bfCallback1743716978777({"Request":{"VirtualSiteSlug":"blackfacts","IsToday":true,"SearchType":"today","SearchResultType":"event"},"Results":[{"FadeSummary":false,"SummaryText":"On April 4, 1967, exactly one year before his assassination, Dr. Martin Luther King gave his first major public address on the War in Vietnam at a meeting of Clergy and Laity Concerned at Riverside Church in New York City. In that address he articulated his reasons for his opposition to the Southeast Asian conflict. His speech appears below.\nI come to this magnificent house of worship tonight because my conscience leaves me no other choice. I join with you in this meeting because I am in deepest agreement with the aims and work of the organization which has brought us together: Clergy and Laymen Concerned about Vietnam. The recent statement of your executive committee are the sentiments of my own heart and I found myself in full accord when I read its opening lines: A time comes when silence is betrayal. That time has come for us in relation to Vietnam.\nThe truth of these words is beyond doubt but the mission to which they call us is a most difficult one. Even when pressed by the demands of inner truth, men do not easily assume the task of opposing their governments policy, especially in time of war. Nor does the human spirit move without great difficulty against all the apathy of conformist thought within ones own bosom and in the surrounding world. Moreover when the issues at hand seem as perplexed as they often do in the case of this dreadful conflict we are always on the verge of being mesmerized by uncertainty; but we must move on.\nSome of us who have already begun to break the silence of the night have found that the calling to speak is often a vocation of agony, but we must speak. We must speak with all the humility that is appropriate to our limited vision, but we must speak. And we must rejoice as well, for surely this is the first time in our nations history that a significant number of its religious leaders have chosen to move beyond the prophesying of smooth patriotism to the high grounds of a firm dissent based upon the mandates of conscience and the reading of history. Perhaps a new spirit is","MaxDetailCharacters":0,"ImageUrl":"https://cdn.blackfacts.com/uploads/blackfacts/facts/www.blackpast.org/files/blackpast_images/mlk_riverside.jpg","ImageHeight":310,"ImageWidth":300,"ImageOrientation":"portrait","HasImage":true,"CssClass":"","Layout":"","Rowspan":1,"Colspan":1,"Likes":0,"Shares":0,"ContentSourceId":"de2ecbf0-5aa4-45ce-bbf9-9a6ac45f6ac8","SourceName":"Black Past","ContentSourceRootUrl":"https://www.blackpast.org/","SponsorId":"db639b42-2581-4fb8-aa10-144471738a50","IsSponsored":true,"SponsorName":"Association of Latino Professionals For America (ALPFA) Boston Professional Chapter","SmallSponsorLogoUrl":"24x24/alpfa-logo.png","SponsorUrl":"https://www.alpfa.org/page/boston","HasSmallSponsorLogo":true,"EffectiveDate":"1967-04-04T00:00:00","HasEffectiveDate":true,"Year":1967,"Month":4,"Day":4,"LastUpdatedDate":"2023-11-25T05:14:39.027","LastUpdatedBy":"ExtractionBotHub","IsEditable":false,"InsertAd":false,"Id":6334,"FactUId":"6c3094cb-4f8a-4f5d-bf17-af209fd5be81","Slug":"1967-martin-luther-king-jr-beyond-vietnam-a-time-to-break-silence","FactType":"Event","Title":"(1967) Martin Luther King, Jr., \u201CBeyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence\u201D","LocalFactUrl":"/fact/1967-martin-luther-king-jr-beyond-vietnam-a-time-to-break-silence","ResultCount":-1,"SearchType":"Today"},{"FadeSummary":false,"SummaryText":"At 6:01 p.m. on April 4, 1968, civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was hit by a snipers bullet. King had been standing on the balcony in front of his room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, when without warning, he was shot. The .30-caliber rifle bullet entered Kings right cheek, traveled through his neck, and finally stopped at his shoulder blade. King was immediately taken to a nearby hospital but was pronounced dead at 7:05 pm.\nViolence and controversy followed. In outrage of the murder, many blacks took to the streets across the United States in a massive wave of riots. The FBI investigated the crime, but many believed them partially or fully responsible for the assassination. An escaped convict by the name of James Earl Ray was arrested, but many people\u00A0including some of Martin Luther King Jr.s own family, believe he was innocent. What happened that evening?\nDr. Martin Luther King Jr. \u00A0\nWhen Martin Luther King, Jr. emerged as the leader of the\u00A0Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955, he began a long tenure as the spokesperson for nonviolent protest in the Civil Rights Movement. As a Baptist minister, he was a moral leader to the community. Plus, he was charismatic and had a powerful way of speaking. He was also a man of vision and determination. He never stopped dreaming of what could be.\nYet he was a man, not a God. He was most often overworked and overtired and he had a fondness for the private company of women.\n Though he was the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize winner, he did not have complete control over the Civil Rights Movement. By 1968, violence had edged its way into the movement. Black Panther Party members carried loaded weapons, riots had erupted across the country, and numerous civil rights organizations had taken up the mantra Black Power! Yet Martin Luther King held strong to his beliefs, even as he saw the Civil Rights Movement being torn in two.\n Violence is what brought King back to Memphis in April 1968.