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Nelson Mandela becomes President of South Africa

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Nelson Mandela becomes President of South Africa

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(1994) Nelson Mandela’s Inaugural Address as President of South Africa •

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On May 9, 1994, Nelson Mandela was officially inaugurated as the first democratically elected President of South Africa chosen by the majority of the nation’s citizens. His inauguration address given at Cape Town, South Africa, appears below. Mr. Master of Ceremonies, Your Excellencies, Members of…

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Photo by Leonard Fink, Courtesy LGBT Community Center National History Archive

Marsha P. Johnson was an African American drag performer and social activist. The fifth of seven children, she was born Malcolm Michaels Jr. to Malcolm Michaels Sr. and Alberta (Claiborne) Michaels on August 24, 1945 in Elizabeth, New Jersey. During a tempestuous Christian childhood, around the age of five, Johnson began to dress as a girl. Her desire for traditional feminine clothing quickly drew a reprimand from her father, a General Motors assembly line worker and housekeeper mother, as well as from the larger society.

After graduating from Thomas A. Edison High School in 1963, Johnson moved to New York's Greenwich Village. She had $15 and a bag of clothes. Homeless, she turned to prostitution to survive and soon found a like-minded community in the bawdy nightlife of Christopher Street.

Johnson switched names repeatedly as she established her persona, alternating between her given name Malcolm and Black Marsha before settling on Marsha P. Johnson. She chose Johnson because she enjoyed hanging out at the popular eatery, Howard Johnson's. The "P" purportedly stands for "Pay It No Mind," a flippant saying she used to dismiss antagonists.

On June 28, 1969, Marsha P. Johnson became one of the faces of the Queer Revolution. She went from her own party uptown to the Stonewall Inn on the corner of Christopher Street and 7th Avenue, arriving after the Stonewall Riot (Uprising) had begun.

The riot stemmed from members of New York's LGBTQ community being targeted by the New York Police Department (NYPD). LGBTQ people were routinely rousted, hassled, and arrested on questionable charges. That summer Saturday, their anger reached a breaking point after the police returned to Stonewall Inn for the second time in two days. According to Johnson, the police had forced her and others out onto the street to line up and be frisked the night before and then returned the next night and set the Stonewall Inn on fire.

Twenty-three-year old Johnson and her friend Sylvia Rivera were caught up in the Stonewall Uprising which went on for several days and is credited as the catalyst for the Gay Movement of the late 1960s. The Uprising spawned the first gay pride marches across the country in 1970. In the same year, Johnson and Rivera founded Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR), which clothed, fed, housed, and advocated for transgender youth from a tenement on the lower eastside.

In 1972, as the face of the resistance, Johnson performed around the world with the popular drag theater company, Hot Peaches. Andy Warhol featured her in a 1975 screen print portfolio of drag queens and transgender merrymakers at the nightclub, Gilded Grape.

As the nascent Gay Rights movement swirled around her, Johnson fought social mores, the police, and her own demons. She suffered from mental illness, weathering breakdowns, arrests, and stints at psychiatric hospitals even as she strove to promote gay civil rights. An early ACT UP member and AIDS activist, Johnson also became a victim of the disease. She announced in a June 26, 1992 interview that she had been H.I.V. positive since 1990. Two years later on July 6, 1994, Johnson was found drowned in the Hudson River off the West Village Piers. The police initially declared her death a suicide and then agreed to reopen the case in 2012. She was 46 at the time of her death.

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Photo by Leonard Fink, Courtesy LGBT Community Center National History Archive Marsha P. Johnson was an African American drag performer and social activist. The fifth of seven children, she was born Malcolm Michaels Jr. to Malcolm Michaels Sr. and Alberta (Claiborne) Michaels on August 24, 1945 in Elizabeth, New Jersey.

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The Sharpeville Massacre, which occurred on March 21, 1960, in the township of Sharpeville, South Africa, was the incident that to that point resulted in the deaths of the largest number of South Africans in a protest against apartheid. It also came to symbolize that struggle.

Sharpeville, a black suburb outside of Vereeniging (about fifty miles south of Johannesburg), was through the 1950s a community untouched by anti-apartheid demonstrations that occurred in surrounding towns. By 1960, however, anti-apartheid activism reached the town. In March 1960, Robert Sobukwe, a leader in the anti-apartheid Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC) organized the town's first anti-apartheid protest. In order to reduce the possibility of violence he wrote a letter to the Sharpeville police commissioner announcing the upcoming protest and emphasizing that its participants would be non-violent.

On March 21, an estimated 7,000 Africans gathered in front of the Sharpeville police station to protest against the restrictive pass laws. Nearly 300 police officers arrived to put an end to the peaceful protest. As they attempted to disperse the crowd, a police officer was knocked down and many in the crowd began to move forward to see what had happened. Police witnesses claimed that stones were thrown, and in a panicked and rash reaction, the officers opened fire into the crowd. Other witnesses claimed there was no order to open fire, and the police did not fire a warning shot above the crowd. As the thousands of Africans tried to flee the violent scene, police continued to shoot into the crowd. Sixty-nine Africans were killed and 186 were wounded with most shot in the back.

