Author: Mark Thomas
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Pauli Murray says no to Jane Crow
While we know Rosa Parks wasn’t the first African American woman who refused to surrender her bus seat as dictated by Jim Crow, most have never heard of Pauli Murray. More than twenty years before Claudette Colvin, inspired by stories of other women of color who fought for civil rights, was arrested for violating the…
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Carnage on Deer Lick Creek – 1824
Several waves of temperance movements throughout the 19th century are often seen today as quaint extremism by a vocal minority. However, hard liquor was a significant contributor to a number of social ills including wanton killings. On March 22, 1824, heavy drinking combined with generations-old hatred of Native-Americans as the mass killing of nine persons…
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Joseph Rainey sworn-in to Congress
It was on this date in 1870 that Joseph Rainey was sworn in to the U.S. House of Representatives. Rainey was not the first African-American to serve in Congress, that honor belonging to Hiram Revels, but Rainey was the first African-American to be elected to Congress. Rainey represented South Carolina’s 1st District and was re-elected four times.…
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Port Chicago Disaster
At 10:18 p.m. on July 17, 1944, a pair of explosions at the Port Chicago naval pier killed more than 300 military personnel and civilian workers. The event caused the largest number of stateside deaths during the war. In the aftermath of the explosion, it was determined that racism played a key role in an…