\nOn February 12, thirteen hundred African-American sanitation workers in","MaxDetailCharacters":0,"ImageUrl":"https://cdn.blackfacts.com/uploads/blackfacts/facts/fthmb.tqn.com/r5alh0vmijm6injzg4ravnux-yy-/2000x1315/filters-fill-auto-1-/about/93115336-resize-56a48cf03df78cf77282ef5d.jpg","ImageHeight":986,"ImageWidth":1500,"ImageOrientation":"landscape","HasImage":true,"CssClass":"","Layout":"","Rowspan":1,"Colspan":1,"Likes":0,"Shares":0,"ContentSourceId":"6982ddb9-33e1-469e-8344-2e6290cc3f69","SourceName":"ThoughtCo","ContentSourceRootUrl":"https://www.thoughtco.com/african-american-history-4133344","SponsorId":"becbe15c-72a7-4130-b8db-a12eaf26b3ab","IsSponsored":true,"SponsorName":"New York University","SmallSponsorLogoUrl":"24x24/nyu-logo.jpg","SponsorUrl":"https://www.nyu.edu","HasSmallSponsorLogo":true,"EffectiveDate":"1968-04-04T00:00:00","HasEffectiveDate":true,"Year":1968,"Month":4,"Day":4,"LastUpdatedDate":"2023-11-25T05:14:39.027","LastUpdatedBy":"ExtractionBotHub","IsEditable":false,"InsertAd":false,"Id":8562,"FactUId":"df11ddc5-bfa2-4757-93b6-258f6ba85f93","Slug":"assassination-of-martin-luther-king-jr","FactType":"Event","Title":"Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.","LocalFactUrl":"/fact/assassination-of-martin-luther-king-jr","ResultCount":-1,"SearchType":"Today"},{"FadeSummary":false,"SummaryText":"Hugh Masekela ,  (born April 4, 1939, Witbank, South Africa), South African trumpeter who was one of his country\u2019s most popular instrumentalists. An outspoken opponent of apartheid, he lived in the United States, Europe, and Africa while bringing his own country\u2019s unique rhythms and harmonies to international stages.\nMasekela was the son of the chief health inspector of Sharpeville township, who was also a sculptor in wood and owned an extensive jazz record collection. Records by the American trumpeters Dizzy Gillespie and Clifford Brown inspired Masekela to play bebop with the Jazz Epistles in 1959, a group that included the noted pianist Dollar Brand (later known as Abdullah Ibrahim) and that was the first black band in the country to record an album. When the grip of apartheid tightened the following year, Masekela immigrated to the United States, where he attended the Manhattan School of Music in New York City and began forming his own bands. In the 1960s he arranged for and accompanied his then wife, the singer  Miriam Makeba; he also wrote and played songs in the kwela style, the pop-folk music of the South African townships.\nMasekela traveled throughout Africa in the 1970s, becoming involved in the continent\u2019s varieties of music, teaching for a year in Guinea, playing in the band of popular Nigerian performer Fela Ransome-Kuti, recording five albums, and touring with the highlife band Hedzoleh Soundz. In the 1980s, after starring in outdoor concerts in Lesotho and Botswana that drew throngs of both black and white South Africans, he settled in Botswana and set up a mobile recording studio near the South African border in order to record that country\u2019s musicians. He also played on  Paul Simon\u2019s \u0026ldquo;Graceland\u0026rdquo; world tour. In 1990 he received a telephone call from his sister Barbara, in Johannesburg, reporting that the South African government had declared amnesty for political exiles; herself an exile, she had returned home to become Nelson Mandela\u2019s chief of staff.\nAt home in South Africa, Masekela released","MaxDetailCharacters":0,"ImageUrl":"https://cdn.blackfacts.com/uploads/blackfacts/facts/media1.britannica.com/eb-media/49/167249-004-d663eb84.jpg","ImageHeight":366,"ImageWidth":550,"ImageOrientation":"landscape","HasImage":true,"CssClass":"","Layout":"","Rowspan":1,"Colspan":1,"Likes":0,"Shares":0,"ContentSourceId":"80689a34-9b7c-4d3a-91f8-56cabb44f365","SourceName":"Brittanica","ContentSourceRootUrl":"https://www.britannica.com/search?query=black%20history","SponsorId":"999065ff-039b-49bc-909d-0c5dbe2e80ae","IsSponsored":true,"SponsorName":"Greater Boston Veterans Collaborative","SmallSponsorLogoUrl":"24x24/GBVC-logo.png","SponsorUrl":"http://www.collaborate.vet/","HasSmallSponsorLogo":true,"EffectiveDate":"1939-04-04T00:00:00","HasEffectiveDate":true,"Year":1939,"Month":4,"Day":4,"LastUpdatedDate":"2023-11-25T05:14:39.027","LastUpdatedBy":"ExtractionBotHub","IsEditable":false,"InsertAd":false,"Id":10408,"FactUId":"25910532-49f6-44dd-8fc4-797a2a3b5e4e","Slug":"hugh-masekela","FactType":"Event","Title":"Hugh Masekela","LocalFactUrl":"/fact/hugh-masekela","ResultCount":-1,"SearchType":"Today"},{"FadeSummary":false,"SummaryText":"Muddy Waters was a twentieth century African American blues musician. He is deemed the \u0026ldquo;father of modern Chicago blues\u0026rdquo; and influenced the 1960s generation of England which resulted in the appearance of British blues.\nBorn on April 4, 1913, in Issaquena County, Mississippi, Muddy Waters was originally named McKinley Morganfield. He was raised by his grandmother, Della Grant, after the demise of his mother closely following his birth. Mrs. Grant used to call him by his nickname, Muddy, which was given to him based on his habit of playing in the muddy water. In his later life he actually took up the name Muddy Waters permanently. He began to play harmonica in his teenage years and soon after he was playing guitar at parties. In 1932, he got married to Mabel Berry but three years later his wife left him when she discovered about his infidelity and an illegitimate child with a young girl. Over the years he married once gain but left her as he moved to Chicago in 1943.\nIn 1941, Alan Lomax, one of the great folklorist, ethnomusicologist of American history approached Waters and recorded his music. Waters felt encouraged when he listened himself on the record and realized he could make it as a musician one day. Two years later, he flew to Chicago in hopes of becoming a full-time professional musician. During his early years in Chicago, in order to to make a living he used to drive truck and worked in a factory by day and played music at night. He was eventually given a break by a leading blues musician in Chicago, Big Bill Broonzy to perform at night clubs. By 1946, he gained enough influence to have his music recorded at Columbia but it was not released immediately. He was approached by a newly founded record label Aristocrat Records to record his work.