bfCallback1755432882341({"Request":{"VirtualSiteSlug":"blackfacts","IsToday":true,"SearchType":"today","SearchResultType":"event"},"Results":[{"FadeSummary":false,"SummaryText":"Marcus Garvey, the father of the black nationalist and pan african movements was born on this day in St. Anns Bay, Jamiaca.","MaxDetailCharacters":0,"ImageUrl":"https://cdn.blackfacts.net/uploads/blackfacts/facts/2019/10/137342b4-3d3e-47b3-ab81-900aee77f6731.png","ImageHeight":400,"ImageWidth":620,"ImageOrientation":"landscape","HasImage":true,"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":"1887-08-17T00:00:00","HasEffectiveDate":true,"Year":1887,"Month":8,"Day":17,"LastUpdatedDate":"2023-11-25T05:14:39.027","IsEditable":false,"InsertAd":false,"Id":248,"FactUId":"08a22298-1671-4e25-a8e0-4c08bbc30940","Slug":"father-of-black-nationalism-born","FactType":"Event","Title":"Father of Black Nationalism Born","LocalFactUrl":"/fact/father-of-black-nationalism-born","ResultCount":-1,"SearchType":"Today"},{"FadeSummary":false,"SummaryText":"Born in Puerto Rico of Black and Hispanic heritage, Roberto Clemente was the second baseball player to be featured on a stamp on this day.","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":"1984-08-17T00:00:00","HasEffectiveDate":true,"Year":1984,"Month":8,"Day":17,"LastUpdatedDate":"2023-11-25T05:14:39.027","IsEditable":false,"InsertAd":false,"Id":2707,"FactUId":"44148193-c880-40ee-af72-ac551c056a47","Slug":"second-baseball-player-to-be-featured-on-a-stamp","FactType":"Event","Title":"Second Baseball Player to be Featured on a Stamp","LocalFactUrl":"/fact/second-baseball-player-to-be-featured-on-a-stamp","ResultCount":-1,"SearchType":"Today"},{"FadeSummary":false,"SummaryText":"Desmond Power, a third generation British subject born in Tientsin (now Tianjin), China in 1923, was incarcerated along with 1,500 other foreign nationals in 1943 in Weihsien, a Japanese Prisoner of War camp in North China during World War II.\u00A0 In the article below, Power recalls Earl Whaley and other African American jazz musicians who were placed there as well and how their music lifted the morale of the prisoners.\nI do not write this as a historian, nor do I have sources to which I can refer readers. I write simply as a contemporary and close comrade of some black jazz musicians with whom I was incarcerated in a Japanese prison camp in China during World War II. The war ended 67 years ago, yet most of my memories of the time and place remain intact though somewhat generalized. \nFew need reminding that the Shanghai of the 1920s and 30s was called the Paris of the Orient for its profusion of extravagant nightclubs, cabarets, casinos, and bordellos, and that while the US was dragging itself out of the Great Depression, Shanghai was enjoying a boom, its nightlife going full tilt, attracting big names in the U.S. jazz world eager to cash in on the opportunities there. \nAs jazz band leader Earl Whaley told it, by the time he arrived there in 1934, most of the big names had come and gone, but there was no stopping him from cashing in. His seven man group, the Red Hot Syncopators, that had set Seattle, Washington\u2019s jazz world ablaze was now doing the same at St. Anna\u2019s Ballroom at 80 Love Lane, close by the Shanghai Race Course. \nHis popularity zoomed, not only with jazz lovers among the city\u2019s 100,000 foreign residents, but also with the modern set among the local Chinese. For three long years, everything went Whaley\u2019s way. Money was good, living cheap, and the racial demeaning of blacks so common in the U.S. at that time, was practically unheard of. \nThen in 1937 disaster struck when Japan began its subjugation of China. Japan was not quite yet ready to take on the U.S. and its Allies (that would happen 4\u00BD