The Sharpeville Massacre awakened the international community to the horrors of apartheid. The massacre also sparked hundreds of mass protests by black South Africans, many of which were ruthlessly and violently crushed by the South African police and military. On March 30, the South African government declared a state of emergency which made any protest illegal. The ban remained in effect until August 31, 1960. During those five months roughly 25,000 people were arrested throughout the nation. The South African government then created the Unlawful Organizations Act of 1960 which banned anti-apartheid groups such as the Pan Africanist Congress and the African National Congress.

The South African's government's repressive measures in response to the Sharpeville Massacre, however, intensified and expended the opposition to apartheid, ushering in three decades of resistance and protest in the country and increasing condemnation by world leaders. With the election of Nelson Mandela as President of South Africa in 1994, the apartheid system ended. Symbolically in 1994, Mandela signed the nation's first post-apartheid constitution near the site of the 1960 massacre.

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The Sharpeville Massacre, which occurred on March 21, 1960, in the township of Sharpeville, South Africa, was the incident that to that point resulted in the deaths of the largest number of South Africans in a protest against apartheid. It also came to symbolize that struggle.

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Soweto, an acronym for "South Western Townships," is a grouping of townships scattered across twenty kilometers southwest of Johannesburg, South Africa. A quintessential example of segregationist planning, Soweto initially was the result of mass evictions and evacuations of black residents of the city of Brickfields by the British colonial authorities in the first years of the 20th Century. Though initially serving as an evacuation camp, Soweto was later designated to house black laborers who worked in British-operated mines and industrial sites away from the city center.

From 1904 onwards, black South Africans were systematically relocated to Soweto to make room for incoming white settlers under a system of government-mandated segregation. Then, following the general election of 1948 which established apartheid as the centerpiece of racial policy, the South African government began officially classifying people into distinct groups (black, white, colored, Indian), and precipitously ramped up the forcible relocation of people to residential areas matching their group. Also at this time the South African regime dramatically reduced the commensurate appropriation of funds for infrastructure to non-white areas.

Soweto grew rapidly in World War II from 244,000 in 1939 to 395,231 people by 1945. This unparalleled growth rate was primarily due to the loosening of constraints on black South Africans in the employment sector, as most white men were engaged in overseas military activities. Yet as white South Africans returned following the allied victory in World War II, employment opportunities for black South Africans declined. As a result black protests were common, as the 1945 Pan-African Congress and other anti-colonial movements rallied in support around places like Soweto.

On June 16, 1976, massive student protest began in Soweto against official policy that for the first time mandated Afrikaans as opposed to English instruction in schools. A brutal police crackdown against protesters followed. This Soweto Uprising which claimed the lives of 566 residents also brought the world's attention the reality of life under the apartheid regime. International sanctions followed, and in 1977 many employment restrictions against black people were loosened.

Increasingly conscious of their plight, black South Africans began to openly protest apartheid in the 1980s through boycotts, strikes, street committees, and civic organizations. Particularly prominent was Soweto's Committee of Ten, which began in 1978 in the offices of the The Bantu World newspaper. Operating covertly due to governmental restrictions which forbade public gatherings, the Committee of Ten used church buildings and other clandestine locations to organize their activities in secret.

Though apartheid ended in 1994, its legacy has left Soweto as Africa's most impoverished city. At the time of the student uprising in 1976, only 83% of houses had electricity, and 93% lacked running water. To this day roads remain unpaved, and many areas are still without electricity. Home to 3,500,000 people, Soweto remains the most populous black urban area of South Africa. Its people continue to reel from the consequences of decades of discrimination and neglect.

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Soweto, an acronym for "South Western Townships," is a grouping of townships scattered across twenty kilometers southwest of Johannesburg, South Africa. A quintessential example of segregationist planning, Soweto initially was the result of mass evictions and evacuations of black residents of the city of Brickfields by the British colonial authorities in the first years of the 20th Century.

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Biography – The Official Home of Nina Simone | The High Priestess of Soul

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To survive, she began teaching music to local students. One fateful day in 1954, looking to supplement her income, Eunice auditioned to play piano at the Midtown Bar & Grill on Pacific Avenue in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The owner informed her that not only would she be hired to play but she was al…

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Nine Minutes in May: How George Floyd’s Death Shook the World •

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Photo by Jacob Ruff (CC BY 2.0)

The shooting on New Year's of Oscar Grant, a 22-year-old black man from Oakland, California, sparked major protests against excessive deadly force used by the police. These protests began less than a week after Grant had been shot and killed by Johannes Mehserle, a Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) police officer. The incident had been caught on camera by four different observers, and had gone viral on YouTube. As a result, the black community in Oakland reacted swiftly. While demonstrations began peacefully, tensions would build on both sides with the police eventually resorting to tear gas and non-lethal weapons.

