The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that Blacks could not sue the federal government for damages or an apology for racial discrimination and slavery. The unanimous opinion of the three-judge panel upheld several lower court rulings that had considered similar claims. The suit, which had been filed by seven plaintiffs, sought more than $100 million in damages, along lines similar to the reparations the U.S. Congress had previously awarded to Japanese Americans interned during World War II. But the court ruled that the plaintiffs could not seek damages for the enslavement of their ancestors, could not require the judiciary to correct allegedly discriminatory acts by Congress, and failed to point to specific government actions that violated their rights. Judge Pamela Rymer, who wrote the majority opinion, also said that "individuals who complained about historic or current societal discrimination lacked the standing and legal authority to pursue claims in court arising out of the government's failure to do right as they see it."
In response to the decision, Samuel Patterson, chairman of the Reparations Committee for African Americans, which sponsored the suit, declared that he was not surprised by it. He said: "You're not going to get anything from a pig but a grunt."

Democratic congressman Kweisi Mfume of Maryland, feeling he could better serve the interests of Blacks and the nation as a whole outside of Congress, accepted the presidency of the NAACP (Myrlie Evers-Williams remained the organization's chair). The position had been vacant since Benjamin Chavis, Jr., was fired in August 1994. Mfume pledged to restore the fiscal integrity and financial structure of the NAACP, which was $3.2 million in debt when Mfume assumed command.

Willie Brown, the former powerful California Assembly speaker, was elected by San Francisco residents to become that city's first Black mayor. Brown easily defeated incumbent Frank Jordan for the position.

After more than two years as the nation's top-ranking fighter in the war on drugs, Lee Brown submitted his resignation to President Bill Clinton. Brown declined to offer specific reasons for his departure, but did disclose that he was accepting a position at Rice University to teach criminology. Anti-drug activists believed Brown had simply grown frustrated with the government's weak response to the increased drug use in the country. After Brown had taken office, President Clinton decided to cut Brown's staff by 75 percent, from 146 to 25. The budget of his office suffered a similar decrease.

Democrat Jesse Jackson, Jr., was elected to the House of Representatives by defeating Republican Thomas Somer in Illinois's 2nd congressional district. Jackson had no previous political experience, but had campaigned on the ideas of economic development in his district. The son of civil rights activist Jesse Jackson captured 74 percent of the vote.

Eighty-four-year-old actress Thelma "Butterfly" McQueen died after suffering critical burns caused by a fire in her home near Augusta, Georgia. McQueen was perhaps best known for her role as the enslaved girl Prissy in the 1939 film Gone with the Wind. Unfortunately, like many Black actresses of the period, she became typecast as a maid, a role she rebelled against strongly by the mid-1940s. For the next two decades she abandoned the big screen for the stage, but then returned to play several small movie roles during the 1970s and 1980s.

Republican governor Mike Foster of Louisiana announced that affirmative action programs in that state's government had ended.

The Revelation Corporation was formed by the leaders of five major Black churches with the goal of increasing the buying power of Black consumers. E. Edward Jones of the National Baptist Convention of America Inc. was selected to head the organization, and John Lowery was named vice-president. The five churches involved in the program were the National Baptist Convention of America, the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, the National Baptist Convention USA Inc., and the Progressive National Baptist Convention Inc.

The Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia, was the site of a Martin Luther King, Jr., Day celebration. President Bill Clinton spoke to a crowd of about 1,500 about his support for affirmative action programs.

The first elected Black state senator from Texas, Barbara Charline Jordan, died of complications from leukemia. She had also suffered from multiple sclerosis for years. Born on February 21, 1936, in Houston, Texas, the well-known speaker gained national attention when she asked for the impeachment of then-President Richard Nixon. She was also the first Black woman to give the keynote address at the 1976 National Democratic Convention. President Bill Clinton awarded Jordan the highest civilian honor by presenting her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in a ceremony on August 8, 1994.

Famed conductor Henry Jay Lewis died of a heart attack in New York City. Lewis was named conductor of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra in 1968, the first Black conductor of a major American orchestra. He was well known for attempting to make performances more available to the working class, often holding free outdoor concerts. Lewis was also the first Black American to conduct New York City's Metropolitan Opera in 1972. He was born on October 16, 1932, in Los Angeles, California.

