bfCallback1744642363887({"Request":{"VirtualSiteSlug":"blackfacts","IsToday":true,"SearchType":"today","SearchResultType":"event"},"Results":[{"FadeSummary":false,"SummaryText":"African Freedom Day is declared at the All-African Peoples Conference in Accra, Ghana.","MaxDetailCharacters":0,"ImageHeight":0,"ImageWidth":0,"ImageOrientation":"none","HasImage":false,"CssClass":"","Layout":"","Rowspan":1,"Colspan":1,"Likes":0,"Shares":0,"ContentSourceId":"00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000","SourceName":"Blackfacts.com","ContentSourceRootUrl":"https://blackfacts.com","IsSponsored":false,"HasSmallSponsorLogo":false,"EffectiveDate":"1959-04-15T00:00:00","HasEffectiveDate":true,"Year":1959,"Month":4,"Day":15,"LastUpdatedDate":"2023-11-25T05:14:39.027","IsEditable":false,"InsertAd":false,"Id":2335,"FactUId":"07516976-3b55-4fe5-b924-2330da23526d","Slug":"african-freedom-day-declared","FactType":"Event","Title":"African Freedom Day Declared","LocalFactUrl":"/fact/african-freedom-day-declared","ResultCount":-1,"SearchType":"Today"},{"FadeSummary":false,"SummaryText":"In 1852, California legislators passed a harsh fugitive slave law that condemned dozens of African American migrants to deportation and lifelong slavery. Historian Stacey L. Smith examines the legal travails of three accused fugitive slaves to illuminate the social relations of slavery in gold rush California and the consequences of the fugitive slave law for the state\u2019s African American population.\nAmericans have long imagined gold rush California as a landscape of liberty, a place where individuals could escape the economic and social inequality east of the Rockies and find almost unlimited opportunities for financial independence and upward mobility. Indeed, for Carter Perkins, Robert Perkins, and Sandy Jones, three former slaves from Mississippi, the gold rush seemed to present unprecedented possibilities for securing freedom and economic self-sufficiency. After arriving in the small mining town of Ophir, California, in 1851, the three men built a booming freight business hauling supplies across California\u2019s northern gold country. Within a few months, they amassed over $3,000 in personal property, including a mule team and wagon.\nThe African American men\u2019s dreams of California freedom ended abruptly in the middle of the night on April 31, 1852. While the three men slept, a group of armed whites broke into their cabin. The invaders tied up the black men, loaded them into their own wagon, and hauled them to Sacramento using their own mule team. There, a justice of the peace pronounced the men to be fugitive slaves and ordered their deportation back to the Slave South.\u00A0 \nThe African American men likely knew at least of one of their captors. Green Perkins, the leader of the midnight raid, was the first cousin of Charles Perkins, the man who had brought the African Americans to California in the first place. Charles Perkins belonged to a Mississippi slaveholding family and he had traveled to California to dig gold in 1849. Like many young slaveholding men, Perkins depended on networks of family capital to make","MaxDetailCharacters":0,"ImageUrl":"https://cdn.blackfacts.com/uploads/blackfacts/facts/www.blackpast.org/files/capturing_fugitive_slaves_in_california.jpg","ImageHeight":390,"ImageWidth":475,"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":"1852-04-15T00:00:00","HasEffectiveDate":true,"Year":1852,"Month":4,"Day":15,"LastUpdatedDate":"2023-11-25T05:14:39.027","LastUpdatedBy":"ExtractionBotHub","IsEditable":false,"InsertAd":false,"Id":5901,"FactUId":"8e8b3bd9-729b-4a92-bc36-d88760d95dac","Slug":"pacific-bound-california-s-1852-fugitive-slave-law","FactType":"Event","Title":"Pacific Bound: California\u2019s 1852 Fugitive Slave Law","LocalFactUrl":"/fact/pacific-bound-california-s-1852-fugitive-slave-law","ResultCount":-1,"SearchType":"Today"},{"FadeSummary":false,"SummaryText":"Asa Philip Randolph was born on April 15, 1889 in Crescent City, Florida, to a Methodist Minister, James