Thanks to Carter G. Woodson (known as the father of black history), Black History month is celebrated annually here in the U.S., Canada, and the United Kingdom.

Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images
Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images
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Carter G. Woodson once said, "If a race has no history, it has no worthwhile tradition, it becomes a negligible factor in the thought of the world, and it stands in danger of being exterminated."

1871 - Alcorn A&M College opened

Alcorn State University was founded on the site originally occupied by Oakland College. Back then it was a school for whites established by the Presbyterian Church.  Oakland College closed its at the beginning of the American Civil War so its students could fight for the Confederate States of America.
When the war ended, the school never reopened and the property sold to the state of Mississippi.  It opened after being renamed in honor of the currant governor as Alcorn University and was established as a historical black college.  The rest is pretty much history.

1926 - Negro History was observed for the first time.

Carter G. Woodson was a historian, author and journalist. He was also a teacher and in addition to creating Negro History Week, he also founded founder of Journal of Negro History and the Association for the Study of African American Life and History.

Woodson was a member of the first black fraternity Sigma Pi Phi and a member of Omega Psi Phi.  He completed his PhD in history at Harvard University in 1912, where he was the second African American (after W.E.B. DuBois) to earn a doctorate.  In 1976 Negro History Week, was renamed to Black History Month.
1945 - Irwin Molison becomes the first African American appointed to Customs
Court.
Judge Mollison was the first African American appointed to a position in the federal judiciary.  Appointed by President Truman, Judge Mollison would also become the first African American to serve on the United States Customs Court.
1946 - A Filibuster in U.S. Senate killed FEPC bill better known as the Fair Employment Practices Commission.

Do to the urging of A. Philip Randolph, founding president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters  President Roosevelt signed an Executive Order and created the Fair Employment Practices Committee (FEPC) in 1941.  Roosevelt said of the bill, "there shall be no discrimination in the employment of workers in defense industries or government because of racecreed, color, or national origin."

F.Y.I. the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters was the first labor organization led by blacks to receive a charter in the American Federation of Labor (AFL).  In 1978 they merged with the Brotherhood of Railway and Airline Clerks (BRAC), now known as the Transportation Communications International Union.
In 1950, the House approved a permanent FEPC bill, which also called for anti-lynching legislation, and the end of the poll tax.  However, Southern senators filibustered and the bill failed. None the less, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Washington successfully enacted and enforced their own FEPC laws at the state level.
1967 - Actor/Comedian Chris Rock is born.

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