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Dorothy Counts being jeered and taunted by her white peers. She was one of 4 Black students to integrate Charlotte, NC schools in 1957. Due to violence from white students, she left the school 4 days later.
November 11, 1831 — Christian freedom fighter Nat Turner was executed on this day for leading a slave rebellion in Virginia.
In 1831, he saw a solar eclipse, which he believed was a sign from God and he started the most deadly slave revolt, the Nat Turner Rebellion.
On this day in 1975, Angola gained independence from Portugal after a long, armed struggle for liberation.
Happy Independence Day to Angola!
"The police in this country make no distinction between a Black Panther or a black lawyer or my brother or me. the cops aren’t going to ask me my name before they pull the trigger."
—James Baldwin
Selma Burke was a sculptor & member of the Harlem Renaissance movement, best known for her bas-relief portrait of President Franklin D. Roosevelt
She never received credit for her portrait of President Franklin D. Roosevelt which was later featured on the US dime.
—In 1943, Franklin D. Roosevelt sat for a portrait by a young African-American artist from Mooresville. That artist was Selma Burke.
However, John R. Sinnock’s signature is on the dime, and he receives credit for the work while Burke’s portrait, which she spent two years working on, is only recognized as an inspiration and model for the final image used on the coin. According to Lisa E. Farrington, author of “Creating Their Own Image, The History of African-American Women Artists,” Sinnock made “barely perceptible alterations.”
HONORS
As well as a sculptor, Burke was also a lifelong student and educator, winning numerous awards and fellowships. She earned her first degree from Winston-Salem State University in North Carolina and eventually graduated with a Master of Fine Arts from Columbia.
She started her first art school in 1940, eventually starting her second in 1946, and opened the Selma Burke Art Center in Pittsburgh, which operated from 1968 to 1981.
Burke is an honorary member of Delta Sigma Theta sorority. She received several honorary doctorate degrees during her lifetime, including one awarded by Livingston College in 1970 and one from Spelman College in 1988.
Milton Shapp, then-governor of Pennsylvania, declared July 29, 1975, Selma Burke Day in recognition of the artist's contributions to art and education. Her papers and archive are in the collection of Spelman College.
Burke was a member of the first group of women – along with Louise Nevelson, Alice Neel, Georgia O'Keefe, and Isabel Bishop – to receive lifetime achievement awards from the Women's Caucus for Art, in 1979. She received the award from President Jimmy Carter in a private ceremony in the Oval Office.
She received a Candace Award from the National Coalition of 100 Black Women in 1983 and the Pearl S. Buck Foundation Women's Award in 1987.
She died in 1995 at the age of 94.
Septimius Severus was Rome’s first African emperor who ruled from 193 to 211 CE.
Born in Leptis Magna in present-day Libya, Severus came from a prominent North African family of Punic and Roman heritage. At a time when the Roman Empire stretched across three continents, his rise from the African province of Africa Proconsularis to the imperial throne demonstrated the diverse nature of Rome’s elite.
After the assassination of Emperor Pertinax in 193 CE, the empire plunged into chaos during what became known as the Year of the Five Emperors. Septimius Severus, then a powerful general commanding Roman legions along the Danube, marched his troops to Rome and successfully seized power, becoming emperor.
Once in control, Severus strengthened the Roman military, increased soldiers’ pay, and reorganized the army to secure loyalty and stability across the empire. His reign was marked by several military campaigns, including victories in the East against the Parthian Empire, where Roman forces captured the city of Ctesiphon.
Severus also expanded Roman influence in Britain, personally leading campaigns north of Hadrian's Wall in an attempt to subdue tribes in modern-day Scotland.
Beyond military reforms, he founded the Severan dynasty, which continued through his sons Caracalla and Geta, shaping Roman politics for years after his death.
Septimius Severus died in 211 CE in York, Britain, while still campaigning with his army. His famous advice to his sons before his death was recorded as:
"Be harmonious, enrich the soldiers, and scorn all other men."
