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Feb 1st, 2010

  • Charles Lenox Remond, an antislavery activist and one of the first lecturers in the antislavery movement, was born in Salem, MA, on this date in 1810.
  • Frances Louis Cardoza, South Carolina’s first Black Secretary of State, was born in Charleston, SC, on this date in 1837.
  • John S. Rock became the first Black lawyer admitted to practice before the Supreme Court on this date in 1865.
  • Jonathan Jasper Wright became the first Black judge when he was elected to the South Carolina Supreme Court on this date in 1870.
  • Jefferson Franklin Long (Georgia) became the first Black Congressman to speak in the House on this date in 1871.
  • Langston Hughes, poet laureate, author, and playwright, was born in Joplin, MO, on this date in 1902. His writings about experiences gathered from his life have undoubtedly influenced many other writers.
  • Carter G. Woodson, the “Father of Black History,” initiated the first celebration of “Negro History Week” on this date in 1926. In 1976 it was expanded to “Black History Month.”
  • NC A&T students: Ezell Blair, Jr., Joseph McNeil, David Richmond, and Franklin McClain staged a sit-in at the F. W. Woolworth segregated lunch counter in Greensboro, NC, on this date in 1960. This was the first of the many historic sit-ins of the 1960’s. They were honored on a U.S. Postage stamp on the events 45 anniversary.
  • Harriet Tubman, abolitionist, author, and engineer of the Underground Railroad, was commemorated on a U.S. postage stamp on this date in 1978. She was the first Black woman to be honored on a stamp and the first to appear in the Black Heritage Series.
  • Ida B. Wells-Barnett, reformer who gathered the first statistical records on lynchings in the United States, was commemorated on a U.S. postage stamp on this date in 1990.