On This Day in History

Lorraine Hansberry was born in Chicago on May 19, 1930. She enrolled at the University of Wisconsin in Madison as a painting…

On May 18, 1896, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Plessy v. Ferguson to uphold a Louisiana state law allowing “separate…

Janet Jackson, the iconic singer and performer, was born on May 16, 1966. Her career in music began at an early age…

Kappa Alpha Psi, a largely Black college fraternity, was chartered in the state of Indiana on May 15, 1911. The charter with…

Although blocked by white Southerners from being seated in the U.S. Senate, Pinchback was named acting governor from December 9, 1872, to…

Heavyweight boxer Charles “Sonny” Liston was born on May 8, 1932, in St. Francis County, Arkansas. Liston fought his way to boxing…

On May 5, 1905, the influential Black newspaper, the Chicago Defender, was founded by Robert S. Abbott. The paper was the first…

The thirteen Freedom Riders, seven Black and six white activists, rode two buses bound for New Orleans, testing the enforcement of the…

Elijah McCoy was born on May 2, 1843, to formerly enslaved people who fled the U.S. via the underground railroad. When McCoy…

Coretta Scott King was born in Marion, Alabama, on April 27, 1927. She would marry civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King…

Known as “the High Priestess of Soul,” Nina Simone was born in 1933 as Eunice Kathleen Waymon in North Carolina, and went…

The university's establishment was made possible by Richard Humphreys, a Quaker philanthropist who donated $10,000 - one-tenth of his estate - to…