The U.S. Supreme Court upheld a 1995 redistricting plan constructed by three judges in Georgia that reduced the number of Black-majority congressional districts from three to one based on the grounds that race could not be used as a "predominant factor" in establishing district boundaries. Despite pleas from a group of Georgia voters, the Court refused a request for an appeal of the decision on June 8th.

The U.S. Department of Justice announced that a civil rights investigation into the Black church fires in Alabama and Tennessee had begun the previous December. Attorney General Janet Reno made the probe public after the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) had written her in January asking for such a study. Seventeen churches had been destroyed in southern states over the past year. The most notable fire was at the Inner City Baptist Church in Knoxville, Tennessee, where Green Bay Packers football star Reggie White was an associate pastor.

In Washington, D.C., Kweisi Mfume was sworn in as President and Chief Executive Officer of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). This came amidst serious financial and public relations troubles at the NAACP. Mfume's predecessor, Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr., was fired in 1994 for misuse of the organization's funds in connection with a threatened sexual-discrimination suit. Mfume promised "a new NAACP, reinvented and reinvigorated, standing at the threshold of change." Mfume had resigned from his position as a U.S. House Representative from Maryland on February 18. Fellow Black Democrat Elijah E. Cummings defeated Kennth Dondner in special elections held to replace Mfume. Previously, Cummings was the pro tem speaker for the Maryland House of Delegates.

The Census Bureau released its population projections through the year 2050. The black population was expected to make up 13.6 percent of the total population, marking an increase from the projected 1995 figure of 12 percent.

A federal appeals court in Louisiana reversed an earlier decision and ruled that a race-based admissions policy at the University of Texas School of Law should not be allowed, even though the school's intention had been to enhance racial diversity. Four white students had sued the university in 1992 on the grounds of racial discrimination. Judge Jerry E. Smith ruled that the school had not appropriately shown a justification for its racial preference policy. He further recommended that universities in general broaden their definition of diversity among their student bodies—this, in part, because one of the plaintiffs, Cheryl Hopwood, had faced great adversity through her life as a result of the death of her father when she was a child, and the births to Hopwood of a handicapped child and another child who later died. Smith believed the experiences of someone like Hopwood should be included in a school's expanded definition of diversity.

The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the 1990 census figures could stand, despite that between 1.6 percent and 2 percent of the population had not been counted. Minority groups had sought an adjustment to the figures because the erroneous numbers represented 4.8 percent of the Black population and 5.2 percent of the Hispanic population. The coalition of plaintiffs included such groups as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the national League of Cities, from such cities as Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, and New York. After then-Commerce Secretary Robert Mosbacher refused to revise census figures in 1991, the groups filed suit, arguing that the miscount was an affront to minorities' constitutional right to equal protection, because census figures determined congressional seating and federal funding for social programs. Before the Supreme Court's ruling, Mosbacher's decision had been upheld in 1993 by a district court, then overturned in 1994 by a circuit court of appeals. Supreme Court chief justice William Rehnquist opined that Mosbacher's argument, which stated that determining congressional districts resulted more from a "distributive accuracy" and not a precise numerical count of the population, was reasonable.

The Reverend Jesse Jackson and 75 others marched outside the KABC-TV offices in Los Angeles during the Academy Awards ceremony to protest the lack of Black nominees. Of the total 166 nominees, only one was Black-Dianne Houston, who directed the film Tuesday Morning Ride.

Former politician/newsman Carl Stokes died in Cleveland at the age of 68. Stokes was the first Black to be elected mayor of a major city when he won the Cleveland mayoral election 1962. After serving two terms as mayor, Stokes left for New York and began a career as a news broadcaster for WNBC-TV. He also was the first Black elected to the Ohio House of Representatives, served eleven years as a municipal judge in Cleveland, and was named ambassador to the Seychelles in 1995. Stokes was born in Cleveland on June 21, 1927.

U.S. commerce secretary Ron Brown and 34 others were killed in a U.S. Air Force jet when it crashed into a mountainside near Dubrovnik, Croatia. Brown, government officials, and business executives were touring Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina in attempts to obtain contracts for U.S. companies to help rebuild the infrastructures of both countries. The Air Force later blamed pilot error and the failure of Air Force commanders to properly make required safety evaluations before leaving the airport. Officials concluded that the bad weather that existed during the flight was not a significant factor in the crash.
Brown was born on August 1, 1941, in Washington, D.C., before moving to New York City. He was a successful lawyer before rising to national politics as Jesse Jackson's 1988 presidential campaign manager. A year later, he became chairman of the Democratic National Committee, the first Black American to head a major national political party. He worked closely with then-Arkansas governor Bill Clinton's presidential campaign, and was named commerce secretary following Clinton's victory.

