February 1
1865 John S. Rock becomes the first African-American to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court.
1902 Playwright, poet, author Langston Hughes is born
1960 First major sit-in to protest segregation is held at Woolworth’s store in Greensboro, N.C.
1978 Harriet Tubman becomes the first African-American woman honored on a U.S. stamp
February 2
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1892 Carter Williams patents the awning
1989 Lt. Cmdr. Evelyn Fields is first African-American woman to command a ship
February 3
1870 15th Amendment is ratified, giving African Americans the right to vote
1956 Autherine Lucy is the first African-American student at the University of Alabama
February 4
1867 Peabody Fund is established to aid African- American education
1822 Free African-Americans settle in Liberia, West Africa.
1913 Rosa Parks is born
1986 The U.S. Postal Service issues a stamp honoring Abolitionist and Women’s Right Activist Sojourner Truth
February 5
1934 Baseball great Hank Aaron is born
1955 Louis R. Lautier is the first African-American admitted to the National Press Club
February 6
1867 Robert Tanner Jackson is the first African-American to receive a degree in dentistry
1993 Arthur Ashe, tennis player, humanitarian and activist, dies
February 7
1867 Frederick Douglass meets with President Andrew Johnson
1883 Ragtime pianist and composer Eubie Blake is born
1926 Negro History Week, originated by Carter G. Woodson, observed for the first time
February 8
1951 Pvt. Edward Cleaborn, Memphis soldier, receives the Distinguished Service Cross
1968 Three students at South Carolina State are killed during a segregation protest in Orangeburg, S.C.
February 9
1944 Alice Walker, Pulitzer Prize-winning author, is born
1964 Arthur Ashe becomes the first African-American on a U.S. Davis Cup team
1971 Satchel Paige is the first Negro League player elected to major league baseball’s Hall of Fame
1995 Dr. Bernard Harris Jr. becomes the first African American to work in space
February 10
1780 Capt. Paul Cuffe and six other African-Americans of Massachusetts petition for the right to vote
1927 Leontyne Price, internationally acclaimed opera singer, is born
1989 Ronald H. Brown becomes the first African-American chairman of the Democratic National Committee.
1992 Alex Haley, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of the epic book Roots dies
February 11
1783 Jarena Lee, the first woman to preach in an AME church, is born
1977 Clifford Alexander, Jr. is confirmed as the first African-American Secretary of the Army
February 12
1909 NAACP is founded in New York City
Courtesy of Hot Topics Hot Serials