Randolph.","MaxDetailCharacters":0,"ImageUrl":"https://cdn.blackfacts.com/uploads/blackfacts/facts/www.famousafricanamericans.org/images/a-philip-randolph.jpg","ImageHeight":336,"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":"becbe15c-72a7-4130-b8db-a12eaf26b3ab","IsSponsored":true,"SponsorName":"New York University","SmallSponsorLogoUrl":"24x24/nyu-logo.jpg","SponsorUrl":"https://www.nyu.edu","HasSmallSponsorLogo":true,"EffectiveDate":"1889-04-15T00:00:00","HasEffectiveDate":true,"Year":1889,"Month":4,"Day":15,"LastUpdatedDate":"2023-11-25T05:14:39.027","IsEditable":false,"InsertAd":false,"Id":18323,"FactUId":"0d43dd95-a8c7-4076-84e7-4dec42b96e5f","Slug":"a-philip-randolph--birthday","FactType":"Event","Title":"A. 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Philip Randolph - Birthday","LocalFactUrl":"/fact/a-philip-randolph--birthday-0","ResultCount":-1,"SearchType":"Today"},{"FadeSummary":false,"SummaryText":"Early life and education [ edit ]  \nHarold Lee Washington was born on April 15, 1922 at Cook County Hospital in Chicago, Illinois,[4] to Roy and Bertha Washington.","MaxDetailCharacters":0,"ImageUrl":"https://cdn.blackfacts.com/uploads/blackfacts/facts/upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fc/washington_h-jpg/1200px-washington_h.jpg","ImageHeight":1524,"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","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":"1922-04-15T00:00:00","HasEffectiveDate":true,"Year":1922,"Month":4,"Day":15,"LastUpdatedDate":"2023-11-25T05:14:39.027","IsEditable":false,"InsertAd":false,"Id":18533,"FactUId":"d378f682-d5e6-4f43-bfb9-8382efc7d3b9","Slug":"harold-washington--birthday","FactType":"Event","Title":"Harold Washington - Birthday","LocalFactUrl":"/fact/harold-washington--birthday","ResultCount":-1,"SearchType":"Today"},{"FadeSummary":false,"SummaryText":"Byron R. White , in full Byron Raymond White   (born June 8, 1917, Fort Collins, Colorado, U.S.\u2014died April 15, 2002, Denver), associate justice of the United States Supreme Court (1962\u201393).\nBefore taking up the study of law in 1940, White achieved a national reputation as a quarterback and halfback on the University of Colorado football team, earning the nickname \u0026ldquo;Whizzer.\u0026rdquo; In 1937 he was the runner-up for the Heisman Trophy, the award for the best collegiate football player. After graduating from Colorado in 1938, White became the highest-paid player in the National Football League (NFL), signing a one-year contract with the Pittsburgh Pirates (now the Steelers), and during the 1938 season he led the NFL in rushing. In 1939 White attended the University of Oxford as a Rhodes scholar but returned to the United States after the start of World War II. He then played two seasons with the Detroit Lions (1940\u201341) while attending Yale Law School, from which he graduated with high honours in 1946.\nWhite served for a year as law clerk to Chief Justice Fred M. Vinson before joining a law firm in Denver. In 1960 he was active in the presidential campaign of John F. Kennedy, an old friend, and in 1961 was made assistant attorney general under the president\u2019s brother Robert Kennedy. In 1962 President Kennedy appointed him to the U.S. Supreme Court. Despite his liberal political background, White\u2019s role on the court was generally described as moderate or relatively conservative. He dissented from many of the court\u2019s liberal rulings, including Roe v. Wade (1973), which legalized abortion nationwide, and Miranda v. Arizona (1966), which established a code of conduct for police during interrogations.","MaxDetailCharacters":0,"ImageUrl":"https://cdn.blackfacts.com/uploads/blackfacts/facts/media1.britannica.com/eb-media/37/97137-004-8e54b2b2.jpg","ImageHeight":450,"ImageWidth":315,"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":"2002-04-15T00:00:00","HasEffectiveDate":true,"Year":2002,"Month":4,"Day":15,"LastUpdatedDate":"2023-11-25T05:14:39.027","LastUpdatedBy":"ExtractionBotHub","IsEditable":false,"InsertAd":false,"Id":10043,"FactUId":"0096f5aa-37a7-4ea4-9f5c-eb9919ee47c4","Slug":"byron-r-white","FactType":"Event","Title":"Byron R. White","LocalFactUrl":"/fact/byron-r-white","ResultCount":-1,"SearchType":"Today"},{"FadeSummary":false,"SummaryText":"Benjamin L. Hooks , in full Benjamin Lawson Hooks   (born Jan. 31, 1925, Memphis, Tenn., U.S.