George Walker and E. R. Shipp were two of twenty-two Pulitzer Prize recipients for 1996. Walker, the first Black musician to receive this honor in music in its eighty-year existence, accepted the prestigious award for Lilacs, which was composed for both voice and orchestra. Shipp, a columnist for The Daily News in New York, won the prize for commentary on race and welfare.

Federal judges ruled that Florida's Black-majority Third District was unconstitutional because it used race as the major factor in determining the district's boundaries. Three judges ordered the state legislature to redraw the district's boundaries by May 22.
The plaintiffs in the case argued that the horse-shoe shaped district, which covered 250 miles and 14 counties, had been created primarily to intensify the representation of Blacks.
The majority opinion held that the defendants had failed to show that the district had been "narrowly tailored to further a compelling governmental interest" and, therefore, violated the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The judges included an admonition that the ruling "should not be interpreted as 'turning back the clock' on the gains made by Black voters and other racial and ethnic voting minorities."
Representative Corrine Brown opposed the decision and stated that the Third District, located in northern Florida, was "the most integrated and diverse district" in the state.

A U.S. federal appeals court granted a stay that blocked the enforcement of a March 19 ruling that would have ended race-based admissions policies at Texas universities. On July 1, however, the Supreme Court let the March 19 ruling stand, not because it was endorsing the ruling but because the University of Texas School of Law had stopped using that admissions policy.

California governor Pete Wilson's appointment of appellate court judge Janice Rogers Brown to the California Supreme Court was confirmed. Brown, the daughter of Alabama sharecroppers, became the first Black woman to serve on the state's highest court. Although Justice Brown's nomination was unanimously confirmed, it was not without criticism. The State Bar Commission on Judicial Nominees Evaluation claimed that "Brown was unqualified because of limited experience as a lawyer and a judge." The Commission added she had a "tendency to inject her political and philosophical views into her court opinions." Wilson described his nomination as being "clearly the right choice at the right time...." Justice Brown had also been characterized as more conservative than the other California Supreme Court justices. Prior to her 1994 appellate court appointment, she served the state as Governor Wilson's legal affairs secretary, where she filed suit against the federal government seeking reimbursement of costs for providing public services to illegal immigrants. Previously, Brown served as California's deputy attorney general and deputy legislature counsel for the state Legislature Counsel Bureau. In 1974, she received her bachelor's degree from California State University and, in 1977, a law degree from the University of California at Los Angeles.

Federal judge Robert Krupansky lifted a seventeen-year desegregation order, which resulted in the end of court-ordered busing in Cleveland, Ohio. Student busing had been implemented in 1979 in an effort to integrate the city's public school system. Education officials asked to end busing because they felt integration had been successful and $10 million in busing costs could be saved. The original ruling stemmed from a 1973 case involving Black students who accused the school system of running segregated schools. The courts decided in favor of the students, and six years later Cleveland began busing students.

The U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation that would provide families that adopted children with a $5,000 tax credit if their annual income was under $75,000. The law included a provision that would force adoption agencies to make interracial adoption easier by not allowing race or ethnicity to be such a determining factor when selecting possible adoptive families. When the interracial provision was first brought forward, many Republicans were against the consideration of race during the adoption process. Democrats, however, opposed this stance and compromises were reached. These included: race could be used as a criterion only if at least two qualified families sought adoption of a child, and agencies could not delay an adoption with the intent of locating a qualified same-race family.

Commander Donnie Cochran, the first Black pilot to fly on the Navy's Blue Angels flight team, resigned following his concerns over his ability to continue to fly safely. Eight months earlier, Cochran participated in a flying demonstration with the Blue Angels when he missed an agreed upon landmark. Cochran became the team leader of the Blue Angels in 1994.

