Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #blackamericanhistoryisamericanhistory
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1/3 #BLM OTD 1937 IL congressman Arthur Wergs Mitchell was told to move to the section of the train for Black passengers in accordance w/ the Arkansas Separate Coach Law of 1891. Under threat of arrest he moved & later filed a lawsuit.
#BlackAmericanHistoryIsAmericanHistory
#BlackAmericanHistoryIsAmericanHistory
2/3 The ICC dismissed the suit stating “the discrimination & prejudice was not unjust or undue.” He then lost an appeal which said “the small number of colored passengers asking for 1st class accommodations justified an occasional discrimination against them because of race.”
3/3 Mitchell appealed that ruling directly to the US Supreme Court, where he presented oral arguments himself. SCOTUS ruled in his favor in Mitchell v. United States. However, his political career in Chicago was over because of having angered the white political establishment.
1/5 #BLM OTD 1906 Satchel Paige was born. He played Negro League & Major League Baseball in a 50 year career culminating w/ his induction into the Hall of Fame.A righty pitcher, he began in semi-pro for the Mobile Tigers from 1924 to 1926.
#BlackAmericanHistoryIsAmericanHistory
#BlackAmericanHistoryIsAmericanHistory
2/5 A He began his professional baseball career in 1926 with the Chattanooga Black Lookouts of the Negro Southern League and became one of the most famous and successful players from the Negro leagues.
#BlackAmericanHistoryIsAmericanHistory
#BlackAmericanHistoryIsAmericanHistory
3/5 At age 42 in 1948, Paige made his debut for the Cleveland Indians; still the oldest debutant in the MLBhistory. Additionally, he was 59 years old when he played his last major league game, which is also a record that stands to this day.
#BlackAmericanHistoryIsAmericanHistory
#BlackAmericanHistoryIsAmericanHistory
1/4 #BLM OTD 1957 Althea Gibson becomes the 1st African-American to win Wimbledon. Tennis was segregated and she paved the way for Venus & Serena Williams, Arthur Ashe & countless others. #BlackAmericanHistoryIsAmericanHistory
2/4 Born in South Carolina in 1927, the teenaged Gibson began playing tennis in Harlem, NY and after winning two national Black women's tennis championships, she debuted at the U.S. Open in 1950. After becoming the first African-American
#BlackAmericanHistoryIsAmericanHistory
#BlackAmericanHistoryIsAmericanHistory
3/4 to win the singles & doubles titles at the French Open in 1957, OTD 1957, Gibson became the 1st African-American to win Wimbledon. In 1957, she won the U.S. Open again & in 57 & 58 Associated Press named her Female Athlete of the Year.
#BlackAmericanHistoryIsAmericanHistory
#BlackAmericanHistoryIsAmericanHistory
1/3 #BLM OTD 1967 Thurgood Marshall, appointed to the SCOTUS by President Lyndon Johnson becomes the 1st Black U.S. Supreme Court justice. A staunch opponent of discrimination, he would serve on the bench for 24 years.
#BlackAmericanHistoryIsAmericanHistory
#BlackAmericanHistoryIsAmericanHistory
2/3 He defended affirmative action & abortion, fought for the rights of criminal defendants & opposed the death penalty. After receiving a law degree from Howard University in D.C. in 1933, joined the legal counsel of the NAACP.
#BlackAmericanHistoryIsAmericanHistory
#BlackAmericanHistoryIsAmericanHistory
3/3 He won 29 cases for the organization, including a landmark victory the 1954's Brown v. Board of Ed case, which formally ended segregation in all US public schools. He retired from the bench in 1991 and passed away at 84 on Jan. 24, 1993.
#BlackAmericanHistoryIsAmericanHistory
#BlackAmericanHistoryIsAmericanHistory
1/4 #BLM OTD civil Rights activist Medgar W. Evers was shot in the back by a white supremacist in front of his Jackson, Mississippi home. He was only 37 years old. Born in Decatur, Mississippi, on July 2, 1925,
#BlackAmericanHistoryIsAmericanHistory
#BlackAmericanHistoryIsAmericanHistory
2/4 He became involved with the NAACP when working for a Black insurance company in the Mississippi Delta in 1952. As the 1st NAACP field officer in the state, he recruited new members & investigated incidents of racial violence.
#BlackAmericanHistoryIsAmericanHistory
#BlackAmericanHistoryIsAmericanHistory
3/4 Evers was instrumental in helping James Meredith, a Black student, enter the University of Mississippi in 1962. He & his family were subject to attacks from white supremacists. On May 28, '63, a Molotov cocktail was thrown at his home.
#BlackAmericanHistoryIsAmericanHistory
#BlackAmericanHistoryIsAmericanHistory
