On this day in 1919, an “improbable American hero” is born. Doris “Dorie” Miller was the grandson of slaves and the son of poor Texas...

On this day in 2015, Lt. Calvin J. Spann passes away at the age of 90. Decades earlier, he’d been one of the original members of the...

On this day in 1838, Frederick Douglass makes his escape from slavery. He’d been a slave for about two decades, but that life was finally...

On this day in 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr. famously delivers his “I have a dream” speech during the March on Washington for Jobs and...

On this day in 1944, a black woman refuses to give up her seat to a white passenger on a Greyhound bus in Virginia. No, it wasn’t Rosa...

On this day in 1865, slaves in Galveston, Texas, learn that they are free. The anniversary of today’s events has come to be known as...

On this day in 1775, America’s first abolitionist group is formed. Wait. What? Some of our Founders were trying to end slavery, even...

On this day in 1919, a baby boy is born to poor sharecroppers in Georgia. Jack “Jackie” Roosevelt Robinson would go on to become the...

On this day in 1892, Bessie Coleman is born to a poor sharecropping family in Atlanta, Texas. She would later become the first black...

On this day in 1786, George Washington writes a letter on a difficult topic. His views on slavery had been changing for many years....

At about this time in 1877, a hero is born. Or perhaps Benjamin O. Davis was actually born in May 1880? Davis potentially lied about his...

On this day in 1854, a fugitive slave named Anthony Burns is arrested in Boston, in compliance with the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. The...

On this day in 1955, a 15-year-old refuses to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Rosa Parks would become famous for the...

On this day in 1915, an American heroine is born. Olivia J. Hooker would become the first black woman to serve in the United States Coast...

On this day in 1829, Elizabeth Freeman passes away. The woman better known as “Mum Bett” was the first woman to be declared free from...

On this day in 1955, Rosa Parks is arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Fortunately, the unjust...

On this day in 1870, Iowa ratifies the Fifteenth Amendment, thus ensuring that men could vote regardless of race. Women were not included...