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As the “Black Media Authority,” the AFRO is committed to educating readers by sharing Black history, while also offering news, trends, issues and modern stories in the African American community. Beyond Black History month, the AFRO is featuring historic “AFRO Facts,” each month. In an effort to remind our readership of just how long we’ve been around, we are sharing content from our archives, where we’ve canonized Black history for 127 years. These important dates were major contributions and occurrences for Black people then and now. Below are some of July’s “AFRO Facts.”
AFRO Facts
July 1
1899 Thomas Dorsey, the Father of Gospel music born.
1889 Frederick Douglass named Minister to Haiti.
1873 James Smith First Black to enter West Point.
1873 Henry O. Flipper enters West Point Academy.
1917 East St. Louis riots, occurs
1987 Three Black women become presidents of Black Colleges: Dr. Niara Sudarkasa,
(Lincoln University); Dr. Johnetta Cole–(Spelman College) and Dr. Gloria Scott,
(Bennett College)
1962 Actor and producer, known for Homicide: Life on the Street, Actor Andre Braugher born
2014 Michelle Howard is the first Black female to become a four star Admiral in U.S. Navy.
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July 2
1777 Vermont is the first colony to abolish slavery.
1908- Thurgood Marshall born
1925 Civil Rights Fighter Medgar Evers born
1943 Lt. Charles Hall of Brazil, Ind., was the first Black pilot to shoot down a Nazi plane
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July 3
1775 Prince Hall Masons formed. The Prince Hall Masons are the oldest and largest group of Masons of African origin in the world. Today there are forty Grand Lodges of Prince Hall Freemasonry in the United States, Canada, the Bahamas, and Liberia.
1956 Former TV Host from Baltimore, Montel Williams, born
1962 Jackie Robinson named to Baseball Hall of Fame
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July 6
1931 Singer Della Reese born
1949- Singer Phyllis Hyman born
1957 Althea Gibson, first Black woman to win women’s title at Wimbledon
Gibson was the first African-American tennis player to compete at the U.S. National Championships in 1950 and the first Black female athlete to compete and win a women’s title at Wimbledon, allowing her to successfully break barriers in other sports as well, such as golf.
1971 Louis Armstrong dies
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July 7
1948 Cleveland Indians sign Negro League’s Satchel Paige.
1972 WNBA player Lisa Leslie born in Gardena, Calif., and signed a contract with the WNBA in 1997 She was also the first WNBA player to win a regular season MVP season.
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July 8
1914 Jazz singer William “Billy” Eckstine born. Billy Eckstine died on March 8, 1993. Eckstine was an American jazz and pop artist. He faced many issues in his lifetime because of his mixed-race. He was one of the many artists to reshape jazz by the end of the decade.
2001
Venus Williams reached the semifinals of the Australian Open for the first time and lost, however when she teamed with her sister, together they successfully won the tier II tournament.
2010 Harold David Blackwell died, mathematician and statistician is first Black elected to the National Academy of Sciences.
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