BY WALTER OPINDE On this day, May 31, 1924, the First African-American Female Politician to Hold a Cabinet Position in the U.S. history was born. Patricia Roberts Harris was the first African-American woman to hold a Cabinet position, head a law school, and serve as an ambassador of the U.S. She fought for fair housing and urban developm...
During this week in history, Charles Evers became the first Black mayor of a town in Mississippi since Reconstruction. During the period following the Civil War, Black people were installed or elected to a number of political offices. When Reconstruction ended, it was hard for Black politicians to get a position. Charles Evers, the brother ...
BY WALTER OPINDE On this day, May 24, 1918, famous politician, labor leader, and civil rights activist, Coleman Alexander Young was born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Coleman was the first African-American mayor of Michigan’s largest City, Detroit, for approximately two decades, from 1974 to 1994. This was a service for five complete terms in the ...
While he was held under house arrest for some time in September along with Kasa-Vubu, Lumumba and others would escape. The house arrest was initiated by the U.N to keep chief-of-staff Colonel Joseph Mobutu from arresting them. There was a fear that he would be dispatched under suspicious circumstances. On November 27, 1960, he arrived in ...
Africa in 1961 was undergoing a number of often violent political changes. In Angola, independence from Portugal was ongoing. Meanwhile, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, in-fighting would come to an end with the execution--or assassination--of Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba and two close associates. Lead Up To The Executions The ...
Serving as President of Burkina Faso, Blaise Compaore managed to hold on to his position in 1991, 1998, 2005 and 2010. It would be his final term where Compaore pushed to change a 2000 amendment which limited terms and term length. He managed to stay in office since the amendment didn’t take effect until the end of his term. As the 2015 ...
BY WALTER OPINDE On this day, 21st May 1959, a great African-American woman politician, full of charisma and leadership capabilities, Loretta Lynch, was born. Loretta Lynch, on 27th April, 2015, entered the American historical records as the first black woman to be appointed as the U.S. Attorney General, under President Barack Obama’s ...
May 21, 1881, marks the day that Blanche Bruce appointed Register of the Treasury after serving as Mississippi's U.S. Senator. Bruce was born in slavery in March 1841 on a Virginia plantation. His father was slaveholder Pettis Perkinson. LIFE PRIOR TO POLITICS He would receive an education by his father and eventually freed. During ...
Chris Hani, (born Martin Thembisle) was the leader of the South African Communist Party. He also served as Chief of Staff of the armed wing of the African National Congress. Hani was one of the most popular ANC leaders after Nelson Mandela. He joined the ANC youth league at the age of fifteen. As a member of the organization, Hani participated ...
On this day in Black history, Zaire is renamed the Democratic Republic of Congo. Prior to the installation of Laurent Kabila, the country was ruled by Mobutu Sese Seko for close to 40 years. FINAL YEARS OF ZAIRE Mobutu took over in a coup in 1965 and changed the country's name to Zaire six years later. The country was mired in corruption ...
William Cuffay was a black tailor and politician from Chatham, Kent in England. His father was a naval cook and former slave. As a young boy, Cuffay worked as an apprentice tailor. During his young adult years, he began to voice his conservative views and argue against the formation of trade unions. He was the last member of his lodge to join ...
September 10 is a significant date in Black history, particularly in Liberia as two pillars of their respective communities left the U.S. to take up government posts. The first of the two was George Washington Buckner in 1913. Education and Career Born a slave on December 1, 1855, Buckner ...
