Black - African American History Facts

Gordon Alexander Buchanan Parks, filmmaker, popularly known for directing Shaft, Shaft's Big Score, and The Learning Tree, was born on this date in 1912.

Shirley Chisholm, the first black woman elected to Congress, was born in Brooklyn, NY, on this date in 1924.

Mervy Dymally (CA), Harold Washington (IL), George W. Crockett, Jr. (MI), and August Savage (IL) were newly elected Congressmen on this date in 1981.

James A. Baldwin, civil rights activist and author of The Fire Next Time and many other major works, died in France on this date in 1987.