After much deliberation between members of the Landover (Maryland) School Board and officials at the Thomas G. Pullen Creative and Performing Arts School, Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas addressed an eighth-grade awards ceremony at the school. Principal Kathy Kurtz had invited Thomas to speak, but on May 22nd school superintendent Jerome Clark ordered her to rescind the invitation on the basis that Thomas's many rulings against affirmative action programs did "not represent the interests of my constituents." The Parent Teacher Association asked that Clark's request be denied; the school board agreed and Thomas was issued a second invitation. Demonstrators for and against Justice Thomas held rallies in front of the school.

In Greeleyville, South Carolina, President Bill Clinton attended the dedication ceremony for the newly built sanctuary of the Mt. Zion African Methodist Episcopal Church. The previous sanctuary of the church had been destroyed by arson in 1995. Clinton, told the crowd, "We are not going back, we are not slipping back to those dark days (before the civil rights movement)." The southern United States had felt racial tension as arson claimed dozens of Black churches over the previous seven years. The Federal Bureau of Investigations, in conjunction with the Bureau of Alcohol, Firearms, and Tobacco, led investigations into the suspicious fires. The departments concluded that no national conspiracy could be linked to the church
fires.

The Supreme Court ruled against congressional districts in North Carolina and Texas in two separate cases that alleged that racial bias was used in determining district boundaries. Violation of the Fourteenth Amendment was stated as the reason for the unconstitutionality of the districts' formations. The Supreme Court considered Bush v. Vera and Shaw u. Hunt in handing down its rulings. Two months later, the Supreme Court refused to require North Carolina to redraw its Twelfth District boundaries.

Popular jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald died in Beverly Hills, California, of undisclosed causes. In recent years, she had suffered from diabetes, which had resulted in the amputation of both her legs. Born in Newport News, Virginia, on April 25, 1917, "The First Lady of Song" started her career with Chick Webb's band and had her first hit in 1938 with a song she wrote, “ATisket, A-Tasket." After Webb died in 1939, Fitzgerald began to concentrate on a style of singing known as scat and became well-known for the songs "Flying Home" and "Oh, Lady Be Good!" which used the scat technique. Fitzgerald is credited with reviving the popularity of such composers as Ira and George Gershwin, Cole Porter, and Rodgers and Hart, by composing albums using their works. She won thirteen Grammy Awards in her career.

A federal jury found the City of Philadelphia guilty of using excessive force in 1985, when the police used a bomb in a attempt to evict members of MOVE (a radical African American group) from their headquarters. The bomb killed eleven people, and destroyed 61 houses in the neighborhood. Police had tried unsuccessfully to remove the MOVE members from their homes after neighbors complained about excessive noise and garbage. The jury ordered that $1.5 million in damages be paid to survivor Ramona Africa, and to families of the victims.

Georgia's two newly formed congressional districts, the second and fourth, produced victories for two Black representatives, Cynthia McKinney and Sanford D. Bishop, Jr. McKinney previously represented the state's Eleventh District, which was approximately 60% Black. Bishop's former district was 59% Black. In redrawing the congressional district boundaries, the Black voting population was diminished from 60% to 30% in McKinney's Fourth District and from 59% to 35% in Bishop's Second District.

The Connecticut Supreme Court ruled that racial segregation in public schools near Hartford violated the state constitution, The court allowed the state government the opportunity to integrate the schools.

A statue of Arthur Ashe was dedicated in Richmond, Virginia, honoring the first Black man to win the U.S. Open, Wimbledon, and Australian Open tennis tournaments. Ashe died in 1993 of complications from AIDS. Controversy surrounded the placement of the statue. Ashe's widow, Jeanne Moutoussamy Ashe, protested that the statue should not reside on a street were Confederate soldiers were honored. Many felt it would be an insult to Ashe, who was known for his stand against racial segregation.

Republican presidential hopeful Bob Dole declined an invitation from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) president Kweise Mfume to speak at its convention, citing scheduling conflicts. But Dole claimed "the very liberal Democrat" Mfume was "trying to set me up" by inviting him, "probably would not have been received warmly, and that in the future he would speak with audiences "I can relate to." The NAACP turned down the Dole camp's offer to have presumed vice-presidential nominee Jack Kemp stand in for him. Prominent Black leader and fellow Republican Colin Powell was disappointed with Dole's decision. "I think it would have been useful for him to present his views to the NAACP." Dole later said he regretted skipping the NAACP event.