\nWaters played guitar with an American blues pianist Sunnyland Slim on the tracks such as \u0026ldquo;Little Anna Mae\u0026rdquo; and \u0026ldquo;Gypsy Woman\u0026rdquo;. By 1947 he was still struggling as a music artist. However, in 1948, with the release of \u0026ldquo;I Feel Like Going Home\u0026rdquo; and \u0026ldquo;I Can\u2019t Be Satisfied\u0026rdquo;,","MaxDetailCharacters":0,"ImageUrl":"https://cdn.blackfacts.com/uploads/blackfacts/facts/www.famousafricanamericans.org/images/muddy-waters.jpg","ImageHeight":393,"ImageWidth":580,"ImageOrientation":"landscape","HasImage":true,"CssClass":"","Layout":"","Rowspan":1,"Colspan":1,"Likes":0,"Shares":0,"ContentSourceId":"73e45e4e-5e7c-4595-9ff3-d9df1f177307","SourceName":"Black History Resources","ContentSourceRootUrl":"https://www.internet4classrooms.com/black_history.htm","SponsorId":"d9e17e24-cd53-4d57-be36-9d2660786c68","IsSponsored":true,"SponsorName":"Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE) Boston Professional Chapter","SmallSponsorLogoUrl":"24x24/shpe-logo.jpg","SponsorUrl":"http://shpeboston.org/","HasSmallSponsorLogo":true,"EffectiveDate":"1913-04-04T00:00:00","HasEffectiveDate":true,"Year":1913,"Month":4,"Day":4,"LastUpdatedDate":"2023-11-25T05:14:39.027","LastUpdatedBy":"ExtractionBotHub","IsEditable":false,"InsertAd":false,"Id":5069,"FactUId":"a3031bdd-d015-4776-84f6-479ad3368790","Slug":"muddy-waters-0","FactType":"Event","Title":"Muddy Waters","LocalFactUrl":"/fact/muddy-waters-0","ResultCount":-1,"SearchType":"Today"},{"FadeSummary":false,"SummaryText":"William H. Wilson established The Northwest Enterprise, a Seattle, Washington weekly newspaper for the African American community, in 1920 and continued to be its editor until 1935.\u00A0 He also served as a board member of Seattles chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and was chairman of the Colored Citizens Committee.\u00A0 \nWilson\u2019s birthplace, birthday, and other background are unknown; in fact, little has been written about Wilson\u2019s life before and after his time in Seattle.\u00A0 Wilson made a name for himself as one of the wealthiest African Americans in Seattle with his newspaper The Northwest Enterprise, which was considered the most widely known and successful Seattle black-owned business.\u00A0 By 1927, sales of the paper extended across the Pacific Northwest, including Montana and Idaho.\u00A0 While Wilson was editor, the newspaper focused on what white newspapers avoided: racism in Seattle, success in the African American communities, advertisements specifically for African Americans, and black politics.\u00A0 Wilson and his newspaper built unity and support among Seattles African American community, a pattern that continued when Wilson left The Northwest Enterprise in 1935.\u00A0 \nWilson became president of the Seattle NAACP when the organization reemerged in 1928 after a five-year lull in activities. Wilson immediately addressed the decline in membership and led the organization in working on cases involving employment discrimination.\u00A0 That discrimination increased dramatically during the Depression as black workers were often laid off to create jobs for white employees.\u00A0 Wilson was also the chairman of the Colored Citizens Committee, an ad hoc group which, along with other groups of color and white activists, successfully campaigned against anti-intermarriage bills introduced in the Washington State Legislature in 1935 and 1937.\u00A0 Because of these efforts Washington remained one of only six states in the nation and the only one in the far west that did not enact legislation blocking","MaxDetailCharacters":0,"ImageOrientation":"none","HasImage":false,"CssClass":"","Layout":"","Rowspan":1,"Colspan":1,"Likes":0,"Shares":0,"ContentSourceId":"de2ecbf0-5aa4-45ce-bbf9-9a6ac45f6ac8","SourceName":"Black Past","ContentSourceRootUrl":"https://www.blackpast.org/","IsSponsored":false,"HasSmallSponsorLogo":false,"EffectiveDate":"1952-04-04T00:00:00","HasEffectiveDate":true,"Year":1952,"Month":4,"Day":4,"LastUpdatedDate":"2023-11-25T05:14:39.027","LastUpdatedBy":"ExtractionBotHub","IsEditable":false,"InsertAd":false,"Id":6168,"FactUId":"35ef0b87-98c4-47b4-ba65-b16d7ac972a1","Slug":"william-h-wilson","FactType":"Event","Title":"William H. Wilson (? --- ?)","LocalFactUrl":"/fact/william-h-wilson","ResultCount":-1,"SearchType":"Today"},{"FadeSummary":false,"SummaryText":"Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. ,  (born Nov. 29, 1908, New Haven, Conn., U.S.\u2014died  April 4, 1972, Miami, Fla.), black American public official and pastor who became a prominent liberal legislator and civil-rights leader.\nPowell was the son of the pastor of the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, New York City. Brought up in a middle-class home, he received his B.A. from Colgate University (Hamilton, N.Y.) in 1930 and his M.A. from Columbia University in 1932. He succeeded his father as pastor of the Abyssinian Baptist Church in 1937 and eventually built up its membership to 13,000 people. With the church as his power base, Powell was able to build a formidable public following in Harlem through his crusades for jobs and housing for the poor. He won election to the New York City Council in 1941, becoming the first black man to serve on that body. In 1945 he won election to the U.S. House of Representatives as a Democrat from Harlem. There he began a long fight against racial segregation. He served 11 successive terms in the House and became chairman of its Education and Labor Committee in 1960. In that capacity he played a leading role in the passage of a minimum wage act, antipoverty acts, and bills supporting manpower training and federal aid to education, about 50 major pieces of social legislation in all.