Black - African American History Facts

Asa Philip Randolph called off a scheduled march when President Franklin Roosevelt issued Executive Order 8802 forbidding racial and religious discrimination in war industries, government training programs, and government industries on this date in 1941.

Charles Hamilton Houston, lawyer and NAACP Legal Committee Chairman, received the 35th NAACP Spingarn Medal posthumously, on this date in 1950, for his lifetime devotion to equal rights, equal opportunity, and democratic ideals.

Prince A. Taylor was elected Bishop of the New Jersey district of the Methodist Church on this date in 1964, becoming the first black person to head a predominantly white district of the Methodist Church.

The African nation of Mozambique was proclaimed independent on this date in 1975. Samora Machel became its first president.

Amalya Lyle Kearse became the first woman appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals on this date in 1979.

Michael Jackson, "the greatest entertainer of all-time," died from cardiac arrest as a result of intoxication from medication administered by his person physician on this date in 2009. The death was ruled a homicide by the coroner.