Jazz trumpeter Percy Humphrey died in New Orleans, Louisiana, at age ninety. Humphrey was the grandson of Jim Humphrey, who taught many of the first generation of jazz musicians. The junior Humphrey, himself, began his musical career as a drummer, then changed to trumpet and became a member of the influential Eureka Brass band. In the 1950s he became the leader of this New Orleans group. In 1961, Humphrey began playing at the then recently opened Preservation Hall in New Orleans, and continued regular performances there until March 1995. In the 1970s he also performed with the New Orleans Joymakers. He toured with the famed Preservation Hall Jazz Band into the 1980s. Humphrey contributed much to the history of jazz. He excelled at group improvisations and was skilled at scatting and other Louis Armstrong-style solos.

Thelma Collins, a former Greenwood, Mississippi, schoolteacher, became the first Black American and the first woman to serve as mayor of Ita Bena, Mississippi.

"Let us never step back from compassion," stated General Colin Powell, as he addressed the crowds at the Republican National Convention in Houston, Texas. The popular Black Republican had been considered as a possible vice-presidential running mate with Bob Dole, but Powell wasn't interested. While his speech gathered loud cheers, there was some vocal discontent when he declared his support for abortion rights. Powell quickly answered the crowd by stating, "I was invited here by my party to share my views with you because we are a big enough party-and big enough people - to disagree on individual issues and still work together for our common goal: restoring the American Dream."
Other Blacks who spoke at the convention were House representatives J. C. Watts (Oklahoma) and Gary A. Franks (Connecticut) and anti-abortion activist Kay C. James, who led the roll call leading to Dole's nomination.

At the annual meeting of the National Association of Black Journalists in Nashville, Tennessee, Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan told members that Black journalists were "slaves" to white newspaper owners. "White folk did not hire you to really represent what Black people are really thinking, and you don't really tell what you think because you are too afraid," said Farrakhan. Many in the audience gave him standing ovations, though some objected to his view of Black journalists.

Republican presidential hopeful Bob Dole spoke at the National Association of Black Journalists convention in Nashville, Tennessee. This came only weeks after many Blacks criticized him for not accepting an invitation to speak at the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) convention. Dole told journalists, however, he regretted turning down the invitation and felt the Republican party had "missed opportunities" to win support of Black Americans. He cited 1964 presidential nominee Barry Goldwater's opposition to the 1964 Civil Rights Act - as well as his own, as a House representative as an example.

For the third consecutive year, Tiger Woods won the U.S. Amateur Golf Tournament–becoming the first player to do so. Two days later, Woods announced that he would turn professional and consequently signed a deal with Nike, Inc., to endorse its products. The deal was reportedly worth $40 million, the largest endorsement ever made for a rookie golfer. Woods became the first Black to win the U.S. Amateur title in 1994.

Civil rights leader Jesse Jackson told attendees at the Democratic National Convention that Republicans were putting forward an image of a "big tent." "On the cover was General (Colin Powell and (Republican vice-presidential nominee) Jack Kemp. But clearly you cannot judge a book by its cover. For inside, the book was written by (speaker of the House) Newt Gingrich and (Moral Majority leader) Ralph Reed and (former presidential hopeful) Pat Buchanan." In endorsing President Bill Clinton for a second term, Jackson called on Democrats to accept diversity as "the measure of the party's strength ... (and) character. We must find the bridge to keep our tent intact."

Sixteen police officers in Indianapolis, Indiana, allegedly went on a drunken spree in which they used racial slurs and beat and arrested both a Black motorist and a white man who tried to help the Black victim. The incident attracted national attention, as, perhaps, another example of police assault on unoffending Black Americans. City authorities launched an investigation.

Greg Morris, who played Barney Collier on the popular 1960s television show Mission Impossible, died of cancer. The Cleveland native was one of the first Black actors to star in a TV show.

U.S. District Court judge Louis Pollak ruled that the city of Philadelphia's former fire and police commissioners would not have to pay damages to relatives or survivors of a 1985 fire involving members of the radical African American group MOVE. Two months earlier, a jury had ordered former fire commissioner William Richmond and former police commissioner George Sambor to pay one dollar per week for the next eleven years to Ramona Africa, the only adult member of MOVE to survive the fire, and to relatives of other MOVE members. The jury had also awarded the plantiffs $1.5 million in punitive damages, to be paid by the city of Philadelphia.
Although the punitive damages against the city were not affected by Pollak's decision, Africa reacted angrily to his ruling. She said it "literally let [the former commissioners] get away with murder."

