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For soccer fans around the world, the argument for the best player in the sport’s history is a hotly contested one. But for many, Brazil’s Pelé sits near or at the top of the list. Edson Arantes do Nascimento was born this day in 1940 in Tres Coracoes. His father, known as Dondinho, was a […]

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The Chicago Public School Boycott of 1963, also known as “Freedom Day,” took place 55 years ago today. The protest involved some 200,000 students and tens of thousands of city residents united in solidarity, but it would take almost twenty  years before the city acknowledged desegregation measures. Despite the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision “Brown […]

The late Avarh E. Strickland lived long enough to see his accomplishments at the University of Missouri properly honored. In a fitting tribute that took place on October 19, 2007, a building was renamed after the historian and professor, adding to other honors. Strickland was born July 6, 1930 in Hattiesburg, Miss., primarily raised by […]

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Ntozake Shange exploded onto the creative scene with her debut poem “for colored girls who considered suicide/when the rain is enuf,” and became a Black feminist icon in the process. Today is the award-winning playwright and poet’s 70th birthday. Shange was born Paulette L. Williams in Trenton, New Jersey in 1948, moving to St. Louis […]

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Dr. Clifton Wharton Jr. has amassed a dizzying array of firsts over the course of his long career. On October 17, 1969, Wharton became the first Black president of a predominately white major learning institution when he was elected to lead Michigan State University. Clifton Reginald Wharton was born September 13, 1926 in Boston, Mass. […]

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The U.S. Supreme Court confirmation hearings that played out in the U.S. Senate while generating a number of contentious debates reflected another hearing from years past. Like Judge Brett Kavanaugh, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas contended with accusations of sexual harassment and misconduct, although he too was sworn in narrowly. In October 1991, an FBI […]

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The hit film Hidden Figures, starring Taraji P. Henson, highlighted three African-American women who were instrumental in propelling the U.S. space program forward. Arkansas native Raye Montague, who is the first person to design a U.S. Navy ship using a computer and a “hidden figure” herself, passed this week at the age of 83. Montague […]

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Henrietta Lacks passed away 67 years ago, but legacy lives on within the medical community. Her “HeLa” cells are the first immortal cell line and have been studied to produce vaccines and various forms of research. Born Loretta Pleasant on August 1, 1940 in Roanoke, Va., Lacks worked as a tobacco farmer as a teenager […]

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Paul Bogle isn’t a well-known figure to Americans but in Jamaica, he’s a national hero. On October 11, 1865, the Baptist deacon led an armed rebellion against the white ruling colonial government. Bogle was born between 1815 and 1822, raised in Stony Gut in the St. Thomas parish. He was a well-to-do farmer who aligned […]

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For over five decades, the Rev. Jesse Jackson remains on of the civil rights movement’s most notable figures. Today is the activist and organizer’s birthday.   Born Jesse Louis Burns to his teen mother, Helen Burns, and father Noah Robinson who was married to another woman, he was later adopted by his mother’s husband, Charles […]

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Congresswoman Yvonne Brathwaite Burke has one of the most incredible stories in politics. In 1973, she became the first woman serving in Congress to give birth, adding to a list of boundaries she broke over the course of her career. Born Perle Yvonne Watson in Los Angeles on this day in 1932, the future congresswoman […]

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While history might remember C. Delores Tucker as a fiery champion who shouted down the violent and sexist rap lyrics of the ’90’s, the facts reveal she was much more than that. The Philadelphia native is also the first Black woman named secretary of state in Pennsylvania and a notable civil rights activist. Born Cynthia […]