\u2014died April 15, 2010, Memphis), American jurist, minister, and government official who was executive director of the  National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) from 1977 to 1993.\nHooks attended Le Moyne College in Memphis (1941\u201343) and Howard University, Washington, D.C. (1943\u201344; B.A., 1944), served in the U.S. Army during World War II, and later studied law at De Paul University in Chicago (J.D., 1948); no law school in Tennessee was admitting blacks at that time. From 1949 until 1965 he practiced law in Memphis. He participated in restaurant sit-ins of the late 1950s and early \u201960s and joined the Board of Directors of Martin Luther King\u2019s  Southern Christian Leadership Conference, among many other civil-rights and public-service organizations. Ordained a Baptist minister in the mid-1950s, he preached regularly at churches in both Memphis and Detroit, and he won a wide following for his eloquence as a public speaker.\nAssistant public defender of Shelby County (Memphis) from 1961, he was appointed judge of Shelby County Criminal Court in 1965, the first African American to hold that position. He was elected for a full eight-year term in 1966, but he resigned in 1968. In July 1972 Hooks was appointed to the U.S.  Federal Communications Commission and became the first black FCC commissioner. He resigned to become executive director of the NAACP on Aug. 1, 1977, succeeding Roy Wilkins. Hooks also served as the chairman of the board of directors of the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis and helped to found the Benjamin L. Hooks Institute for Social Change at the University of Memphis in 1996. Hooks stressed the need for affirmative action and pressed for increased minority voter registration. He deplored underrepresentation of minorities in media ownership. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2007.","MaxDetailCharacters":0,"ImageUrl":"https://cdn.blackfacts.com/uploads/blackfacts/facts/media1.britannica.com/eb-media/68/1268-004-02b03e09.jpg","ImageHeight":225,"ImageWidth":293,"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":"2010-04-15T00:00:00","HasEffectiveDate":true,"Year":2010,"Month":4,"Day":15,"LastUpdatedDate":"2023-11-25T05:14:39.027","LastUpdatedBy":"ExtractionBotHub","IsEditable":false,"InsertAd":false,"Id":10486,"FactUId":"269b0597-1777-4c2e-9dac-9521cbcd14a5","Slug":"benjamin-l-hooks-0","FactType":"Event","Title":"Benjamin L. 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Lincoln administration rejected Black volunteers. For almost two years straight Black Americans fought for the right, as one humorist put it, to be kilt.","MaxDetailCharacters":0,"ImageHeight":0,"ImageWidth":0,"ImageOrientation":"none","HasImage":false,"CssClass":"","Layout":"","Rowspan":1,"Colspan":1,"Likes":0,"Shares":0,"ContentSourceId":"00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000","SourceName":"Blackfacts.com","ContentSourceRootUrl":"https://blackfacts.com","IsSponsored":false,"HasSmallSponsorLogo":false,"EffectiveDate":"1861-04-15T00:00:00","HasEffectiveDate":true,"Year":1861,"Month":4,"Day":15,"LastUpdatedDate":"2023-11-25T05:14:39.027","IsEditable":false,"InsertAd":false,"Id":3407,"FactUId":"5671b194-5f2d-4fda-98ce-ece0820b2b05","Slug":"blacks-denied-right-to-fight-for-country","FactType":"Event","Title":"Blacks Denied Right to Fight for Country","LocalFactUrl":"/fact/blacks-denied-right-to-fight-for-country","ResultCount":-1,"SearchType":"Today"},{"FadeSummary":false,"SummaryText":"Born: 1/31/1919 Cairo, GeorgiaDied: 10/24/1972 Stamford, ConnecticutJackie Robinson was an American Major League Baseball (MLB) second baseman who became the first African American to play in the major leagues in the modern era. Robinson broke the baseball color line when the Brooklyn Dodgers started him at first base on April 15, 1947. The Dodgers, by playing Robinson, ended racial segregation that had