Black - African American History Facts

The Mayflower of Liberia, the first organized emigration of blacks back to Africa, left New York for Sierra Leone with 86 blacks on this date in 1820.

The Peabody Fund was established to promote education for the young and destitute people of the South and Southwest on this date in 1867.

Melvin B. Tolson, author of Rendezvous with America and Libretto for the Republic of Liberia, was born on this date in 1898.

Bob Marley, the "King of Reggae Music," was born in St. Ann, Jamaica, on this date in 1945.

Arthur Ashe, the first black man to win the Wimbledon Men's Singles Tennis Championship, died on this date in 1993.