Republican vice-presidential hopeful Jack Kemp addressed the Challengers Boys and Girls Club in south central Los Angeles - the scene of racial riots in 1992. In an appeal for the Black vote, Kemp promised that the Republican agenda would include scholarships for inner-city kids.

Arthur Flemming, former chairman of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, died in Washington, D.C., at age ninety-one. After eight years on the job, he was fired by President Ronald Reagan in 1982 after the CRC issued a report that was harshly critical of the Reagan administration's record on desegregation and civil rights. In 1994, President Bill Clinton awarded Flemming the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor. At the time of his death, Clinton remarked: "He transcended party, generation, and race in search of consensus on some of the great issues of our day."

Moneta J. Sleet, the first Black American to win a Pulitzer Prize in photography, died in New York City, at age seventy. Sleet, a photographer for Ebony magazine, won the Pulitzer for feature photography in 1969 for his image of Coretta Scott King consoling her daughter, Bernice, in her lap, at the funeral of slain civil rights leader, Martin Luther King, Jr., in 1968.
Sleet studied photography at Kentucky State College. After serving in World War II, he helped establish the first photography department at Maryland State College. Then, he did further study at the School of Modern Photography in New York and earned a master's degree in journalism at New York University. Following his studies, Sleet worked as a sportswriter for the Amsterdam News and as a photographer for Our World magazine, before joining Ebony, where he still worked at the time of his death. Sleet's work has been exhibited at the Studio Museum in Harlem, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and several other facilities. His awards included a Citation for Excellence from the Overseas Press Club of America as well as the National Urban League. Sleet's notoriety stemmed principally from his photographic documentation of the marches, meetings, and rallies of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. His images were described as "powerful and sensitive," which "showed genuine respect for his subjects."

Civil rights activist Cordell Hull Reagon was found murdered in Berkeley, California. Hull, age fifty-three, joined the Civil Rights Movement at the age of sixteen in 1959. He became known as "the baby of the movement." Reagon was arrested more than thirty times throughout the South as he fought against racial segregation and discrimination. He also led training workshops in nonviolence for hundreds of volunteers who went into the South to work for civil and voting rights for Blacks. In 1962, Reagon became one of the founders of the Freedom Singers, a group of men and women who sang freedom songs in a gospel-style to rouse support for the Civil Rights Movement. The quartet included Bernice Johnson of Albany, Georgia, who became Reagon's first wife. In the 1970s, he was active in protests against the Vietnam war, nuclear weapons, and environmental destruction. Before moving to Berkeley in 1988, he was an organizer for the Social Service Employees union and a member of Mobilization for Youth in New York. While in Berkeley, he founded the Urban Habitat and the Urban Justice organization to foster the protection of the environment.

President Bill Clinton nominated two Black Americans for positions in his Cabinet. Alexis Herman, director of the White House Office of Public Liaison, was selected as secretary of labor, and Rodney Slater, the federal highway administrator, was nominated for secretary of transportation. Herman, a native of Mobile, Alabama, was a graduate of Xavier University in Louisiana. In 1977, she became the director of the Women's Bureau of the Labor Department. Since 1993, in her White House liaison post, she had been the president's chief emissary to the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) and other Black groups. She also aided the president in the publicity campaign that he waged to win congressional approval of the 1994 crime bill. Slater, who was born in Marianna, Arkansas, graduated from Eastern Michigan University. He was previously an assistant attorney general in Arkansas, executive assistant to then-Governor Clinton; and a member, then chairman, of the Arkansas State Highway Commission. He was once named one of the Ten Outstanding Young Arkansans.

Hugh M. Brown, President and Chief Executive Officer of BAMSI, Inc., an engineering and technical services firm in Titusville, Florida, was re-elected chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. Brown had formerly served as deputy chairman of the bank before being elected chairman in January 1996.

On October 25, 1997, an estimated 750,000 Black American women gathered together to march on the Ben Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia to focus on their trials, circumstances, and successes. The day-long march and program of prayer, music, and inspirational speeches, which began at the Liberty Bell and ended on the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, sought to bring together Black American women to address the pressing issues of interest to them and to Black families. Some of these issues included the economic deterioration of Black American communities, the importance of nurturing young children in a positive environment, finding a collective voice in politics and the civil rights movement, and strengthening Black families. The march was designed to inspire Black American women across the nation to work for their own improvement as well as that of their communities.