In response to the Grant shooting, Civil Rights activiststhroughout the city organized to protest the unfair treatment of poor African Americans by the transit police. On January 7, 2009 a group of protesters gathered at Fruitvale Station, the site of Grant's shooting. After making their way through the Oakland business district, the group began to protest in front of the BART police headquarters. Along the way about 200 protesters broke away from the planned route and began to vandalize businesses. Even many of those who supported the peaceful demonstrations decried the overall destruction by these vandals. Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums, himself a longtime black Bay Area politician and Civil Rights advocate, denounced the actions of the vandals calling them to "leave in a spirit of peace." Overall, the January protests led to over one hundred arrests.

Months later on July 8, 2009, Officer Mehserle, who had resigned from the BART police, was charged with manslaughter. This charge caused outrage because many believed he should have been charged with second-degree murder. As a result, more protests ensued. Many of these protests began peacefully during the day but violence broke out early in the evening. Groups of anarchists-who were not black Oakland residents-looted businesses, set fires, and caused further public destruction. Oakland Police Chief Anthony Batts claimed that 3 out of 4 of the protesters did not live in Oakland. By the end of the night, many of the most unruly protesters were arrested.

A third wave of protests began when Mehserle was released in 2011, two years after the shootings. Many Oakland residents were angry over his early release. These protests, however, remained peaceful. There were no reports of unruliness or violent interactions with the police and subsequently no arrests.

The protests surrounding the Oscar Grant shooting generated a national uproar in response to shootings of unarmed African American women and men and general police misconduct within the African American community. While local civil rights groups had long protested police brutality, the Grant shooting and the subsequent protests became a major rallying point for what later became the Black Lives Matter movement.

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The Oscar Grant (Oakland) Protests, 2009-2011 *

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The shooting on New Year's of Oscar Grant, a 22-year-old black man from Oakland, California, sparked major protests against excessive deadly force used by the police. These protests began less than a week after Grant had been shot and killed by Johannes Mehserle, a Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) ...

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The death of a 25-year-old black man, Freddie Gray, while in the custody of the Baltimore Police Department led to an outcry in Baltimore, Maryland and eventually across the nation. As the tensions became greater, peaceful protests became violent and resulted in the most extensive rioting in Baltimore since the 1960s. Unlike other uprisings these riots continued to be interspersed with peaceful protests.

The first violent protests came on April 18 outside the Western District police station where hundreds of citizens gathered. Although the crowd was initially peaceful as it protested Gray's incarceration and treatment, it turned violent. The violence escalated quickly and spread over the city within hours of the announcement of Gray's death on April 19, 2015, a week after his arrest by Baltimore police. After Gray's funeral on April 27, rioting spread from the West Baltimore neighborhood where Gray lived into downtown Baltimore and the Inner Harbor. A mandatory curfew was ordered by Baltimore's mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake on April 28, and the same day Maryland Governor Larry Hogan ordered in the first of 2,500 National Guard troops to Baltimore to help restore order. The mandatory curfew was rescinded on May 3 and the Maryland National Guard left the city on May 4, the last day of violence.

During that 16-day period of rioting and peaceful protests at least one hundred thirteen police officers were injured and two civilians were shot, 486 people were arrested, and 350 businesses were damaged. There were also 150 vehicle fires, including a number of police cars and vans set ablaze. Two people were shot and one injured by fire, but there were no fatalities.

On April 28, President Barack Obama was among those condemning the violence. He said the destruction was "counterproductive," and accused the rioters of "stealing" property when they engaged in looting. Members of Freddie Gray's own family also condemned the actions of the rioters. While expressing that she wanted justice, Gloria Darden, Gray's mother, said "Don't tear up the whole city for him".

State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby brought charges against six police officers-Lieutenant Brian Rice, Sergeant Alicia White, Officer William Porter, Officer Garrett Miller, Officer Edward Nero, and Officer Caesar Goodson-in Gray's death. Three of the officers were white and three were black. Mosely claimed the officers had not given Gray proper medical treatment after his arrest which led to his death. The officers, in turn, sued Mosby for knowingly bringing false charges against them. Eventually, separate trials would be scheduled for each of the officers. The first case, against Officer William Porter, ended in a mistrial, and three of the other officers were acquitted. By mid-July all charges were dropped against Porter and the two remaining officers. While the U.S. Justice Department had initially considered opening a civil rights investigation into the matter, they ultimately decided not to press charges in federal court. Nonetheless, the Freddie Gray case served as a rallying cry for the recently formed Black Lives Matter movement.

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The death of a 25-year-old black man, Freddie Gray, while in the custody of the Baltimore Police Department led to an outcry in Baltimore, Maryland and eventually across the nation. As the tensions became greater, peaceful protests became violent and resulted in the most extensive rioting in Baltimore since the 1960s.