years","MaxDetailCharacters":0,"ImageUrl":"https://cdn.blackfacts.net/uploads/blackfacts/facts/www.blackpast.org/files/blackpast_images/whaley-pow_camp_2_.jpg","ImageHeight":175,"ImageWidth":500,"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":"1945-08-17T00:00:00","HasEffectiveDate":true,"Year":1945,"Month":8,"Day":17,"LastUpdatedDate":"2023-11-25T05:14:39.027","LastUpdatedBy":"ExtractionBotHub","IsEditable":false,"InsertAd":false,"Id":8066,"FactUId":"24142b70-21fd-4fa3-9f6f-d3c0b64ba64b","Slug":"jazz-in-occupied-china-black-jazzmen-at-the-japanese-prison-camp-in-weihsien-china-during-world-war-ii","FactType":"Event","Title":"Jazz in Occupied China: Black Jazzmen at the Japanese Prison Camp in Weihsien, China during World War II","LocalFactUrl":"/fact/jazz-in-occupied-china-black-jazzmen-at-the-japanese-prison-camp-in-weihsien-china-during-world-war-ii","ResultCount":-1,"SearchType":"Today"},{"FadeSummary":false,"SummaryText":"Ruth First , in full Heloise Ruth First  (born May 4, 1925, Johannesburg, South Africa\u2014died August 17, 1982, Maputo, Mozambique), South African activist, scholar, and journalist known for her relentless opposition to South Africa\u2019s discriminatory policy of apartheid. In 1982 she was assassinated while living in exile.\nFirst was the daughter of Latvian Jewish immigrants Julius and Matilda First, who were founding members of the Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA); First herself would also become active in the party as she grew older. In 1946 she received a bachelor\u2019s degree in social studies from the University of the Witwatersrand. While there, she organized the Federation of Progressive Students with Ismail Meer, Joe Slovo (her future husband), Yusuf Dadoo, J.N. Singh, and others, creating a radical multiracial student organization that opposed apartheid. From 1947 First worked for the progressive newspaper The Guardian, specializing in expos\u00E9s of black labour conditions. In 1949 she married Slovo, and by 1954 they had three daughters.\nAfter CPSA was banned (an apartheid-era legal action that was used to suppress organizations and publications and severely restrict the activities of a person) by the South African government in 1950, First was involved in organizing its successor, the underground  South African Communist Party (SACP), which emerged in 1953. That same year she also was involved in the founding of the Congress of Democrats, the white wing of the Congress Alliance, a multiracial group of organizations that opposed apartheid. She edited the journal Fighting Talk, which supported the alliance. First also worked on drafting the alliance\u2019s renowned Freedom Charter, which called for nonracial social democracy in South Africa, but she was unable to attend the Congress of the People gathering held in 1955, where the document was approved, because of her banning order\u2014one of several such orders First was subjected to while living in South Africa. In 1956 First and her husband, along with Albert","MaxDetailCharacters":0,"ImageUrl":"https://cdn.blackfacts.net/uploads/blackfacts/facts/media1.britannica.com/eb-media/53/78753-004-905e0af3.jpg","ImageHeight":416,"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":"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":"1982-08-17T00:00:00","HasEffectiveDate":true,"Year":1982,"Month":8,"Day":17,"LastUpdatedDate":"2023-11-25T05:14:39.027","LastUpdatedBy":"ExtractionBotHub","IsEditable":false,"InsertAd":false,"Id":10436,"FactUId":"2f2ca349-b324-4c4f-913e-9bdc7e930e86","Slug":"ruth-first","FactType":"Event","Title":"Ruth First","LocalFactUrl":"/fact/ruth-first","ResultCount":-1,"SearchType":"Today"},{"FadeSummary":false,"SummaryText":"Gabre-Medhin Tsegaye , also called Tsegaye Gabre-Medhin   (born August 17, 1936, Boda, near Ambo, Ethiopia\u2014died February 25, 2006, New York, New York, U.","MaxDetailCharacters":0,"ImageHeight":0,"ImageWidth":0,"ImageOrientation":"none","HasImage":false,"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":"c1e5e647-184a-49fc-af93-4b85a727fac9","IsSponsored":true,"SponsorName":"National