Born on this day, Ella Baker was a civil rights and human rights activist beginning in the 1930s whose career spanned more than five decades.
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A meeting was held in New York of abolitionists to address the injustice of continued slavery in Cuba.
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Joseph H. Rainey, from South Carolina, was the first African-American to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives.
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More than 800 civilians were massacred by the U.S.-backed Salvadoran Army in El Mozote.
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“The primary cause of the Houston riot was the habitual brutality of the white police officers of Houston in their treatment of colored people.” —The Crisis magazine.
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The Treaty of Paris was signed, ending the Spanish-American War. None of the countries that had fought for decades for their freedom were represented at signing of the treaty.
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P. B. S. Pinchback of Louisiana became the second Black governor in the United States.
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The Georgia Constitutional Convention was held with 33 African Americans and 137 white attendees.
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People who had escaped from slavery and were following the Union Army, were blocked from crossing the Ebenezer Creek, leading to their death.
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Congresswoman Jeannette Rankin was the only member of Congress to vote against declaring war on Japan after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
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In an attempt to gain pay equity for Black teachers in Maryland, William B. Gibbs Jr. became the lead plaintiff in the NAACP’s case for pay equity in Montgomery County, a case known as Gibbs v. Broome.
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White people attacked and killed many Black citizens who had organized for a Black sheriff to remain in office during the Vicksburg Massacre.
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A coalition of groups set up a series of road blockades preventing gas exploration in New Brunswick, Canada.
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One of the worst massacres of civilians during the 19-year American occupation of Haiti took place in Les Cayes.
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The 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution officially ended the institution of slavery.
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The Montgomery Bus Boycott is one of the most powerful examples of organizing and social change in U.S. history.
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Black Panther Party members Fred Hampton and Mark Clark were assassinated by police and FBI agents in Chicago, Illinois.
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After the Civil War, representatives from states recently in rebellion were blocked from being sworn-in at the 39th Congress.
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An international observance for persons with disabilities, which has been ongoing annually since 1992.
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In his 1860 speech commemorating radical abolitionist John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry, Frederick Douglass argued that slavery would only end if the slave owner feared the violent retribution of the enslaved.
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