AMERICANS have every reason to regard the month of February as ‘Black History Month’, as, besides being the birth month of two champions of the abolition of slavery, namely President Abe Lincoln and Frederick Douglass, it is also, by some quirk of fate, the time of year that a number of key events have occurred in the U.S., as the following dates will attest:

February 11, 1644
The first Black legal protest took place in America. It was pressed by eleven Black persons who petitioned for freedom in New Netherlands (today’s New York). The Council of New Netherlands freed the eleven petitioners because they had “served the Company (for) seventeen or eighteen years,” and had “long since been promised their freedom on the same footing as other free people in New Netherlands.”

February 18, 1688
The first formal protest against slavery by an organised White body in English America was made by Germantown (today’s Pennsylvania) Quakers at a monthly meeting. The historic ‘Germantown Protest’ denounced slavery and the slave trade.

February 28, 1704
Frenchman, Elias Neau opened a school to teach Blacks in New York City.

February 15, 1804
The New Jersey Legislature approved a law calling for the “gradual” emancipation of African Americans.

February 24, 1864
Rebecca Lee Crumpler became the first Black woman to receive an M.D. degree when she graduated from the New England Medical College.

February 23, 1868
History recorded the birth of W.E.B Dubois, an important civil rights leader and co-founder of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP).

February 1, 1870
Jonathan Jasper Wright was elected to the South Carolina Supreme Court, thus becoming the first African-American to hold a major judicial position.

February 3, 1870
The 15th Amendment was passed, giving Black people the right to vote.

February 17, 1870
Congress passed a resolution readmitting Mississippi as a member of the United States of America, on condition that the State would never change its Constitution to disenfranchise Black people.

February 25, 1870
The first Black U.S. Senator, Hiram R. Revels (1822-1901), took his oath of office.

February 12, 1909
The National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP) was founded by a group of concerned Black and White citizens in New York City.

February 4, 1913
Rosa Parks, that fiery Black Civil Rights activist, was born in Tuskegee, Alabama.

February 7, 1926
Negro History Week, originated by Carter G.Woodson, is observed for the first time.

February 19, 1942
The Army Air Corps all African-American 100th Pursuit Squadron, later designated a fighter squadron, was activated at a Tuskegee institution. The Squadron served honourably in England and in other regions of the European continent during World War II.

February 2, 1948
President Harry Truman sent Congress a special message, urging adoption of a civil rights program, including a fair employment practices commission and anti-lynching and anti-poll tax measures.

February 3, 1956
Autherine A.J. Lucy becomes the first Black student to attend the University of Alabama. She was expelled three days later, “for her own safety,” in response to threats from a mob.

February 13, 1957
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) organised a New Orleans meeting, with Martin Luther King Jr as president.

February 1, 1960
In what would become a milestone for the Civil Rights Movement, a group of Black college students from Greensborough, NC, began a sit-in at the segregated Woolworth’s lunch counter.

February 10, 1964
After 12 days of debate and voting on 125 Amendments, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by a vote of 290-130. The Bill prohibited any State or public facility from denying access to anyone because of race or ethnic origin.

February 21, 1965
Malcolm X, the militant leader who promoted Black Nationalism, was shot to death by three Black Muslims.

Source: Historical Collector’s Edition, Issue 13, 2011