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One of the most visible advocates of nonviolence and direct action as methods of social change, Martin Luther King, Jr. was born in Atlanta, Georgia on January 15, 1929. As the grandson of the Rev. A.D. Williams, pastor of Ebenezer Baptist church and a founder … Read MoreMartin Luther King, Jr. (192…

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Willard L. Bowman was a union organizer, politician, and civil rights activist in Anchorage, Alaska. From 1963 to 1970, he served as the first director of the state's Human Rights Commission. In 1970 he was one of the first African Americans elected to the Alaska State Legislature.

Bowman was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on August 18, 1919. At the age of 19 he joined the U.S. Navy. He served in the Pacific theater of World War II and was discharged from service at the end of the war in 1945. Five years later he moved to Anchorage, Alaska, which was then experiencing a construction boom due to increased Cold War-era military spending. Bowman worked as a laborer, labor management consultant, and union organizer.

Much of his work in the labor movement was focused on gaining equal employment opportunities for Alaska's black population. In 1952 he served as president of the Association for Local Improvement (ALI), a community group that was modeled after the National Urban League. In that capacity he not only pressed territorial and federal officials to hire black laborers on publicly funded construction projects, but he also urged them to prohibit the jobsite discrimination many of them regularly reported.

Bowman was one of the driving forces behind the enactment in 1953 of the territory's Fair Employment Act, which prohibited discrimination on the basis of race and established an administrative process within the Department of Labor for investigating and resolving cases of workplace discrimination. The Act was sponsored by the Central Labor Council and the Anchorage chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). As a member of both groups, Bowman was instrumental in bringing the coalition together.

In 1963 Bowman was appointed by Governor William Egan to be the first director of the Alaska Human Rights Commission, a body established to receive, initiate, and investigate complaints of discrimination in employment, housing, and public accommodations when based on race, creed, color, national origin, age, or sex. Believing that many Alaskans were simply unaware of the nature and extent of discrimination, Bowman made education one of the commission's primary goals. He traveled widely throughout the state, delivering countless speeches to community groups in which he encouraged citizens to take direct responsibility for the eradication of discrimination.

A lifelong Democrat, Bowman was elected to the Alaska House of Representatives in 1970. Bowman and Joshua Wright, another black legislator from Anchorage voted into office that year, were the first African Americans elected to the legislature in the state's history. Bowman was reelected to two additional terms in the State House.

Willard Bowman died of cancer while in office on December 3, 1975. He was 56 years old.

In 1991 the Anchorage School District honored the legislator and civil rights activist by naming a school in south Anchorage the Willard L. Bowman Elementary School.

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Willard L. Bowman was a union organizer, politician, and civil rights activist in Anchorage, Alaska. From 1963 to 1970, he served as the first director of the state's Human Rights Commission. In 1970 he was one of the first African Americans elected to the Alaska ... Read MoreWillard L.

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Courtesy Michael Borkson (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Rubin Carter was an American middleweight boxer, who is best known not because of his sports career but because of his murder conviction in 1967 and exoneration in 1985. Carter, born in Clifton, New Jersey on May 6, 1937, the fourth of seven children. Shortly after his fourteenth birthday, he was sentenced to a juvenile reformatory for assault and robbery. Carter was a 5-foot 8-inch, 160-pound boxer who got his start fighting after he enlisted in the U.S. Army. After leaving the army, he fought in the amateur circuit, knocking out 36 opponents and eventually working his way into the professional ranks in 1961. Because of his rapid boxing style, he was given the nickname "The Hurricane."

Carter's middleweight title shot came in 1964 when he faced defending champion Joey Giardello in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The fight went 15 rounds, and Carter lost on a split decision. Carter continued boxing and was training for his second title bout with the new champ, Dick Tiger, when he and his friend, John Artis, were arrested in 1966 and charged with murdering three white people during a robbery in Paterson, New Jersey. Although the two key prosecution witnesses were felons who had been recently released from prison, an all-white jury convicted Carter and Artis on May 27, 1967.

Nearly eight years later, in 1975, after the two key witnesses recanted their testimony, blaming the police for pressuring them into testifying, and new information surfaced about the robbery. Carter and Artis appealed their convictions. A new trial was granted, but on December 22, 1976, both Carter and Artis were once again convicted of murder.

Despite being twice convicted, Carter continued to claim his innocence and work for his release. With the help of new attorneys, in 1985, he petitioned to have his conviction overturned. U.S. District Court Judge Haddon Lee Sarokin granted his petition, stating that the two previous convictions, "were based upon an appeal to racism rather than reason, and concealment rather than disclosure."

After his release, Carter became an activist for the writ of habeas corpus, the process that allows incarcerated individuals a chance to argue the legitimacy of their conviction in front of a judge. Carter became a motivational speaker who often described to his audiences the various events and the legal process that led to his freedom. He also worked with a number of groups that support wrongly imprisoned individuals. In 1999, the movie The Hurricane was released about Carter's life, with Denzel Washington playing the embattled boxer. Although some critics challenged portions of the film's historical accuracy, it nevertheless brought attention to Carter and his long fight for freedom and to others who have been wrongly convicted.

