Black History Month

Fifty Years of Black History The '60s:
1960 -- February 1, 1960, four students at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College in Greensboro, North Carolina, begin a sit-in at Woolworth's Drug Store. Why?

1962 -- October 1, James Meredith becomes the first black student to enroll at the University of Mississippi, escorted by U.S. marshals by order of President John F. Kennedy. Who attempted to block his entrance?

1963 -- Sidney Poitier wins Best Actor for "Lilies of the Field." Check out his other films. August 28, The March on Washington becomes the largest civil rights demonstration in American history, a moment defined by Dr. King's historic "I Have a Dream" speech. (Listen; read it)

1965 -- February 21, Malcolm X is assassinated in Harlem by members of the Nation of Islam. Who was his wife?

1968 -- April 4, Martin Luther King, Jr. is assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee. Where did he die?

Benjamin Banneker Astronomer (1731-1806) Banneker lived a life of unusual achievement. In 1753, the young man borrowed a pocket watch from a well-to-do neighbor; he took it apart and made a drawing of each component, then reassembled the watch and returned it, fully functioning to its owner. From his drawings Banneker then proceeded to carve out of wood enlarged replicas of each part. Calculation the proper number of teeth for each gear and the necessary relationships between the gears, he constructed a working wooden clock that kept accurate time and struck the hours for over 50 years. At age 58, Banneker began the study of astronomy and was soon predicting future solar and lunar eclipses. He compiled the ephemeris, or information table, for animal almanacs that were published for the years 1792, through 1797. “Benjamin Banneker’s Almanac” was a top seller from Pennsylvania to Kentucky. In 1791, Banneker was a technical assistant in the calculating and first-ever surveying of the Federal District, Which is now Washington, D.C. The “Sable Astronomer” was often pointed to as proof that African Americans were not intellectually inferior to European Americans. Thomas Jefferson himself noted this in a letter to Banneker. Banneker died on October 26,1806; it was not until the 1990s that the actual site of Banneker’s home, which burned on the day of his burial, was determined. In 1980, the U.S. Postal Service issued a postage stamp in his honor.