This Week In Black History March 18-March 24, 2026

st Black woman elect­ed mayor of a Mississippi town, Uni­ta Blackwell, was born on this day in Lula, Miss. The former field worker with the Student Nonviolent Coordi­nating Committee became mayor of Mayersville, Miss., in 1977.

1963—Singer-actress Vanessa Wil­liams, was born on this day in Mill­wood, N.Y. In 1983, Williams became the first African American woman to win the title of Miss America (Miss America 1984). Williams was forced to resign a few weeks prior to the end of her reign on July 22, 1984 due to a scandal surrounding the publication of unauthorized nude photographs in Penthouse magazine. In 2015, 32 years after being crowned and during the Miss America 2016 pag­eant (where she was serving as head judge), Miss America CEO Sam Has­kell apologized to Williams for what was said to her during the events of 1984.

1970—Actress and rapper Queen Latifah was born on this day in 1970. • MARCH 19 1620—The first Black child born in America, William Tucker, was prob­ably born on this date in Jamestown, Va. However, some controversy sur­rounds the exact date. What we know for sure is that he was the son of two of the first Africans brought to Amer­ica as indentured servants in August 1619—Anthony (Antonio) and Isabella. We also know he was baptized on Jan. 3, 1624. Further, there is debate as to whether his last name was actu­ally “Tucker.” It seems that many his­torians simply assumed that the child was given the last name of the man on whose plantation his parents worked. While this would later become the practice on many plantations, there is no documentation that Anthony and Isabella actually gave their son the last name of Tucker.

1919—Singer Nat “King” Cole is born in Montgomery, Ala. In addition to his considerable talents as a singer, Cole—the father of Natalie Cole—was the first Black American performer with his own syndicated radio pro­gram and later a network television variety show. The TV started at 15 minutes, expanded to half-an-hour, but was then dropped due to lack of White advertiser support. • MARCH 20

1852—The leading Black nation­alist of the 1800s publishes his manifesto entitled “The Condition, Elevation, Emigration and Destiny of the Colored People of the United States.” Delany, who fought in the Civil War to end slavery, became frustrated with American racism and argued that Blacks were “a nation within a nation” who should consid­er returning to their Africa homeland. Delany, who became a doctor, would later advance an argument for repara­tions saying, “They [Whites] had been our oppressors and injurers. They ob­structed our progress to the high posi­tions of civilization. And now it is their bounden duty to make full amends for the injuries thus inflicted upon an unoffending people.” Delaney died in Wilberforce, Ohio, in 1885.

1852—“Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” a novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe, is published in Boston and becomes a national bestseller. The novel was based in part on a real life Maryland slave named Josiah Henson. Many considered Henson the arch type “Uncle Tom” who was over accom­modating to Whites and accepting of his condition as a slave. Revisionist historians have treated Henson more kindly suggesting he was simply be­ing pragmatic and actually helped other slaves. 1883—Jan Matzeliger receives a patent for the “shoe lasting” machine, which would revolutionize the shoe industry, significantly reduce the cost of shoes and make Lynn, Mass., the shoe-making capital of the world. Matzeliger was born in Dutch Guiana (today’s Surinam) and arrived in Amer­ica at 18 or 19 speaking very little En­glish. His invention would eventually enable an entire shoe to be produced in 60 seconds by one machine. The patent was purchased by the United Company. Unfortunately, Mat­zeliger died at 37 before he was able to realize any of the enormous profits produced by his invention.

1957—Filmmaker Spike Lee is born in Brooklyn, N.Y. • MARCH 21

1955— Walter White dies. As head of the NAACP, White was perhaps the most prominent and powerful civ­il rights leader of the first half of the 20th century. The light complexioned, blue-eyed White became somewhat of a legend in 1919 when he “passed for White” in order to investigate the notorious Elaine, Ark., race riot when marauding bands of Whites killed more than 200 Blacks. He barely es­caped with his life when news of his true identity leaked out.

1960—The Sharpsville Massacre occurs, in then White-ruled South Africa, when police fired on Blacks protesting the country’s “pass laws,” which greatly restricted the move­ment of the majority African popula­tion. At least 67 demonstrators were killed and 186 injured or wounded.

1965—The historic Selma to Mont­gomery March calling for full voting rights for African Americans begins under federal protection. The original march had actually started on March 7. But the more than 600 demonstra­tors were attacked with clubs and tear gas by state and local police at the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Organiz­ers, including Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., then went to court to get confir­mation of their Constitutional right to demonstrate. The court battle was won and the march resumed under federal protection on March 21. Five months later President Lyndon John­son signed the historic 1965 Voting Rights Act.

2010—The U.S. House of Represen­tatives passes President Obama’s signature legislation—Health Care Reform by a 219 to 212 vote. No Re­publican voted for the measure. • MARCH 22 1492—Alonzo Pietro sets sail with Christopher Columbus as he begins his famous journey to find a new trade route to China, but accidentally “discovers” the Americas. Pietro was one of Columbus’ navigators. He was known as “il Negro”—The Black.

1942—Scholar and political activist Walter Rodney is born in George­town, Guyana. Rodney would be­come one of the leading intellectual forces behind the worldwide Black Nationalist and Pan-Africanist move­ments of the 1960s and ‘70s. He was a brilliant scholar who traveled widely and among his major writings was the book “How Europe Underdevel­oped Africa.” He died in a car bomb­ing in Guyana in 1980. • MARCH 23 1916—Marcus Garvey arrives in the United States from Jamaica. He would go on to build the largest Black nationalist and self-help organi­zation in world history—the Universal Negro Improvement Association. The UNIA owned everything from bakeries to a shipping line. It would develop chapters throughout major cities in the U.S., Europe, Africa and the Caribbean. “Garveyism” empha­sized racial pride, economic empow­erment, Blacks doing for self and the establishment of a powerful Black nation in Africa to give protection to Blacks throughout the world. • MARCH 24 1837—Blacks in Canada are grant­ed the right to vote. Most of these Blacks had escaped from slavery in America.

2002—Halle Berry becomes the first Black woman to win an Oscar for Best Actress. She won for her role in the movie “Monster’s Ball.” She won a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a TV Movie/Mini-Series for “Introducing Dorothy Dandridge” in 1999. Berry was born on Aug. 14, 1966 in Cleve­land, Ohio, to an African American father and a Caucasian mother.