In 1993, Carter moved to Toronto, Ontario and became a Canadian citizen. While there, he was executive director of the Association in Defense of the Wrongly Convicted (ADWC). In 1996, he received the Abolition Award from the organization Death Penalty Focus, and in 2005, he received honorary Doctor of Law degrees from York University in Toronto and Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia. In March 2012, Carter revealed that he had terminal prostate cancer. He died in Toronto on April 20, 2014, at age seventy-six.

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Rubin "The Hurricane" Carter (1937-2014) *

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Rubin Carter was an American middleweight boxer, who is best known not because of his sports career but because of his murder conviction in 1967 and exoneration in 1985. Carter, born in Clifton, New Jersey on May 6, 1937, the fourth of seven children. Shortly ...

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Professional bare-knuckle boxer Peter Jackson, better known as the Black Prince and Peter the Great, was born on July 3, 1861, in Water Gut, Christiansted, Danish West Indies (now the U.S. Virgin Islands) to Peter Jackson Sr., a warehouseman from Montego Bay, Jamaica. Information regarding Jackson's mother is not readily available. He attended the Moravian Day School at the Centre Mission in La Grande Princess for a brief period. However, his parents took him to Australia when he was 6 years old. In 1878, 17-year-old Jackson left for New York City searching for his eldest brother, James Jackson, whom he never located.

In 1882, when Jackson was 21, he returned to Australia and began his fighting career. He won the Australian heavyweight title four years later in 1886, knocking out Tom Lees in the 30th round. That same year, Jackson went to Dublin and won a match against Ireland's best fighter, 20-year-old Peter Maher, in three rounds. In 1888 he went to San Francisco, California, and defeated George Godfrey to become the champion in the World Colored Heavyweight Championship. This title was in place for African American boxers who were then not allowed to contend for the world light heavyweight title because of racial discrimination.

Although Jackson could not hold the title of World Heavyweight Champion, he collected $3,000 for beating Joe McAuliffe, a white boxer at the California Athletic Club. John L. Sullivan, then World Heavyweight Champion, refused to fight Jackson because he was black even though the two men had fought in earlier matches before Sullivan won the title.

In 1889, Jackson traveled to London, England, where he fought several matches, including one against the legendary Jem Smith at the New Pelican Club Gym in Soho, London. He defeated all opponents.

One of the most brutal fights was with James Corbett in Benicia, California, in 1891. That match continued for 61 rounds and then ended with no winner when both boxers collapsed. A year later, in 1892, he fought Frank Slavin at the National Sporting Club in London, knocking him out in the 10th round. Jackson retired after that bout. At this point, Jackson had fought 28 of the best fighters in the world and remained undefeated.

In 1893, Jackson toured with the theatrical production of Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin. He was the second Black man to perform the role of Uncle Tom. Jackson returned to the ring in 1898 at the age of 37, losing to future champion James J. Jeffries on a fourth-round knockout.

Peter Jackson's overall professional boxing record included 45 fights that were won, 28 no contests, 27 not calculated as a win, loss, or draw, five losses, and three draws.

Peter Jackson, who had been refused the opportunity to compete for the World Heavyweight Championship because of the color of his skin, died on July 13, 1901, of tuberculosis, in Sydney, Australia. He was 40.

In 1990, Jackson was posthumously inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame. In 2004, he was added to the Australian National Boxing Hall of Fame in the Pioneers category.

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Professional bare-knuckle boxer Peter Jackson, better known as the Black Prince and Peter the Great, was born on July 3, 1861, in Water Gut, Christiansted, Danish West Indies (now the U.S. Virgin Islands) to Peter Jackson Sr., a warehouseman from Montego Bay, Jamaica. Information regarding ... Read MorePeter Jackson (1861-1901)

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Muhammad Ali, arguably the most famous professional boxer in the 20th Century and the only fighter to win the heavyweight championship three times, was born Cassius Clay in 1942 in Louisville, Kentucky, to Cassius Marcellus Clay, Sr. and Odessa Grady Clay. At the age of 12 Clay began training as a boxer. During his teen years he won several Golden Gloves titles and other amateur titles. At the age of 18 he won a gold medal in the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, Italy and then turned professional. In one of the most famous boxing matches of the century, Clay in 1965 stunned the world by beating apparently invincible world heavyweight champion Sonny Liston in six rounds.

After defeating Liston, Clay announced his conversion to Islam and joining of the Nation of Islam (NOI) under the leadership of Elijah Muhammad. Clay also announced he changed his name to Muhammad Ali. As a member of the NOI, Ali was mentored early on by the organization's most charismatic leader, Malcolm X.

In 1967, at the height of the Vietnam War, Ali received his induction notice. Instead of dodging the draft, Ali announced publicly that he refused induction. Government officials shortly thereafter tried, convicted, and sentenced the boxing champion to five years in prison for draft evasion, but he remained free pending appeals. However, United States boxing officials stripped him of his boxing title and suspended his license. During his suspension, Ali became an activist, touring the country, speaking to civil rights organizations and antiwar groups.