\nPowell\u2019s outspoken opposition to racism and his flamboyant lifestyle made him enemies, however, and in the early 1960s he became involved in a lawsuit with a woman who claimed he had wrongly accused her of collecting police graft. He was cited for contempt of court in 1966 for refusing to pay damages, and in 1967 the House voted to deprive him of his seat. He was nevertheless reelected in his district in 1968 but was then deprived by his colleagues in the House of his committee chairmanship and his seniority. In 1969 the U.S. Supreme Court decided that the action of the House in depriving him of his seat had been unconstitutional, but by that time Powell\u2019s health was failing. After his defeat in the Democratic","MaxDetailCharacters":0,"ImageUrl":"https://cdn.blackfacts.com/uploads/blackfacts/facts/media1.britannica.com/eb-media/95/3595-004-cab5427f.jpg","ImageHeight":300,"ImageWidth":406,"ImageOrientation":"landscape","HasImage":true,"CssClass":"","Layout":"","Rowspan":1,"Colspan":1,"Likes":0,"Shares":0,"ContentSourceId":"80689a34-9b7c-4d3a-91f8-56cabb44f365","SourceName":"Brittanica","ContentSourceRootUrl":"https://www.britannica.com/search?query=black%20history","IsSponsored":false,"HasSmallSponsorLogo":false,"EffectiveDate":"1972-04-04T00:00:00","HasEffectiveDate":true,"Year":1972,"Month":4,"Day":4,"LastUpdatedDate":"2023-11-25T05:14:39.027","LastUpdatedBy":"ExtractionBotHub","IsEditable":false,"InsertAd":false,"Id":10481,"FactUId":"ea49d0d5-26b0-430e-9530-ff2e16fef492","Slug":"adam-clayton-powell-jr","FactType":"Event","Title":"Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.","LocalFactUrl":"/fact/adam-clayton-powell-jr","ResultCount":-1,"SearchType":"Today"},{"FadeSummary":false,"SummaryText":"Maya Angelou , original name Marguerite Annie Johnson  (born April 4, 1928, St.","MaxDetailCharacters":0,"ImageUrl":"https://cdn.blackfacts.com/uploads/blackfacts/facts/media1.britannica.com/eb-media/75/5675-004-a497acf0.jpg","ImageHeight":275,"ImageWidth":210,"ImageOrientation":"portrait","HasImage":true,"CssClass":"","Layout":"","Rowspan":1,"Colspan":1,"Likes":0,"Shares":0,"ContentSourceId":"80689a34-9b7c-4d3a-91f8-56cabb44f365","SourceName":"Brittanica","ContentSourceRootUrl":"https://www.britannica.com/search?query=black%20history","IsSponsored":false,"HasSmallSponsorLogo":false,"EffectiveDate":"1928-04-04T00:00:00","HasEffectiveDate":true,"Year":1928,"Month":4,"Day":4,"LastUpdatedDate":"2023-11-25T05:14:39.027","IsEditable":false,"InsertAd":false,"Id":18541,"FactUId":"4bc5b91b-e6e6-419e-906c-925f41a16784","Slug":"maya-angelou--birthday","FactType":"Event","Title":"Maya Angelou - Birthday","LocalFactUrl":"/fact/maya-angelou--birthday","ResultCount":-1,"SearchType":"Today"},{"FadeSummary":false,"SummaryText":"Thaddeus Stevens ,  (born April 4, 1792, Danville, Vermont, U.","MaxDetailCharacters":0,"ImageUrl":"https://cdn.blackfacts.com/uploads/blackfacts/facts/media1.britannica.com/eb-media/19/70619-004-c81dc8f1.jpg","ImageHeight":350,"ImageWidth":284,"ImageOrientation":"portrait","HasImage":true,"CssClass":"","Layout":"","Rowspan":1,"Colspan":1,"Likes":0,"Shares":0,"ContentSourceId":"80689a34-9b7c-4d3a-91f8-56cabb44f365","SourceName":"Brittanica","ContentSourceRootUrl":"https://www.britannica.com/search?query=black%20history","IsSponsored":false,"HasSmallSponsorLogo":false,"EffectiveDate":"1792-04-04T00:00:00","HasEffectiveDate":true,"Year":1792,"Month":4,"Day":4,"LastUpdatedDate":"2023-11-25T05:14:39.027","IsEditable":false,"InsertAd":false,"Id":18609,"FactUId":"1a96504d-8fb5-42d6-824d-5e67a6edc67b","Slug":"thaddeus-stevens--birthday","FactType":"Event","Title":"Thaddeus Stevens - Birthday","LocalFactUrl":"/fact/thaddeus-stevens--birthday","ResultCount":-1,"SearchType":"Today"},{"FadeSummary":false,"SummaryText":"Barth\u00E9lemy Boganda ,  (born April 4, 1910, Bobangui, Moyen-Congo, French Equatorial Africa [now in Central African Republic]\u2014died  March 29, 1959, near Bangui), the major nationalist leader of the  Central African Republic (formerly Ubangi-Shari) in the critical decolonization period of the 1950s.","MaxDetailCharacters":0,"ImageUrl":"https://cdn.blackfacts.com/uploads/blackfacts/facts/media1.britannica.com/eb-media/75/154475-004-576cca55.jpg","ImageHeight":366,"ImageWidth":550,"ImageOrientation":"landscape","HasImage":true,"CssClass":"","Layout":"","Rowspan":1,"Colspan":1,"Likes":0,"Shares":0,"ContentSourceId":"80689a34-9b7c-4d3a-91f8-56cabb44f365","SourceName":"Brittanica","ContentSourceRootUrl":"https://www.britannica.com/search?query=black%20history","IsSponsored":false,"HasSmallSponsorLogo":false,"EffectiveDate":"1910-04-04T00:00:00","HasEffectiveDate":true,"Year":1910,"Month":4,"Day":4,"LastUpdatedDate":"2023-11-25T05:14:39.027","IsEditable":false,"InsertAd":false,"Id":18636,"FactUId":"f402d3f6-8ac0-48c8-88a1-e286ec694926","Slug":"barth-lemy-boganda--birthday","FactType":"Event","Title":"Barth\u00E9lemy Boganda - Birthday","LocalFactUrl":"/fact/barth-lemy-boganda--birthday","ResultCount":-1,"SearchType":"Today"},{"FadeSummary":false,"SummaryText":"January 15, 1929-April 4, 1968) was born Michael Luther King, Jr.","MaxDetailCharacters":0,"ImageUrl":"https://cdn.blackfacts.com/uploads/blackfacts/facts/i.ytimg.com/vi/3vdwwy4cmhe/hqdefault.jpg","ImageHeight":360,"ImageWidth":480,"ImageOrientation":"landscape","HasImage":true,"CssClass":"","Layout":"","Rowspan":1,"Colspan":1,"Likes":0,"Shares":0,"ContentSourceId":"73e45e4e-5e7c-4595-9ff3-d9df1f177307","SourceName":"Black History Resources","ContentSourceRootUrl":"https://www.internet4classrooms.com/black_history.htm","IsSponsored":false,"HasSmallSponsorLogo":false,"EffectiveDate":"1968-04-04T00:00:00","HasEffectiveDate":true,"Year":1968,"Month":4,"Day":4,"LastUpdatedDate":"2023-11-25T05:14:39.027","IsEditable":false,"InsertAd":false,"Id":18806,"FactUId":"e6874e4b-ac39-4de1-8407-c4e6f16f4fde","Slug":"martin-luther-king-jr-i-have-a-dream-speech--death","FactType":"Event","Title":"Martin Luther King, Jr. I Have A Dream Speech - Death","LocalFactUrl":"/fact/martin-luther-king-jr-i-have-a-dream-speech--death","ResultCount":-1,"SearchType":"Today"},{"FadeSummary":false,"SummaryText":"April 4th, 1968 Martin Luther King was shot and killed.\nOn that night, Robert F Kennedy, New Yorks senator back then, wanted to deliver the news to the people of Indianapolis, IN\nLocal police warned him, they wont be able to provide protection if the people wold riot because he was in the heart of the African-American ghetto.\nHe wrote his notes on his ride and started the speech without any drafts or prewritten words before his assistance would give him their proposed draft.\nThis speech was delivered on a back of a Flatbed truck.\nAlthough all major cities had riots, Indianapolis remained calm after RFKs speech\n63 days after this speech, RFK got assassinated.\nI reproduced the video, creating this version after adding the above mentioned details to it, so the speech can be put into context for everyone who watches it.