Today In Black History - The First Organized Emigration Back To Africa Begins [VIDEO]

I love this time of year because it gives me an opportunity to learn as well as inform others about how rich black history truly is. From the astounding accomplishments, against all odds to the heroism of our forefathers struggle for our civil rights. Every year we remember them and tell there stories.

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On this day in Black History......

1820 - The Mayflower of Liberia heads back to Africa.

86 free African Americans or organized the first emigration back to Africa. They would leave from New York Harbor aboard the Mayflower of Liberia. They are bound for the British colony of Sierra Leone, a country in West Africa that is bordered by Guinea to the northeast, Liberia to the southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to the southwest. The country was known to welcome free African Americans as well as fugitive slaves.

1867- The Peabody Fund was established.

The Peabody Education Fund was established by George Peabody in 1867 for the purpose of promoting "intellectual, moral, and industrial education in the most destitute portion of the Southern States." Because it was restricted from founding new schools, it did not benefit freedmen in the South, as there were no established schools for blacks.

1870 - Jonathan Jasper Wright was elected to the South Carolina Supreme Court.
Jonathan Jasper Wright was an African-American lawyer who served as a judge on the Supreme Court of the State of South Carolina during Reconstruction from 1870 to 1877.

1898 - Melvin B. Tolson is born.
Melvin Beaunorus Tolson was an African American Modernist poet, educator, columnist, and politician. He wore several hats, however he's most noted for his work on the experience of African Americans and includes several long historical poems.

Denzel Washington portayed Tolson in the 2007 biopic The Great Debaters. The film was based on his work with students at predominantly-black Wiley College in Marshall, Texas, and their debate with University of Southern California.

1933 - Walter E. Fauntroy was born.

As director of the Washington Bureau of Dr. King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Mr. Fauntroy served as D.C. Coordinator of the Historic March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963. Not only that, but served as coordinator of the Selma to Montgomery Voting Rights March in 1965 as well as the Meredith Mississippi Freedom March in 1966.

The former pastor of the New Bethel Baptist Church in Washington, D.C., was also a delegate to the United States Congress and even ran for president in 1972 and 1976 for the Democratic presidential nomination.

1945 - Raggae legend Bob Marley was born.

1961 - "Jail, No Bail" campaign.

A group of African American students went to jail after staging a sit-in at a segregated McCrory's lunch counter in Rock Hill, South Carolina. The group gained national attention because they launched a civil rights strategy called "Jail, No Bail". They became known as the Friendship Nine or the Rock Hill Nine because eight of the nine men were students at Rock Hill's Friendship Junior College.

1993 - Arthur Ashe dies

Today In Black History – The First Organized Emigration Back To Africa Begins [VIDEO]