In 1970, boxing officials reinstated Ali's boxing privileges. That same year he won a heavyweight title in a match in New York City, New York. In 1971 he lost a title fight to Joe Frazier in New York City but later that year the United States Supreme Court reversed his conviction for draft evasion. In an epic rematch in New York City on January 28, 1974, Ali defeated Frazier who by this time had lost the title to George Foreman. Later that year Ali defeated Foreman when the two met in Kinshasa, Zaire in a fight popularly known as "The Rumble in the Jungle," to regain the title. Ali and Frazier met a third time in Quezon City, Philippines on October 1, 1975 in a bout that many consider the "Fight of the Century." Known as "The Thrilla in Manila," the two boxers met in 100 degree temperatures. Ali won when a technical knockout (TKO) when Frazier's trainer refused to allow his fighter to answer the bell for the 15th Round. After the fight Ali declared Frazier "the greatest fighter of all times next to me."

In early 1978 Ali lost his title to Leon Spinks, but regained it in a rematch with Spinks later that same year, becoming the first boxer to win the championship three times. Ali retired with the title but returned to the ring in 1980 to face the new champion, Larry Holmes. Ali was unsuccessful and retired permanently in 1981. Ali retired from professional boxing with an overall professional record of 56-5.

Over the course of his 61 fights, Muhammad Ali introduced boxing to audiences around the world. Althought the majority of his engagements were in the United States, he fought in matches in Bahamas, Germany, Philippines, Malaysia, Zaire, Indonesia, Ireland, Canada, Japan, Switzerland and Great Britain. He successfully defended his title before a mostly international audience in San Juan, Puerto Rico in 1976. By the end of his career Ali was the most well-known athlete in the world.

In the early 1980s Muhammad Ali was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. Nevertheless in 1985 he participated in the negotiations for the release of kidnapped Americans in Lebanon. During his lifetime, Ali has also received numerous honors and awards for his humanitarian work. The Olympic committee selected him to light the Olympic flame for the 1996 games in Atlanta, Georgia. During that event he received a replacement gold medal for the one he received in 1960 that he tossed in the Ohio River in disgust over a racial incident. In 2005 he also received the Presidential Medal of Freedom at the White House. That same year, for his work in the civil rights movement, the former boxer was awarded the prestigious Otto Hahn freedom medal by the German Society for the United Nations.

The Muhammad Ali Center opened in his hometown of Louisville in 2005. The facility displays Ali's boxing memorabilia and showcases themes of civil rights, social responsibility, respect, and personal growth. Ali was married four times and has nine children. The boxer spent the remaining years of his life in Scottsdale, Arizona with his fourth wife, Yolanda "Lonnie" Ali. He died on June 3, 2016 in Scottsdale at the age of 74.

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Image Ownership: Public Domain Muhammad Ali, arguably the most famous professional boxer in the 20th Century and the only fighter to win the heavyweight championship three times, was born Cassius Clay in 1942 in Louisville, Kentucky, to Cassius Marcellus Clay, Sr. and Odessa Grady Clay. At the age ...

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Public domain image, Courtesy US National Archives

On July 28, 1866, the Thirty-Ninth Congress passed the Act to increase and fix the Military Peace Establishment of the United States; thus the federal government created six all-Colored Army Regiments. The units identified as the 9th and 10th Colored Cavalry Regiments and the 38th, 39th, 40th, and 41st Colored Infantry Regiments. Each regiment would have approximately 1,000 black soldiers led by white officers.

This was the first time in the history of the U.S. Army that black soldiers became a permanent part of the military and as such was the most historically significant change in the makeup of the United States Army immediately after the U.S. Civil War. The impetus for creating the units was the gallant service of over 200,000 black soldiers during that 1861-1865 conflict.

Orders sent to Maj. Gens. William T. Sherman and Philip H. Sheridan to raise four of these regiments. In Sherman's Military Division of the Missouri, the 38th Infantry organized at Jefferson Barracks, near St. Louis, and the 10th Cavalry at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., while Sheridan's Department of the Gulf provided the 39th Infantry and the 9th Cavalry, both organized in New Orleans.

Elsewhere, the 40th Infantry recruited largely in Baltimore and Washington, (Department of Washington) while the 41st Infantry, taking most of its men from Kentucky and Louisiana, concentrated at Baton Rouge and Greenville, LA, with Sheridan's Department of the Gulf.

The initial four black regiments, the Thirty-eighth, Thirty-ninth, Fortieth and Forty-first, served throughout the south and the west during the Reconstruction period. Moreover, these units served as an important experiment, testing the ability of black soldiers to serve in the United States Army.