\nThe reason I labeled it as The Greatest Speech Ever was simply the fact that it was never written, it wasnt read from a piece of paper, while there are numerous speeches that are life-changing and timeless, they were almost all written and thought of much more than this one. This one was only written in his heart.\nThe speech:\nI have some very sad news for all of you, and I think sad news for all of our fellow citizens, and people who love peace all over the world, and that is that Martin Luther King was shot and was killed tonight in Memphis, Tennessee.\nMartin Luther King dedicated his life to love and to justice between fellow human beings. He died in the cause of that effort. In this difficult day, in this difficult time for the United States, its perhaps well to ask what kind of a nation we are and what direction we want to move in.\nFor those of you who are black - considering the evidence evidently is, there were white people who were responsible - you can be filled with bitterness, and with hatred, and a desire for revenge.\nWe can move in that direction as a country, in greater polarization - black people amongst blacks, and white amongst whites, filled with hatred toward one another. Or","MaxDetailCharacters":0,"ImageUrl":"https://cdn.blackfacts.com/uploads/blackfacts/facts/i.ytimg.com/vi/gokzcff8zbs/maxresdefault.jpg","ImageHeight":720,"ImageWidth":1280,"ImageOrientation":"landscape","HasImage":true,"CssClass":"","Layout":"","Rowspan":1,"Colspan":1,"Likes":0,"Shares":0,"ContentSourceId":"73e45e4e-5e7c-4595-9ff3-d9df1f177307","SourceName":"Black History Resources","ContentSourceRootUrl":"https://www.internet4classrooms.com/black_history.htm","SponsorId":"9e027dc1-0367-446b-87cb-8aff0ebac676","IsSponsored":true,"SponsorName":"Concerned Black Men of Massachusetts","SmallSponsorLogoUrl":"24x24/cbmm-logo.jpg","SponsorUrl":"https://www.cbmm.net","HasSmallSponsorLogo":true,"EffectiveDate":"1968-04-04T00:00:00","HasEffectiveDate":true,"Year":1968,"Month":4,"Day":4,"LastUpdatedDate":"2023-11-25T05:14:39.027","LastUpdatedBy":"ExtractionBotHub","IsEditable":false,"InsertAd":false,"Id":8783,"FactUId":"a5e8e51d-6e5f-4bf2-97f7-5f439b8279d5","Slug":"the-greatest-speech-ever--robert-f-kennedy-announcing-the-death-of-martin-luther-king","FactType":"Event","Title":"The Greatest Speech Ever - Robert F Kennedy Announcing The Death Of Martin Luther King","LocalFactUrl":"/fact/the-greatest-speech-ever--robert-f-kennedy-announcing-the-death-of-martin-luther-king","ResultCount":-1,"SearchType":"Today"},{"FadeSummary":false,"SummaryText":"Left of Black host Mark Anthony Neal sits down with Candice Jenkins to talk about Ta-Nehisi Coates and the Black Middle Class. \nJenkins is an Associate Professor of English and African-American Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.\n          Left of Black with Monica R. Miller         - Duration: 32:00.    John Hope Franklin Center at Duke University  743 views  \n          Left of Black with Anne-Maria Makhulu         - Duration: 29:09.    John Hope Franklin Center at Duke University  577 views  \n          Left of Black with Alexis De Veaux         - Duration: 1:05:21.    John Hope Franklin Center at Duke University  973 views  \n          What Is the Biggest Misconception About Racism?         - Duration: 2:56.    The Atlantic  3,229 views  \n          Being black in corporate America can be like a racist war zone         - Duration: 17:08.    Boyce Watkins  27,603 views  \n          Left of Black with Tsitsi Ella Jaji         - Duration: 24:22.    John Hope Franklin Center at Duke University  699 views  \n          Ta-Nehisi Coates w/Zakaria: White Supremacy is Everywhere! Reparations Now! 11-8-2015         - Duration: 7:01.    Robert Kraychik  3,012 views  \n          Left of Black with Marc Lamont Hill         - Duration: 25:11.    John Hope Franklin Center at Duke University  3,778 views  \n          Left of Black with Adam Mansbach         - Duration: 56:28.    John Hope Franklin Center at Duke University  740 views  \n          A Conversation with Ta-Nehisi Coates with Kathryn Edin, Bruce Western \u0026amp; William Julius Wilson         - Duration: 1:31:27.    Harvard Kennedy Schools Institute of Politics  20,566 views  \n          Left of Black with Jessica Marie Johnson         - Duration: 19:44.    John Hope Franklin Center at Duke University  381 views  \n          Malcolm X - The Ballot or the Bullet - April 4, 1964         - Duration: 53:11.    Donnie Mossberg  404,077 views  \n          Left of Black with Camille A. Brown         - Duration: 17:43.    John Hope Franklin Center at Duke","MaxDetailCharacters":0,"ImageUrl":"https://cdn.blackfacts.com/uploads/blackfacts/facts/i.ytimg.com/vi/hmnsft3r9em/maxresdefault.jpg","ImageHeight":844,"ImageWidth":1500,"ImageOrientation":"landscape","HasImage":true,"CssClass":"","Layout":"","Rowspan":1,"Colspan":1,"Likes":0,"Shares":0,"ContentSourceId":"5b3a5b56-d9e8-4587-9879-cc66f343f883","SourceName":"AA Studies Research Guide","ContentSourceRootUrl":"https://libguides.lib.msu.edu/c.php?g=95622\u0026p=624428","SponsorId":"d9e17e24-cd53-4d57-be36-9d2660786c68","IsSponsored":true,"SponsorName":"Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE) Boston Professional Chapter","SmallSponsorLogoUrl":"24x24/shpe-logo.jpg","SponsorUrl":"http://shpeboston.org/","HasSmallSponsorLogo":true,"EffectiveDate":"1964-04-04T00:00:00","HasEffectiveDate":true,"Year":1964,"Month":4,"Day":4,"LastUpdatedDate":"2023-11-25T05:14:39.027","LastUpdatedBy":"ExtractionBotHub","IsEditable":false,"InsertAd":false,"Id":9238,"FactUId":"8433edf3-4c5d-4309-870d-c01b246ba00d","Slug":"left-of-black-with-candice-jenkins","FactType":"Event","Title":"Left of Black with Candice Jenkins","LocalFactUrl":"/fact/left-of-black-with-candice-jenkins","ResultCount":-1,"SearchType":"Today"},{"FadeSummary":false,"SummaryText":"The Civil Rights Act of 1968, (Pub.L. 90\u2013284, 82\u00A0Stat.\u00A073, enacted April\u00A011, 1968), also known as the Fair Housing Act, is a landmark part of legislation in the United States that provided for equal housing opportunities regardless of race, religion, or national origin and made it a federal crime to \u0026ldquo;by force or by threat of force, injure, intimidate, or interfere with anyone \u2026 by reason of their race, color, religion, or national origin.