African World

African World Sharing history with the world

06/09/2026

Black Midwives Delivered Most Babies Across the South, Then a Medical Report Helped Reshape Childbirth in America.

06/08/2026

Prince Played Every Instrument on His Debut Album at 19, Years Before Becoming a Global Icon.

Before that, Prince Wrote “Funk Machine” at 7, Then Spent the Rest of His Life Defying Expectations.

So what do you call a man who wrote his first song at seven years old, beat Charlie Murphy in basketball while wearing heels, turned a movie, album, and single into simultaneous number one hits, and still left behind enough unreleased music to last a century?

You call him Prince.

Happy Birthday Marian Wright! Her testimony before Congress in 1967 on poverty in the American South directly influenced...
06/06/2026

Happy Birthday Marian Wright!

Her testimony before Congress in 1967 on poverty in the American South directly influenced Senator Robert F. Kennedy.

Marian Wright Edelman, founder and president of the Children’s Defense Fund, was born on June 6, 1939, in Bennettsville, South Carolina. She credited her father with instilling in her a lifelong commitment to helping others and improving her community. When local families lacked access to recreational spaces, her father helped create a park for children behind his church. That right there tells you everything about where she got her fire from.

In 1964, she became the first African American woman to pass the bar in Mississippi, taking on important legal cases and helping secure funding for one of the largest Head Start programs in the country. She went on to work with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as counsel for his Poor People’s Campaign and founded the Children’s Defense Fund in 1973.

That organization became, and still is, one of the most influential advocacy voices for children in American history.

Here’s the part that hits differently though: her testimony before Congress in 1967 on poverty in the American South directly influenced Senator Robert F. Kennedy. She walked into the halls of power and changed minds.

On June 6, 1966, Air Force veteran James Meredith began the March Against Fear from Memphis, Tennessee to Jackson, Missi...
06/06/2026

On June 6, 1966, Air Force veteran James Meredith began the March Against Fear from Memphis, Tennessee to Jackson, Mississippi to encourage African Americans to register and vote after passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

When he was seriously wounded by a sniper, people from SNCC, CORE, SCLC, the Delta Ministry, and more came out to carry on the march.

Meredith recovered from his wound and rejoined the march before it reached Jackson.

It is estimated that 3,000 Black Mississippians were registered to vote during the march, turning a moment of adversity into a demonstration of collective determination.

On June 6, 1831, free Black leaders from across the country walked into the Wesleyan Church on Lombard Street in Philade...
06/06/2026

On June 6, 1831, free Black leaders from across the country walked into the Wesleyan Church on Lombard Street in Philadelphia and did something no group of American citizens had formally done before, they held the nation’s first organized national political convention.

The delegates convened on June 6 at the brick Wesleyan Church on Lombard Street, gathering by public notice on behalf of the parent society in Philadelphia.  The officers elected were John Bowers of Philadelphia as President, with Thomas L. Jennings serving as Assistant Secretary. 

That name, Thomas L. Jennings, carries serious weight. Jennings was the first Black man in America to receive a patent, awarded on March 3, 1821, for a process called dry-scouring, the direct forerunner of modern dry cleaning.  He used the income from that invention to purchase the freedom of his own family members still held in bo***ge, and funneled the rest into abolitionist causes.  A decade before he sat in that convention room keeping official records, he had already forced the United States patent system to legally recognize him as a citizen, at a time when that recognition was being withheld from nearly every person who looked like him.

The idea for the convention grew from a Baltimore activist named Hezekiah Grice, who appealed to Black leaders across the North after the violent removal of an entire Black community from Cincinnati in 1829.  Of all the delegates who answered that call, only two were women; Elizabeth Armstrong and Rachel Cliff.
Their names are in the record to ensure their contributions were not lost to time.

TODAY IN HISTORYHarriet Tubman Helped Free More Than 750 People During a Military Operation in 1863On June 2, 1863, Harr...
06/02/2026

TODAY IN HISTORY

Harriet Tubman Helped Free More Than 750 People During a Military Operation in 1863

On June 2, 1863, Harriet Tubman played a pivotal role in the Combahee River Raid in South Carolina, becoming one of the few women in American history to help lead a military operation during the Civil War.

Working alongside Union forces, Tubman used intelligence gathered through her network of local contacts to help guide gunboats through the river’s dangerous waters. The mission targeted plantations and supply routes along the Combahee River, disrupting Confederate resources while opening a path to freedom for hundreds of enslaved people.

As the gunboats moved upriver, families rushed toward them from surrounding plantations. By the end of the operation, more than 750 people had gained their freedom.

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