The Thirty-Eighth Infantry commander was Colonel William B. Hazen; the Thirty-Ninth Infantry commander was Colonel Joseph A Mower; the Fortieth Infantry commander was Colonel Nelson Miles, and the Forty-First Infantry commander was Colonel Ranald S. Mackenzie.

In 1869 Congress, passing the Army Appropriation Act, deciding to further reduce the peacetime Army to reduce costs, passed another army reorganization bill which provided for the reduction of the entire infantry to twenty-five regiments. General Sherman, now the Commanding General of the Army, noting that the law did not specify the survival of any of the colored infantry regiments, quickly ordered the 38th Infantry Regiment stationed in Kansas and New Mexico, transferred to Fort McKavett, Texas to merge with the 41st Infantry to form the new 24th Infantry Regiment. The 40th Infantry in Goldsboro, North Carolina traveled by rail to New Orleans where it merged with the 39th Infantry, to form the new 25th Infantry.

This action guaranteed that at least two all-black Infantry units remained in the peacetime U.S. Army. The 24th established its first headquarters at Jefferson Barracks, Missouri under the command of Colonel Ranald S. Mackenzie. The 25th established its first headquarters at Jackson Barracks, Louisiana under the command of Colonel Joseph S. Mower. Incidentally, the 9th Cavalry Commander was Colonel Edward Hatch and the 10th Cavalry Commander was Colonel Benjamin Grierson.

These infantry units along with the 9th and 10th Cavalry regiments then entered into a period of frontier duty in almost every state and territory west of the 100th meridian including Alaska and Hawaii and in a few eastern locations such as Fort Ethan Allen, Vermont, Madison Barracks Sackett Harbor New York and military stations around Washington, D.C. (Fort Meyer). All four units came together to participate in the Spanish American War (1898) and the subsequent successful Filipino War (1899-1902). These units continued to participate in U.S. military operations in the early 20th Century including the Punitive Expedition against Francisco (Pancho) Villa and his forces in Northern Mexico in 1916.

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Formation of the Buffalo Soldiers, 1866 *

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On July 28, 1866, the Thirty-Ninth Congress passed the Act to increase and fix the Military Peace Establishment of the United States; thus the federal government created six all-Colored Army Regiments. The units identified as the 9th and 10th Colored Cavalry Regiments and the 38th, ...

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The first African American players in the National Basketball Association in the 20 th Century all came into the League in 1950. They were Earl Francis Lloyd (Syracuse Nationals), Charles Henry Cooper (Boston Celtics), and Nathaniel Clifton (New York Knicks) They began their academic training at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).

Lloyd, 6′ 6″ was born on April 3, 1928, in Alexandria, Virginia and graduated from Parker-Gray High School in Alexandria in 1946. He then enrolled in West Virginia State University in 1946 and while an All-American player he received his Bachelor of Science degree in health & physical education in 1950. The 21-year-old was then drafted in the ninth round and on October 31, 1950, he became the first Black athlete to play in the NBA with the Washington Capitols. Lloyd also played for nine seasons with the Syracuse Nationals (who later became the Philadelphia 76ers). In 1970, Lloyd became the first full-time African American head coach in the league when he coached the Detroit Pistons for a year.

Cooper, 6' 5," was born on September 29, 1926, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. After graduating from Westinghouse High School in Pittsburgh he also enrolled in West Virginia State University in 1944. However, he transferred to Duquesne University in 1946, and in 1950 he signed with the Harlem Globetrotters. On April 25, 1950, he became the second African American drafted into the NBA when the Boston Celtics chose him as the 14th overall pick. Cooper made his NBA debut on November 1, 1950, one day after Lloyd, against the Fort Wayne Pistons. He played four years with the Celtics, then was traded to the Milwaukee Hawks. He ended his career with the Ft. Wayne Pistons. Afterward, he earned a Master of Social Work from the University of Minnesota in 1960.

Nathaniel Clifton, 6' 8," was born Clifton Nathaniel on October 13, 1922, in England, Arkansas, and reared in Chicago, Illinois, from age eight. He reversed his name during his senior year at DuSable High School in Chicago, graduating in 1940. From 1942 to 1943, he was a student at Xavier University in New Orleans, Louisiana and played only one season in college. In 1948 Clifton signed with the Harlem Globetrotters. Clifton became the third African American player to sign an NBA contract and made his New York Knicks debut on November 4, 1950, three days after Cooper. At age 34, Clifton was the oldest player in NBA history to be named a first-time All-Star. In 1958, Clifton was traded to the Detroit Pistons, and a year later, in 1959, he left the team. He played for a startup pro team, the Harlem Magicians, and then spent several seasons with the still-popular Globetrotters and another startup, the Chicago Majors. After a knee injury in 1965, Clifton retired. And in 1978, he was inducted into the Black Athletes Hall of Fame.

