left Washington, D.C. to travel through four states of the upper South.
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Paul Robeson was one of the most important figures of the 20th century. He was a “renaissance man” — an acclaimed athlete, actor, singer, cultural scholar, author, lawyer, and internationally-renowned political activist.
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The U.S. Civil War ended when the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia surrendered to U.S. General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House in south-central Virginia.
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An explosion at the Banner Mine in Alabama killed 128 men, almost all of them African American prisoners of the state who were forced to work in the mine under the convict leasing system.
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A successful boycott of the Norfolk Tars by Black sports fans leads the team to desegregate both the players and stadium seating.
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Billie Holiday was a legendary jazz singer and songwriter. Also born today, Harry Hay and Daniel Ellsberg.
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Inspired by the First Maroon War, a group of enslaved Ghanaian rebels in Jamaica sought to overthrow the British colonialists and create an independent Black nation on the island.
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Twenty-four enslaved Africans launched a rebellion in Manhattan, New York.
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Little Bobby Hutton (age 17) of the Black Panther Party was shot dead by the Oakland police.
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The Tuskegee Student Uprising of 1968 was one of many instances when Black students fought to expand educational opportunities and create more equity on college campuses.
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Boston University refused to approve negotiated contract, so the faculty union called a strike, with Howard Zinn as co-chair of strike committee. Other staff and librarians also went on strike that spring.
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Robert Williams and other Black grocers wrote a letter to the Florida Freedmen’s Bureau calling for an end to high taxes levied against them to support former Confederates.
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The successful 1985 student blockade of Hamilton Hall lasted for three weeks, as students demanded that Columbia University divest from corporations profiting from apartheid South Africa.
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Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated while in Memphis to support the striking sanitation workers.
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Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his speech in opposition to the Vietnam War, calling for a “revolution of values.”
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In April 1917, soldiers entered the sugar town of Jobabo in eastern Cuba and, according to eyewitnesses, executed several British West Indian men.
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