\u0026rdquo;[1] The Act was signed into law during the King assassination riots by President Lyndon B. Johnson, who had previously signed the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act into law.\nTitle\u00A0VIII of the Civil Rights Act of 1968 is commonly known as the Fair Housing Act and was meant as a follow\u2011up to the Civil Rights Act of 1964. While the Civil Rights Act of 1866 prohibited discrimination in housing, there were no federal enforcement provisions.[2] The 1968 act expanded on previous acts and prohibited discrimination concerning the sale, rental, and financing of housing based on race, religion, national origin, and since 1974, gender; since 1988, the act protects people with disabilities and families with children.\nVictims of discrimination may use both the 1968 act and the 1866 act via section 1983 [3] to seek redress. The 1968 act provides for federal solutions while the 1866 act provides for private solutions (i.e.,\u00A0civil suits).\nTitles II through VII comprised the Indian Civil Rights Act of 1968, which applies to the Native American tribes of the United States and makes many, but not all, of the guarantees of the Bill of Rights applicable within the tribes[4] (that Act appears today in Title 25, sections 1301 to 1303 of the United States Code).\nA rider attached to the bill makes it a felony to travel in interstate commerce...with the intent to incite, promote, encourage, participate in and carry on a riot. This provision has been criticized for equating organized political protest with organized violence.[5] \nOne impetus for the laws passage came from the 1966 Chicago Open","MaxDetailCharacters":0,"ImageUrl":"https://cdn.blackfacts.com/uploads/blackfacts/facts/upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5c/great_seal_of_the_united_states_-28obverse-29-svg/1200px-great_seal_of_the_united_states_(obverse).svg.png","ImageHeight":1200,"ImageWidth":1200,"ImageOrientation":"portrait","HasImage":true,"CssClass":"","Layout":"","Rowspan":1,"Colspan":1,"Likes":0,"Shares":0,"ContentSourceId":"da28bdce-2cb5-48fe-b17a-549a988e61ff","SourceName":"BlackHistory.com","ContentSourceRootUrl":"https://blackhistory.com","IsSponsored":false,"HasSmallSponsorLogo":false,"EffectiveDate":"1968-04-04T00:00:00","HasEffectiveDate":true,"Year":1968,"Month":4,"Day":4,"LastUpdatedDate":"2023-11-25T05:14:39.027","LastUpdatedBy":"ExtractionBotHub","IsEditable":false,"InsertAd":false,"Id":9359,"FactUId":"5a5ab92f-31b8-4661-80ca-05ff727572e4","Slug":"civil-rights-act-of-1968","FactType":"Event","Title":"Civil Rights Act of 1968","LocalFactUrl":"/fact/civil-rights-act-of-1968","ResultCount":-1,"SearchType":"Today"},{"FadeSummary":false,"SummaryText":"The shooting of Walter Scott occurred on April 4, 2015, in North Charleston, South Carolina, following a daytime traffic stop for a non-functioning brake light. Scott, an unarmed black man, was fatally shot by Michael Slager, a white North Charleston police officer. The race difference led many to believe that the shooting was racially motivated, generating a widespread controversy.[1] Slager was charged with murder after a video surfaced which showed him shooting Scott from behind while Scott was fleeing, and which contradicted his police report.\nThe case was independently investigated by the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED). The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Office of the U.S. Attorney for the District of South Carolina, and the Justice Departments Civil Rights Division are conducting their own investigations.\nIn June 2015, a South Carolina grand jury indicted Slager on a charge of murder. He was released on bond in January 2016. In late 2016, a five-week trial ended in a mistrial due to a hung jury.\nIn May 2016, Slager was indicted on federal charges including violation of Scotts civil rights and obstruction of justice.\nOn May 2, 2017, in a plea agreement, Slager pled guilty to federal charges of civil rights violations.[2] [3] In return for his guilty plea, murder charges from the state will be dropped.[2] [3] The guilty plea carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.[4] \nWalter Lamar Scott[note 1] (February 9, 1965 \u2013 April 4, 2015),[6] a 50-year-old black man, was a forklift operator, studying massage therapy.[7] [8] [9] Scott previously served two years in the U.S. Coast Guard before being given a general discharge in 1986 for a drug-related incident.[10] \nMichael Thomas Slager (born November 14, 1981),[11] 33 years old at the time of the incident, served in the North Charleston Police Department (NCPD) for five years and five months prior to the shooting. Before becoming a police officer, he served in the U.S. Coast Guard.[12] \nSlager was named in a police complaint in","MaxDetailCharacters":0,"ImageUrl":"https://cdn.blackfacts.com/uploads/blackfacts/facts/upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/07/shooting_of_walter_scott.jpeg","ImageHeight":245,"ImageWidth":470,"ImageOrientation":"landscape","HasImage":true,"CssClass":"","Layout":"","Rowspan":1,"Colspan":1,"Likes":0,"Shares":0,"ContentSourceId":"5b3a5b56-d9e8-4587-9879-cc66f343f883","SourceName":"AA Studies Research Guide","ContentSourceRootUrl":"https://libguides.lib.msu.edu/c.php?g=95622\u0026p=624428","IsSponsored":false,"HasSmallSponsorLogo":false,"EffectiveDate":"2015-04-04T00:00:00","HasEffectiveDate":true,"Year":2015,"Month":4,"Day":4,"LastUpdatedDate":"2023-11-25T05:14:39.027","LastUpdatedBy":"ExtractionBotHub","IsEditable":false,"InsertAd":false,"Id":9629,"FactUId":"57b81a0c-ac16-44c8-844d-411fea4e5e2b","Slug":"shooting-of-walter-scott","FactType":"Event","Title":"Shooting of Walter Scott","LocalFactUrl":"/fact/shooting-of-walter-scott","ResultCount":-1,"SearchType":"Today"},{"FadeSummary":false,"SummaryText":"Hubert Ogunde ,  (born 1916, Ososa, near Ijebu-Ode, Nigeria\u2014died April 4, 1990, London, Eng.), Nigerian playwright, actor, theatre manager, and musician, who was a pioneer in the field of Nigerian folk opera (drama in which music and dancing play a significant role). He was the founder of the Ogunde Concert Party (1945), the first professional theatrical company in Nigeria. Often regarded as the father of Nigerian theatre, Ogunde sought to reawaken interest in his country\u2019s indigenous culture.