On February 5, 1984, Charles Henry Cooper died in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on February 5, 1984, at the age of 58. Nathaniel Clifton died on August 31, 1990, in Chicago, Illinois. He was 67. Earl Francis Lloyd was installed in the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame in 1993 and, a decade later, in 2003, inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame. Lloyd died on February 26, 2015, in Crossville, Tennessee at the age of 65. In 2019, Cooper was posthumously inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

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The First Black Players in the NBA (1950) *

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The first African American players in the National Basketball Association in the 20th Century all came into the League in 1950. They were Earl Francis Lloyd (Syracuse Nationals), Charles Henry Cooper (Boston Celtics), and Nathaniel Clifton (New York Knicks) They began their academic training at ...

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Although Haïtien individuals have been coming to what is now the United States both as enslaved and free people since the colonial era, the single largest group of Haïtien immigrants arrived in 1972, thus initiating a movement that continues to this day. In 1972 thousands of Haïtien refugees arrived by boat in South Florida seeking political asylum from the persecution of Haïtien dictator Jean Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier who followed his father as the ruler of that nation. The boat migration most often included small groups who traveled by sea from Haïti to South Florida, a distance of 700 miles. One example of these boat people were the 42 Creole-speaking Haïtien men, 20 women, and three children who jumped ashore on the Florida coast at dawn on December 12, 1972 after sailing to Cuba and the Bahamas in a three‐week journey aboard a leaking 56‐foot sailboat. They had only the clothes on their back but they were assisted by Cuban and Bahamian residents along the way who gave them temporary shelter, clothing. and water.

Upon landing by boat on American soil, most Haïtiens arriving in South Florida were met by authorities and immediately transported to Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) for processing. They waited here as the federal government decided whether to allow them to stay in the United States or to return Haïti where they were sure to be met with reprisals and possible death.

Although the United Nations Convention and Protocol protect a refugee by prohibiting contracting states from expelling anyone to territories where he would be subject to persecution, the U.S. does not categorize Haïtiens as "political" refugees." Instead, they are deemed "economic refugees" and thus could be deportation without due process of law. Scholars and supporters of Haïti and Haïtiens claimed and demonstrated that the American Government was unfair regarding hearings for asylum because of their ethnicity. In other words, the U.S. Government was said to be basing their decision on ethnicity rather than the treatment that the Haïtiens were receiving from the right-wing dictatorial Duvalier regime. Ironically, refugees from Communist nations or Communist-sympathizing nations such as Cuba, easily found entry into the United States.

Despite these challenges Haïtiens continued to flee to the United States. By 1980, between 300,000 and 400,000 Haïtiens had entered the U.S., even though Haïtiens arriving by boat were still detained in Florida and a majority of these boat people were deported back to Haiti. In order to stem the tide of Haïtien refugees, the U.S. Coast Guard was assigned to patrol the Caribbean and to intercept and return to Haiti refugees found on the high seas.

By 1992 Haïtien boat people were regularly returned to Haïti without allowing the vast majority of them to plea for political asylum. The U.S. government's behavior sparked a backlash as pro- Haïtien refugee demonstrations spread across the nation. Groups like Amnesty International continue to maintain that Haïtiens should be treated as political refugees even as U.S. policy calls for baring their entry or deporting those who reach U.S. shores. The most recent example of this problem came in 2021 when thousands of Haïtien refugees who had been living in Mexico and Central and South American nations, made a bold attempt to cross the Rio Grande into Del Rio, Texas. Many were turned back while others were allowed to stay and seek asylum.

Despite the efforts to stop their emigration, in 2019 the U.S. Census counted 1,084,055 Haïtiens residing in the U.S. They were the fourth-largest foreign-born group from the Caribbean in the country and the largest Haïtien-born population outside the nation of Haïti. Many of these refugees or descendants of refugees have created vibrant communities in South Florida and New York City. Prominent Haïtien-Americans include singer Wyclef Jean, artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, writer Edwidge Danticat, former Utah Congresswoman Mia Love, and current Florida Congresswoman Sheila Cherfilus-McCormack.

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Haïtien Immigration to the U.S. (1972- ) *

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Although Haïtien individuals have been coming to what is now the United States both as enslaved and free people since the colonial era, the single largest group of Haïtien immigrants arrived in 1972, thus initiating a movement that continues to this day. In 1972 thousands ... Read MoreHaïtien Immigration to the U.S.

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National Museum of African American History and Culture

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Charleston slave badge from 1811 for Carpenter No. 27

Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Partial Gift of Harry S. Hutchins, Jr. DDS, Col. (Ret.) and his Family, dedicated to the individuals these Slave Hire Badges represent and their descendants

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Five hundred years ago, the emergence of the Transatlantic Slave Trade transformed Africa, Europe, and the Americas. The United States was created in this context, forged by slavery as well as a radical new concept, freedom.

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African Immigration to the United States

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African Immigration to the United States

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African Immigration to the United States (1965- ) •

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The four century (1460-1860) transatlantic slave trade is responsible for the involuntary migration of 388,000 enslaved Africans to the United States according to historians’ best estimates. However, the U.S. has witnessed a much larger influx of voluntary African migration since the 1960s. Whether…