Association of Asian American Professionals (NAAP) Boston Chapter","SmallSponsorLogoUrl":"24x24/naaap-logo.png","SponsorUrl":"https://boston.naaap.org/cpages/home","HasSmallSponsorLogo":true,"EffectiveDate":"1936-08-17T00:00:00","HasEffectiveDate":true,"Year":1936,"Month":8,"Day":17,"LastUpdatedDate":"2023-11-25T05:14:39.027","IsEditable":false,"InsertAd":false,"Id":18554,"FactUId":"3ac2a9cd-55a4-4255-b14f-31be07155f22","Slug":"gabre-medhin-tsegaye--birthday","FactType":"Event","Title":"Gabre-Medhin Tsegaye - Birthday","LocalFactUrl":"/fact/gabre-medhin-tsegaye--birthday","ResultCount":-1,"SearchType":"Today"},{"FadeSummary":false,"SummaryText":"Marcus Garvey , in full Marcus Moziah Garvey  (born August 17, 1887, St.","MaxDetailCharacters":0,"ImageUrl":"https://cdn.blackfacts.net/uploads/blackfacts/facts/media1.britannica.com/eb-media/66/766-004-c9dcd21b.jpg","ImageHeight":450,"ImageWidth":352,"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":"1887-08-17T00:00:00","HasEffectiveDate":true,"Year":1887,"Month":8,"Day":17,"LastUpdatedDate":"2023-11-25T05:14:39.027","IsEditable":false,"InsertAd":false,"Id":18577,"FactUId":"fcde09b3-de9f-4601-bf2a-1be1a52f1b66","Slug":"marcus-garvey--birthday","FactType":"Event","Title":"Marcus Garvey - Birthday","LocalFactUrl":"/fact/marcus-garvey--birthday","ResultCount":-1,"SearchType":"Today"},{"FadeSummary":false,"SummaryText":"Libreville is the largest city and capital of Gabon, a small country on the western coast of Africa.\u00A0 In 2005 its population was 578,156.\u00A0 It is a tropical city that has a port on the Komo River.\u00A0 The city is the trading center for the nation of Gabon.\u00A0 Timber, the countrys most important export,\u00A0 comes through the Libreville port, down the Komo River and then into Gulf of Guinea. The official language in Libreville is French due to its previous colonization by France. \nBefore the French acquired the land in 1839, Libreville was populated by the oldest indigenous\u00A0 ethnic group in Gabon, the Mpongwe, who had inhabited the area for about 2,000 years.\u00A0 In 1839 French traders first acquired control of a coastal strip that now includes the city.\u00A0 In 1846 the French Navy captured LElizia, a Brazilian ship carrying slaves for sale near Loango in present-day Angola.\u00A0 The slaves were freed in Gabon and in 1848 they founded the city of\u00A0 Libreville, which literally meant free town, naming it as the symbol of their own liberation.\nAs the French colonial presence grew in central Africa they declared Libreville the capital of their largest colony in the region, French Equatorial Africa in 1888.\u00A0 It remained the capital until 1904.\u00A0 Libreville also served as the chief port of the colony from 1934 to 1946 and was the central objective in the Battle of Gabon in 1940, which pitted colonial supporters of Vichy, France against those who allied with the Free French under General Charles DeGaulle. \nWhen Gabon gained its independence from France on August 17, 1960, Libreville was declared the capital.\u00A0 The city had grown slowly under French colonial administration and at the time of independence had a population of 32,000.\u00A0 Since its independence, Libreville has grown exponentially. It is the home of the nations shipbuilding, brewing, and lumber industries.\u00A0 It also exports wood, rubber and cocoa through its port.