Congressman Thaddeus Stevens offered an amendment to Freedmen’s Bureau bill authorizing the distribution of public land and confiscated land and to freedmen and loyal refugees in forty-acre lots. The measure was defeated in the House by a vote of 126 to 37. A black delegation, led by Frederick Douglas called on President Johnson and urged ballots for former slaves. Meeting ended in disagreement and controversy after Johnson reiterated his opposition to black suffrage.
On this date in African-American history, President Barack H. Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009.
May 31, 2018, will mark the ninety-seventh anniversary of the cataclysmic 1921 Tulsa Race Riot (the “Riot”), a man-made calamity more accurately described as a massacre, pogrom, holocaust, assault, or burning. This defining moment in Tulsa and American history, despite its significance as the worst “race riot” [or massacre] in America, remains a mystery to many and an unknown to many more.
With the Civil War not officially ending until 1865 and in the midst of chaos and confusion, an African-American newspaper managed to establish itself in the heart of New Orleans, Louisiana.
On September 25, 1957, in Little Rock, Arkansas, nine African-American students were escorted into Central High School. They were lead by federal troops who enforced the court-order of public school integration.
Roots a miniseries based on Alex P. Haley’s novel, “Roots” recieved several awards at the 19th Annual Emmys on this date in 1977.