Sadie Tanner Alexander was the first Black American to earn a Ph.D. in economics (1921), the first Black woman to graduate from the University of Pennsylvania Law School, the first Black woman admitted to the Pennsylvania Bar, and the first national president of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.
George Grant, the first Black Professor at Harvard University, invented the modern golf tee.
Previously, golfers carried around buckets of sand, placing their balls on little piles as they went.
On September 23, 1955, the men accused of killing Emmett Till were acquitted by an all-white jury in Mississippi, despite overwhelming evidence.
Emmett Till was just 14 years old.
His death, and the outcome of the trial, became a turning point in the Civil Rights Movement, exposing the realities of racial injustice in the United States to a global audience.
Decades later, on September 23, 2020, the case connected to the death of Breonna Taylor reached a different kind of outcome. No one was directly charged for her death, leading to widespread protests and renewed conversations about accountability, policing, and justice.
These two moments, separated by 65 years, are often discussed together because they raise similar questions about how justice is applied, who it protects, and how accountability is determined.
Both cases became part of larger national conversations. They led to protests, public pressure, and demands for change, showing how individual events can shape broader movements.
Looking at these moments side by side highlights how history is not just about the past, but also about patterns, progress, and the work that still remains.
At 33 years old, Thomas Sankara wore the red beret and carried a revolutionary vision for Burkina Faso. He rejected IMF influence, launched mass vaccination campaigns that protected millions of children, planted millions of trees to fight desertification, and openly challenged Western dominance across Africa. Sankara also called on African nations to refuse paying debts imposed by former colonial powers, arguing that such obligations kept the continent economically dependent.
In 1987, Sankara was assassinated during a coup, abruptly ending one of the most ambitious political experiments in modern African history.
Thirty-six years later, another young captain emerged.
At 34, Ibrahim Traoré rose to power wearing the same red beret, leading Burkina Faso during a new period of crisis and geopolitical tension. His government expelled French troops, shifted foreign alliances, and frequently invokes Sankara’s legacy of sovereignty and resistance to external control.
Different era. Different challenges.
But the image of the young captain in the red beret continues to symbolize Burkina Faso’s ongoing struggle for independence and self-determination.
In 1848, Biddy Mason was forced to walk 1,700 miles from Mississippi to Utah, then taken on a second march to California. After learning slavery was illegal there, she sued her enslaver, won her freedom in court, and bought land that ultimately made her one of the richest women in Los Angeles.
Happy birthday to late Esther Rolle!
Esther Rolle (November 8, 1920 – November 17, 1998) was a Bahamian-American actress. She is best known for her role as Florida Evans, on the CBS television sitcom Maude, for two seasons (1972–1974), and its spin-off series Good Times, for five seasons (1974–77, 1978–79), for which Rolle was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Television Series Musical or Comedy in 1976. In 1979, Rolle accepted the Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or Special for the television film Summer of My German Soldier.
Rolle is best known for her television role as Florida Evans, the character she played on two 1970s sitcoms. The character was introduced as Maude Findlay's housekeeper on Maude, and was spun off in the show's second season into Good Times, a show about Florida's family. Rolle was nominated in 1975 for the Best Actress in a Musical/Comedy Golden Globe Award for her role in Good Times. Rolle was 19 years older than the actor (John Amos) who played her husband James (named Henry on Maude) Evans. The James Evans character was only added after Esther Rolle fought hard for a father figure and husband to be added to the show. Rolle had fought for the father character on the show, more relevant themes and scripts and was unhappy with the success of Jimmie Walker's character, J.J. Evans, which she believed took the show in a frivolous direction. John Amos agreed with Rolle about Walker's character and was fired from the show after the third season ended. Later on, in a stand-off with Good Times producer Norman Lear, Rolle also quit when her contract ended. Although the show continued without her for the fifth season, she returned for the show's final season.