\u00A0 Libreville is now the education center in Gabon and serves as the home of a number of schools, libraries, and","MaxDetailCharacters":0,"ImageUrl":"https://cdn.blackfacts.net/uploads/blackfacts/facts/www.blackpast.org/files/blackpast_images/libreville__gabon.jpg","ImageHeight":226,"ImageWidth":450,"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":"bf2f8323-0870-445a-8aa5-f4d721702bed","IsSponsored":true,"SponsorName":"Massachusetts Black Lawyers Association (MBLA)","SmallSponsorLogoUrl":"24x24/mbla-logo.png","SponsorUrl":"https://www.massblacklawyers.org/","HasSmallSponsorLogo":true,"EffectiveDate":"1960-08-17T00:00:00","HasEffectiveDate":true,"Year":1960,"Month":8,"Day":17,"LastUpdatedDate":"2023-11-25T05:14:39.027","LastUpdatedBy":"ExtractionBotHub","IsEditable":false,"InsertAd":false,"Id":6431,"FactUId":"dc60f7a9-594a-4c05-a681-b4d95ea49ba3","Slug":"libreville-gabon-1848","FactType":"Event","Title":"Libreville, Gabon (1848--   )","LocalFactUrl":"/fact/libreville-gabon-1848","ResultCount":-1,"SearchType":"Today"},{"FadeSummary":false,"SummaryText":"Alonzo Jacob Ransier, an African American Republican from South Carolina, held a series of political posts during the Reconstruction era.\u00A0 Ransier was born a free black man in Charleston in 1834.\u00A0 Little is known of his childhood and early education.\u00A0 At the end of the Civil War he worked as a shipping clerk.\u00A0 In 1865, at the age of 31, he was appointed state registrar of elections.\u00A0 The following year, 1866, Ransier attended South Carolina\u2019s first Republican convention and two years later was elected to the Constitutional Convention which established the state\u2019s first racially integrated government.\u00A0 Ransier served in that government when he was elected to the South Carolina House of Representatives in 1868.\u00A0 In 1870 Ransier was elected Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina.\u00A0 Ransier was a delegate at the 1872 Republican National Convention in Philadelphia.\u00A0 That same year he was elected to the Forty-Third United States Congress from the 2nd Congressional District. \nRansier was actively committed to the cause of equality for the African American citizens of South Carolina and the nation.\u00A0 While in Congress he fought for a civil rights bill, supported strong tariff laws, opposed arbitrary salary increases for federal officials, advocated term limits for politicians and petitioned for funds to improve the maintenance of Charleston harbor.\nRansier was defeated by white Independent Republican Edmund W.M. Mackey in his reelection bid.\u00A0 Afterwards, he returned to Charleston and worked for the United States Internal Revenue Service and later for the Charleston municipal government.\u00A0 Alonzo Ransier died in Charleston on August 17, 1882.","MaxDetailCharacters":0,"ImageUrl":"https://cdn.blackfacts.net/uploads/blackfacts/facts/www.blackpast.org/files/blackpast_images/alonzo_jacob_ransier.jpg","ImageHeight":350,"ImageWidth":258,"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":"1882-08-17T00:00:00","HasEffectiveDate":true,"Year":1882,"Month":8,"Day":17,"LastUpdatedDate":"2023-11-25T05:14:39.027","LastUpdatedBy":"ExtractionBotHub","IsEditable":false,"InsertAd":false,"Id":6864,"FactUId":"aab2b810-2bb1-4069-8a7d-e59078532ebc","Slug":"ransier-alonzo-j-1834-1882","FactType":"Event","Title":"Ransier, Alonzo J. (1834-1882)","LocalFactUrl":"/fact/ransier-alonzo-j-1834-1882","ResultCount":-1,"SearchType":"Today"},{"FadeSummary":false,"SummaryText":"Jazz vocalist Pearl Bailey dies at 72.","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":"1990-08-17T00:00:00","HasEffectiveDate":true,"Year":1990,"Month":8,"Day":17,"LastUpdatedDate":"2023-11-25T05:14:39.027","IsEditable":false,"InsertAd":false,"Id":1060,"FactUId":"6d9b71a2-dee0-4605-9e20-c78661eb3671","Slug":"jazz-artist-pearl-bailey-dies","FactType":"Event","Title":"Jazz artist Pearl Bailey dies","LocalFactUrl":"/fact/jazz-artist-pearl-bailey-dies","ResultCount":-1,"SearchType":"Today"}],"Uri":"https://widgets.blackfacts.com/widgets/51eaaa67-9484-41df-96ca-923a28251387/today?callback=bfCallback1755432882341","SiteRoot":"https://blackfacts.com","ApiUsage":0,"Cached":true,"StartTime":"2025-08-17T16:38:49.9540375Z","Elapsed":"00:00:00.0119866"})