relegated black players to the Negro leagues since the 1880s.Robinson was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962.Business / Schooling: Awards / Achievements: ","MaxDetailCharacters":0,"ImageHeight":0,"ImageWidth":0,"ImageOrientation":"none","HasImage":false,"CssClass":"","Layout":"","Rowspan":1,"Colspan":1,"Likes":0,"Shares":0,"ContentSourceId":"00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000","SourceName":"Blackfacts.com","ContentSourceRootUrl":"https://blackfacts.com","IsSponsored":false,"HasSmallSponsorLogo":false,"EffectiveDate":"1947-04-15T00:00:00","HasEffectiveDate":true,"Year":1947,"Month":4,"Day":15,"LastUpdatedDate":"2023-11-25T05:14:39.027","IsEditable":false,"InsertAd":false,"Id":4140,"FactUId":"d1195ee9-eeae-4933-be1b-e95582101775","Slug":"jackie-robinson","FactType":"Event","Title":"Jackie Robinson","LocalFactUrl":"/fact/jackie-robinson","ResultCount":-1,"SearchType":"Today"},{"FadeSummary":false,"SummaryText":"Benjamin Zephaniah, poet, playwright, novelist and activist, was born on April 15, 1958, the first of eight children, in Birmingham, England. Zephaniah grew up in Wandsworth until the age of nine when his mother, a Jamaican nurse, fled his father, a postman from Barbados. Leaving behind his twin sister Velda and other siblings, Zephaniah felt isolated as a young black dyslexic boy who encountered racism at his new school in Birmingham. He turned to writing, choosing to describe local and global issues, inspired by his Jamaican heritage and \u0026ldquo;street politics\u0026rdquo; of Birmingham. He left formal education at age 14, but built a reputation in the city as a popular dub poet, an art form which involves mixing the spoken word with reggae rhythms. Zephaniah had a troubled adolescence, which was punctuated with periods in incarceration following convictions for petty theft. \nIn 1979, Zephaniah moved to London. The following year his first poetry collection Pen Rhythm was published. His subsequent poetry has often been motivated by political stimuli: \u0026ldquo;The Dread Affair\u0026rdquo; (1985) is a critique of the British legal system, and \u0026ldquo;Rasta Time in Palestine\u0026rdquo; (1990) is a memoir of his visit to that area. His most recent volume We are Britain! reflects on the multicultural nature of the country. His live performance of this art has received tremendous acclaim. \nZephaniah is a successful dub and reggae musician. His many recordings, \u0026ldquo;Us and Dem\u0026rdquo; (1990) and \u0026ldquo;Belly of de Beast\u0026rdquo; (1996) for example, exhibit his native identity and voice. During Nelson Mandela\u2019s imprisonment \u0026ldquo;The Benjamin Zephaniah Band\u0026rdquo; recorded a song of solidarity for him which lead to Zephaniah working with children in South African townships. Showing this same commitment to youth in his writing, Zephaniah has published poetry for children and novels for an adolescent audience. The themes explored in this work are racial: \u0026ldquo;Face\u0026rdquo; (1999) which addresses discrimination and \u0026ldquo;Refugee Boy\u0026rdquo; (2001) which follows a young protagonist fleeing conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea.","MaxDetailCharacters":0,"ImageUrl":"https://cdn.blackfacts.com/uploads/blackfacts/facts/www.blackpast.org/files/blackpast_images/benjamin_zephaniah.jpg","ImageHeight":350,"ImageWidth":234,"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/","IsSponsored":false,"HasSmallSponsorLogo":false,"EffectiveDate":"1958-04-15T00:00:00","HasEffectiveDate":true,"Year":1958,"Month":4,"Day":15,"LastUpdatedDate":"2023-11-25T05:14:39.027","LastUpdatedBy":"ExtractionBotHub","IsEditable":false,"InsertAd":false,"Id":4705,"FactUId":"5e7f4044-88f3-4c99-9912-cb879a3d3e61","Slug":"zephaniah-benjamin-1958","FactType":"Event","Title":"Zephaniah, Benjamin (1958 - )","LocalFactUrl":"/fact/zephaniah-benjamin-1958","ResultCount":-1,"SearchType":"Today"},{"FadeSummary":false,"SummaryText":"Bessie Smith was a blues and jazz vocalist, who was extremely popular in the 1920s and 1930s. 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