March 31st:
1850 - The Massachusetts Supreme Court rejects the argument of Charles Sumner in the Boston school integration suit and established the “separate but equal” precedent.
1949 – William Grant Still’s opera, “Troubled Island” receives its world premiere at the New York City Opera. In addition to marking Robert McFerrin’s debut as the first African American male to sing with the company, the opera is the first ever written by an African American to be produced by a major opera company.
1999 - Four New York City police officers are charged with murder for killing Amadou Diallo, an unarmed African immigrant, in a hail of bullets. They shot at him 41 times, hitting him with 19 shots. The officers will later be acquitted of all charges, even involuntary manslaughter.
April 1st:
1867 – African Americans vote in a municipal election in Tuscumbia, Alabama. Military officials set aside the election pending clarification on electoral procedures.
April 2nd:
1855 – John Mercer Langston is elected clerk of Brownhelm, Ohio, township. He will be considered the first African American elected to public office.
1984 – Coach John Thompson of Georgetown University becomes the first African American coach to win the NCAA Division I basketball championship. The team, led by Patrick Ewing, beat the University of Houston 84-75.
April 3rd:
1944 – The U.S. Supreme Court (Smith v. Allwright) said that “white primaries” that exclude African Americans are unconstitutional.
1963 - Led by Martin Luther King, Jr., the Birmingham anti- segregation campaign begins. Before it is over, more than 2,000 demonstrators, including King, will be arrested. The Birmingham Manifesto, issued by Fred Shuttlesworth of the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights the morning of the campaign, summarizes the frustration and hopes of the protesters: “The patience of an oppressed people cannot endure forever…. This is Birmingham’s moment of truth in which every citizen can play his part in her larger destiny.”
1968 – Less than 24 hours before he is assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his famous “mountaintop” speech to a rally of striking sanitation workers.
April 4th:
1960 – Senegal and Mali gain separate independence.
1968 – Acknowledged leader of the U.S. civil rights movement, Martin Luther King, Jr. is assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee. His death will result in a national day of mourning and the postponement of the beginning of the baseball season. Over 30,000 people will form a funeral procession behind his coffin, pulled by two Georgia mules. King’s death will also set off racially motivated civil disturbances in 160 cities leaving 82 people dead and causing $ 69 million in property damage. President Lyndon B. Johnson declares Sunday, April 6, a national day of mourning and orders all U.S. flags on government buildings in all U.S. territories and possessions to fly at half-mast.
1974 – Hank Aaron ties the baseball career home run record set by Babe Ruth, when he hits his 714th home run in Cincinnati, Ohio.
April 5th:
1956 – Booker T. Washington becomes the only African American honored twice on a U.S. postage stamp. To commemorate the centennial of his birth, the U.S. Postal Service issues a stamp depicting the cabin where he was born.
1976 – FBI documents, released in response to a freedom of information suit, reveal that the government mounted an intensive campaign against civil rights organizations in the sixties. In a letter dated August 25, 1967, the FBI said the government operation, called COINTELPRO, was designed “to expose, disrupt, misdirect, discredit or otherwise neutralize the activities of Black nationalists, hate-type groups, their leadership, spokesmen, membership and supporters, and to counter their propensity for violence and civil disorders.” A later telegram specifically named the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference as organizations having “radical and violence prone leaders, members and followers.”
1977 – Gertrude Downing receives a patent for the corner cleaner attachment.
1990 – Seven African American journalists are inducted into the newly created Hall of Fame of the National Association of Black Journalists in Washington, DC. Dubbed “pioneers of mainstream journalism,” the inductees include Dorothy Butler Gilliam of the Washington Post, Malvin R. Goode of ABC News, Mal H. Johnson of Cox Broadcasting, Gordon Parks of Life Magazine, Ted Poston of the New York Post, Norma Quarles of Cable News Network, and Carl T. Rowan of King Features Syndicate. Twelve Pulitzer Prize winners are also honored at the awards ceremonies.