The march, which was organized by Phile Chionesu and Asia Coney, two Philadelphia grass roots activists, was a huge success despite short notice and few preparations. The organizers bypassed traditional leaders such as Rev. Jesse Jackson and organizations such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the Nation of Islam which had been influential in organizing the Million Man March in 1995. Using a network of women’s organizations and relying on fliers, leaflets, Black-run media, the Internet and “word-of-mouth” to spread the word, the organizers brought women from across the country to Philadelphia via plane, train, bus, and other means of transportation. An estimated 125,000 women arrived from Chicago and New York.

Although the march was portrayed as a gathering of Black women, other groups were represented as well. Their common goal was the rebuilding of Black communities. Chionesu and Coney hoped the march would counteract negative images of African American women in popular culture and the media.

Unlike the Million Man March two years earlier, the Million Woman March did not rely on big names or the celebrities of the civil rights movement to fuel attendance. Nonetheless several influential Black women attended and spoke including Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, former wife of South African President Nelson Mandela, and California Congresswoman Maxine Waters.

Hurricane Katrina began as a Category 1 hurricane in Florida, before striking the Gulf Coast on August 29, 2005. By the time Katrina had run its course, more than 1,700 people were killed and hundreds of thousands of others displaced. Causing billions of dollars of damage, Hurricane Katrina ranks as one of the costliest storms in American history. The damage took place in Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama.

On Monday, August 29, Katrina made landfall in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana as a Category 3 hurricane backed by 145-mile-an-hour winds. From there, Katrina pounded New Orleans, as water poured over the levees and eventually they were breached. By the afternoon, parts of New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward were inundated by floodwaters of up to 12 feet, rising to the rooftops. By Wednesday, August 31, the flood waters had crested with parts of the city under as much as 20 feet of water.

Thousands of New Orleans residents remained stranded in their houses and on rooftops waiting for help. Others made their way to the Superdome and the Convention Center, both of which became the main evacuee centers, along with the Interstate-10 expressway and the Louis Armstrong International Airport.

Amidst the disorder and panic, rescuers worked to save those who were still trapped. While thousands of evacuees started dispersing from New Orleans and heading to other Southern cities and beyond, the pandemonium in New Orleans lasted for days. Reports of looting, rape, and suicide – many of the stories unverified – filled the airwaves. Eventually, order was restored, as the National Guard and other government agencies stepped in to coordinate the relief efforts.

Overwhelmed by the disaster, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was slow to respond, drawing outrage from all sides. A congressional investigation completed in 2006 concluded that although the National Weather Service and the National Hurricane Center provided highly detailed forecasts and adequate warning, all levels of government warranted criticism, in terms of their preparation for and response to Hurricane Katrina. While massive damage had impaired communications systems, agencies like FEMA, the Department of Homeland Security, the National Guard, and the Coast Guard were all criticized for their lack of preparation and coordination. The New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) was singled out as being remarkably ineffective. Investigations and trials are ongoing after several members of the NOPD were accused of killing unarmed, innocent civilians in the aftermath of Katrina. U.S. president George W. Bush also received criticism for his handling of the disaster with many claiming that his response was slow and minimal, given the level of tragedy.

The situation in New Orleans overshadowed the damage caused by Hurricane Katrina in other areas of the Gulf Coast. In Mississippi, thousands of homes were destroyed by high winds and tornadoes. As many as 66,000 Mississippians were displaced from their homes. Although Alabama avoided a direct hit from Katrina, more than 1,000 residents saw their homes destroyed.

The rebuilding process in New Orleans and other Gulf Coast cities has been slow. Some former residents have returned, while others have chosen not to return or have been unable to return. While parts of New Orleans have been rebuilt, some neighborhoods, such as the Lower Ninth Ward, remain largely untouched since the tragedy.

In November 2009, a federal judge ruled that poor maintenance of a major navigation channel by the Army Corps of Engineers led to some of the worst flooding after the hurricane. Although the ruling represented the first time that a specific government agency had been held liable for Hurricane Katrina flooding, the judge limited the liability to damage around the Lower Ninth Ward and St. Bernard Parish, east of the city.