\nOgunde\u2019s first folk opera, The Garden of Eden and the Throne of God, was performed with success in 1944 while he was still a member of the Nigerian Police Force. It was produced under the patronage of an African Protestant sect, and it mixed biblical themes with the traditions of Yoruba dance-drama. His popularity was established throughout Nigeria by his timely play Strike and Hunger (performed 1946), which dramatized the general strike of 1945. In 1946 the name of Ogunde\u2019s group was changed to the African Music Research Party, and in 1947 it became the Ogunde Theatre Company. Many of Ogunde\u2019s early plays were attacks on colonialism, while those of his later works with political themes deplored interparty strife and government corruption within Nigeria. Yoruba theatre became secularized through his careful blending of astute political or social satire with elements of music hall routines and slapstick.\nOgunde\u2019s most famous play, Yoruba Ronu (performed 1964; \u0026ldquo;Yorubas, Think!\u0026rdquo;), was such a biting attack on the premier of Nigeria\u2019s Western region that his company was banned from the region\u2014the first instance in post-independence Nigeria of literary censorship. The ban was lifted in 1966 by Nigeria\u2019s new military government, and in that same year the Ogunde Dance Company was formed. Otito Koro (performed 1965; \u0026ldquo;Truth is Bitter\u0026rdquo;) also satirizes political events in western Nigeria in 1963. An earlier play produced in 1946, The Tiger\u2019s Empire, also marked the first instance in Yoruban theatre that women were billed to appear in","MaxDetailCharacters":0,"ImageUrl":"https://cdn.blackfacts.com/uploads/blackfacts/facts/media1.britannica.com/eb-media/50/152550-004-669d4462.jpg","ImageHeight":450,"ImageWidth":295,"ImageOrientation":"portrait","HasImage":true,"CssClass":"","Layout":"","Rowspan":1,"Colspan":1,"Likes":0,"Shares":0,"ContentSourceId":"80689a34-9b7c-4d3a-91f8-56cabb44f365","SourceName":"Brittanica","ContentSourceRootUrl":"https://www.britannica.com/search?query=black%20history","IsSponsored":false,"HasSmallSponsorLogo":false,"EffectiveDate":"1990-04-04T00:00:00","HasEffectiveDate":true,"Year":1990,"Month":4,"Day":4,"LastUpdatedDate":"2023-11-25T05:14:39.027","LastUpdatedBy":"ExtractionBotHub","IsEditable":false,"InsertAd":false,"Id":10297,"FactUId":"96391539-19fa-4d6e-b470-036dd1f2eb6b","Slug":"hubert-ogunde","FactType":"Event","Title":"Hubert Ogunde","LocalFactUrl":"/fact/hubert-ogunde","ResultCount":-1,"SearchType":"Today"},{"FadeSummary":false,"SummaryText":"On April 4, 1968, during an Indianapolis, Indiana rally for his presidential campaign, attended by a large number of African Americans, Robert F. Kennedy, despite suggestions he shouldnt appear at all, decided to proceed and announce the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., to a group unaware that the killing had taken place.\u00A0 His remarks appear below.\nI have bad news for you, for all of our fellow citizens, and people who love peace all over the world, and that is that Martin Luther King was shot and killed tonight. \nMartin Luther King dedicated his life to love and to justice for his fellow human beings, and he died because of that effort.\nIn this difficult day, in this difficult time for the United States, it is perhaps well to ask what kind of a nation we are and what direction we want to move in. For those of you who are black -- considering the evidence there evidently is that there were white people who were responsible -- you can be filled with bitterness, with hatred, and a desire for revenge. We can move in that direction as a country, in great polarization -- black people amongst black, white people amongst white, filled with hatred toward one another.\nOr we can make an effort, as Martin Luther King did, to understand and to comprehend, and to replace that violence, that stain of bloodshed that has spread across our land, with an effort to understand with compassion and love.\nFor those of you who are black and are tempted to be filled with hatred and distrust at the injustice of such an act, against all white people, I can only say that I feel in my own heart the same kind of feeling. I had a member of my family killed, but he was killed by a white man. But we have to make an effort in the United States, we have to make an effort to understand, to go beyond these rather difficult times.\nMy favorite poet was Aeschylus. He wrote: In our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God.\nWhat","MaxDetailCharacters":0,"ImageUrl":"https://cdn.blackfacts.com/uploads/blackfacts/facts/www.blackpast.org/files/blackpast_images/martin_luther_king_and_robert_kennedy.jpg","ImageHeight":334,"ImageWidth":350,"ImageOrientation":"landscape","HasImage":true,"CssClass":"","Layout":"","Rowspan":1,"Colspan":1,"Likes":0,"Shares":0,"ContentSourceId":"de2ecbf0-5aa4-45ce-bbf9-9a6ac45f6ac8","SourceName":"Black Past","ContentSourceRootUrl":"https://www.blackpast.org/","SponsorId":"05f41a69-179a-47bc-8508-7c9d7a53954a","IsSponsored":true,"SponsorName":"Museum of African American History in Massachusetts","SmallSponsorLogoUrl":"24x24/maah-logo.jpg","SponsorUrl":"https://www.maah.org ","HasSmallSponsorLogo":true,"EffectiveDate":"1968-04-04T00:00:00","HasEffectiveDate":true,"Year":1968,"Month":4,"Day":4,"LastUpdatedDate":"2023-11-25T05:14:39.027","LastUpdatedBy":"ExtractionBotHub","IsEditable":false,"InsertAd":false,"Id":7029,"FactUId":"6ed61e01-6703-4f4e-a014-2bda3e400243","Slug":"1968-robert-f-kennedy-on-the-death-of-martin-luther-king-jr","FactType":"Event","Title":"(1968) Robert F. Kennedy, \u201COn the Death of Martin Luther King, Jr.