On This Day in Our History

Benjamin Banneker, inventor, surveyor, mathematician, and astronomer, began to help lay out Washington, DC, under the supervision of Major Andrew Endicott IV on this date in 1791.

Father Patrick Francis Healy, the first Black awarded a Ph.D. degree, was born in Georgia on this date in 1834.

James Hubert"Eubie" Blake, pianist and composer, was born in Baltimore, MD, on this date in 1883.

Autherine Juanita Lucy, the first Black student at the University of Alabama, was suspended after a riot at the school on this date in 1956.

Cheikh Anta Diop, Egyptologist and author of Civilization of Barbarism and the general history of Africa, dies on this date in 1986. Diop proved Egyptians were Black and their culture pre-dated and directly influenced the Greek and Roman culture.