In December 2006, a seemingly ordinary request by a Black student at Jena High School, Louisiana, to sit beneath a particular tree on campus sparked a chain of events that exposed deep racial fault lines within the community. The discovery of nooses hanging from the same tree – a potent symbol of racial hatred – sent shockwaves through the Black student population, stirring fear and outrage. This incident became the pivotal point in a series of events that thrust six Black Jena High School students – Mychal Bell, Robert Bailey Jr., Carwin Jones, Theo Shaw, Bryant Purvis, and Jesse Ray Beard – into the national spotlight.

Following an altercation with a White student, the Jena Six were arrested and slapped with attempted murder charges, a severity many viewed as grossly disproportionate to the situation. This incident ignited a national firestorm, drawing attention to the pervasive issue of racial bias within the justice system. The all-White juries selected for each case fueled public outcry, with prominent civil rights leaders like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton joining forces with celebrities to rally behind the Jena Six. Media outlets like the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, and CNN amplified the voices of protestors, highlighting the stark contrast between the harsh treatment faced by the Jena Six and the typically lenient punishments given to White students involved in similar altercations.

The sustained pressure and national outcry ultimately led to a reduction of charges against the Jena Six. Mychal Bell, the youngest, received a sentence in a juvenile facility. The others entered no contest pleas to lesser charges, resulting in fines, probation, and restitution payments. While the legal case reached a resolution, the Jena Six case served as a potent symbol of the ongoing struggle for racial equality. Their experiences shed light on the "school-to-prison pipeline," a system that disproportionately pushes Black students out of classrooms and into the criminal justice system. The case also inspired one of the Jena Six, Theo Shaw, to pursue a career in law, likely fueled by a desire to make a difference within the very system that had failed him.

The shooting on New Year’s of Oscar Grant, a 22-year-old Black man from Oakland, California, sparked major protests against excessive deadly force used by the police. These protests began less than a week after Grant had been shot and killed by Johannes Mehserle, a Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) police officer. The incident had been caught on camera by four different observers, and had gone viral on YouTube. As a result, the Black community in Oakland reacted swiftly. While demonstrations began peacefully, tensions would build on both sides with the police eventually resorting to tear gas and non-lethal weapons.

In response to the Grant shooting, Civil Rights activiststhroughout the city organized to protest the unfair treatment of poor Black Americans by the transit police. On January 7, 2009 a group of protesters gathered at Fruitvale Station, the site of Grant’s shooting. After making their way through the Oakland business district, the group began to protest in front of the BART police headquarters. Along the way about 200 protesters broke away from the planned route and began to vandalize businesses. Even many of those who supported the peaceful demonstrations decried the overall destruction by these vandals. Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums, himself a longtime black Bay Area politician and Civil Rights advocate, denounced the actions of the vandals calling them to “leave in a spirit of peace.” Overall, the January protests led to over one hundred arrests.

Months later on July 8, 2009, Officer Mehserle, who had resigned from the BART police, was charged with manslaughter. This charge caused outrage because many believed he should have been charged with second-degree murder. As a result, more protests ensued. Many of these protests began peacefully during the day but violence broke out early in the evening. Groups of anarchists—who were not Black Oakland residents—looted businesses, set fires, and caused further public destruction. Oakland Police Chief Anthony Batts claimed that 3 out of 4 of the protesters did not live in Oakland. By the end of the night, many of the most unruly protesters were arrested.

A third wave of protests began when Mehserle was released in 2011, two years after the shootings. Many Oakland residents were angry over his early release. These protests, however, remained peaceful. There were no reports of unruliness or violent interactions with the police and subsequently no arrests.

The protests surrounding the Oscar Grant shooting generated a national uproar in response to shootings of unarmed Black American women and men and general police misconduct within the Black American community. While local civil rights groups had long protested police brutality, the Grant shooting and the subsequent protests became a major rallying point for what later became the Black Lives Matter movement.

No events can be added beyond this date. New information and discoveries can be uncovered over time regarding historical events. At this time, we are allowing a 10-year window prior to adding new events to the Black American History timeline.

A Greek merchant of Egypt wrote a guide to the Indian Ocean trade, the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, which included the earliest description of life along the East Africa Coast between the Horn and southern Tanzania.

Four hundred Black East Africans were enrolled in the army of Abu'l Abbas, ruler of Bagdad. They rose in revolt with a Black called "Lord of the Blacks" as their leader.