\u201D","LocalFactUrl":"/fact/1968-robert-f-kennedy-on-the-death-of-martin-luther-king-jr","ResultCount":-1,"SearchType":"Today"},{"FadeSummary":false,"SummaryText":"William Cowan, known to most as \u0026ldquo;Mo\u0026rdquo; Cowan, served in the United States Senate as a Democrat from February 1t to July 16 in 2013, representing the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Governor Deval Patrick, a fellow Democrat, appointed Cowan on January 30th, 2013 to fill the seat vacancy left by Senator John Kerry when he left his position in the Senate to become Secretary of State. Cowan was the second African American Senator from Massachusetts, the first being Edward Brooke, a Republican who was in office from 1967 to 1979. In the 2013 special election, Senator Cowan declined to run to complete John Kerry\u2019s full term. Cowan was succeeded by Congressman Ed Marky. Upon leaving office, William Cowan entered the private sector as the Chief Operating Officer of Mintz Levin Strategies. \nCowan was born on April 4, 1969 in Yadkinville, North Carolina but moved to Massachusetts in 1994 to earn his Law Degree from Northeastern University. Prior to studying at Northeastern, Cowan earned a bachelors in sociology from Duke University. Coming from humble beginnings, (his father a machinist, his mother a seamstress) Cowan prided himself on being a \u0026ldquo;self-made man.\u0026rdquo; His father passed away when he was 16.\nIn 1997, while working as a partner at the law firm of Mintz Levin, Cowan helped Mitt Romney, the Republican Governor of Massachusetts at the time, find African American candidates for judgeships. Cowan\u2019s next foray into politics took place in 2009, when he resigned from Mintz Levin to work in the administration of Democratic Governor Deval Patrick. From 2011 to 2012 Cowan served as Deval Patrick\u2019s chief of staff. Upon John Kerry\u2019s resignation from the Senate, Governor Patrick appointed Cowan to fill the empty Senate seat. \nCowan was sworn into the Senate by Vice President Joe Biden on January 7th, 2013. In his short term in the Senate he served on the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, and the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship. Cowan from the","MaxDetailCharacters":0,"ImageUrl":"https://cdn.blackfacts.com/uploads/blackfacts/facts/www.blackpast.org/files/william_mo_cowan_being_sworn_in_as_the_new_u_s__senator_from_massachusetts__.jpg","ImageHeight":200,"ImageWidth":400,"ImageOrientation":"landscape","HasImage":true,"CssClass":"","Layout":"","Rowspan":1,"Colspan":1,"Likes":0,"Shares":0,"ContentSourceId":"de2ecbf0-5aa4-45ce-bbf9-9a6ac45f6ac8","SourceName":"Black Past","ContentSourceRootUrl":"https://www.blackpast.org/","IsSponsored":false,"HasSmallSponsorLogo":false,"EffectiveDate":"1969-04-04T00:00:00","HasEffectiveDate":true,"Year":1969,"Month":4,"Day":4,"LastUpdatedDate":"2023-11-25T05:14:39.027","LastUpdatedBy":"ExtractionBotHub","IsEditable":false,"InsertAd":false,"Id":8122,"FactUId":"6ca4d14b-6a16-46e1-87fa-64343ab798d8","Slug":"cowan-william-mo-1969","FactType":"Event","Title":"Cowan, William \u201CMo\u201D (1969-  )","LocalFactUrl":"/fact/cowan-william-mo-1969","ResultCount":-1,"SearchType":"Today"},{"FadeSummary":false,"SummaryText":"Content Last Updated: 01/30/2012\nIssues of faith and religion come to the forefront quite often during elections and presidential campaigns. In preparation for the 2012 elections, Im providing a faith snapshot of each of the presidential candidates. This project will be updated as I find additional faith-related statements from the candidates. Please check back often!\nBarack Obamas Political Profile:\nParty: Democratic\nAge: 50\nEducation:\nColumbia University, B.A.\nHarvard Law School, J.D.\nCurrent Position: President of the United States\nExperience: Attorney, Illinois State Senator\nDeclared Candidacy: April 4, 2011\nWebsite: BarackObama.com \nBarack Obamas Faith Snapshot:\nReligion/Church: Former member of the United Church of Christ.*\nPresident Barack Obama was not raised in a religious household. Like his mother, he said he grew up with a healthy skepticism of organized religion. His father was born Muslim but became an atheist as an adult. His mothers family members were non-practicing Baptists and Methodists. It was after college that he encountered a spiritual dilemma. Realizing something was missing in his life, he felt drawn to be in church.\nObama said he had begun to sense God beckoning him to submit to his will and dedicate himself to discovering truth. So one day he walked down the aisle at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago and affirmed his Christian faith.\n Remaining a member of the church for 20 years, Trinity, Obama said, is where he found Jesus Christ, where he and Michelle were married, and where his children were baptized.\nIn a Call to Renewal Keynote Address in June 2006, Obama referred to himself as a progressive Christian.\nDuring Obamas 2008 presidential campaign, the pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ, Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. \n, made headlines for what many considered highly offensive and controversial remarks from the pulpit. Distancing himself from his pastor, Obama publicly denounced Wrights comments as divisive and racially charged.\n*In May 2008, Obama","MaxDetailCharacters":0,"ImageUrl":"https://cdn.blackfacts.com/uploads/blackfacts/facts/fthmb.tqn.com/xorkxfsylg4tdwrw-uv2ohvbmou-/2138x1574/filters-fill-auto-1-/about/obama-58b5cd9d5f9b586046cf1322.jpg","ImageHeight":1104,"ImageWidth":1500,"ImageOrientation":"landscape","HasImage":true,"CssClass":"","Layout":"","Rowspan":1,"Colspan":1,"Likes":0,"Shares":0,"ContentSourceId":"6982ddb9-33e1-469e-8344-2e6290cc3f69","SourceName":"ThoughtCo","ContentSourceRootUrl":"https://www.thoughtco.com/african-american-history-4133344","IsSponsored":false,"HasSmallSponsorLogo":false,"EffectiveDate":"2011-04-04T00:00:00","HasEffectiveDate":true,"Year":2011,"Month":4,"Day":4,"LastUpdatedDate":"2023-11-25T05:14:39.027","LastUpdatedBy":"ExtractionBotHub","IsEditable":false,"InsertAd":false,"Id":8394,"FactUId":"c72fae38-828e-45d1-a9eb-e71eb8de18c3","Slug":"barack-obamas-faith--2012-presidential-candidates","FactType":"Event","Title":"Barack Obama\u0027s Faith - 2012 Presidential Candidates","LocalFactUrl":"/fact/barack-obamas-faith--2012-presidential-candidates","ResultCount":-1,"SearchType":"Today"},{"FadeSummary":false,"SummaryText":"April 4, 1967. 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