#OnThisDay in 1960, renowned singer and actor Harry Belafonte became the 1st Black American to win an Emmy. He had already won a Tony Award in 1954. He decided to forego making a fortune, saying, “I chose to be a civil rights warrior instead.” mississippitoday.org/2025/06/20/1...

#OnThisDay in 1865 — two months after the Civil War ended — all those enslaved in Texas learned they were free. The news set off celebrations. “Juneteenth” became a state holiday in Texas in 1980. In 2021, Juneteenth became a national holiday. mississippitoday.org/2025/06/19/1...

#OnThisDay in 1949, Ada Sipuel Fisher became the 1st Black woman to attend all-white law school in the South when she entered the University of Oklahoma Law School. Rejected initially because of race, the Supreme Court ordered her admission. mississippitoday.org/2025/06/18/1...

#OnThisDay in 1775, Peter Salem, freed from slavery, became a hero in the American Revolution. British Maj. John Pitcairn demanded that Americans surrender. Americans refused, and Salem reportedly fired the fatal shot. mississippitoday.org/2025/06/17/1...

#OnThisDay in 1966, SNCC leader Stokely Carmichael called for “Black Power” at a rally in Greenwood, Mississippi. “What we got to start saying now is Black Power! We want Black Power!” The slogan spawned a movement that spread across the nation. mississippitoday.org/2025/06/16/1...

#OnThisDay in 1953, Martha White refused to give up her seat on a city bus in Baton Rouge. Soon, another Black woman joined her. Their stand led to a boycott. After the boycott's success, #MLK visited. Two years later, the Montgomery Bus Boycott was born. mississippitoday.org/2025/06/15/1...

#OnThisDay in 1965, Jackson police arrested 1,000+ civil rights marchers. During protest, 5-year-old Anthony Quin waved a U.S. flag outside Governor’s Mansion. A state trooper trying to wrestle the flag made headlines, & court freed marchers. mississippitoday.org/2025/06/14/1...

#OnThisDay in 1967, #LBJ nominated the 1st Black American, then-Solicitor General Thurgood Marshall, to the Supreme Court, saying it was “the right thing to do, the right time to do it, the right man and the right place.” mississippitoday.org/2025/06/13/1...

Read about the investigation of the murder of Medgar Evers (& other white supremacist, Klan murders) in “Race Against Time” by investigative journalist @jmitchellnews.bsky.social The book is recommended for grades 7+ to #TeachOutsideTextbook ⬇️ www.zinnedproject.org/materials/ra...

#OnThisDay in 1963, NAACP leader Medgar Evers was killed outside his home in Jackson, Mississippi. In 1994, the assassin was finally sent to prison, where he died years later. mississippitoday.org/2025/06/12/1...

#OnThisDay in 1963, #JFK delivered his first civil rights speech. Hours earlier, Alabama Gov. George Wallace tried to block the enrollment of 2 Black students at the University of Alabama. mississippitoday.org/2025/06/11/1...

#OnThisDay in 1966, Klansmen killed Ben Chester White in hopes of luring #MLK to Natchez, Mississippi, to assassinate him. They were caught & went punished until 2003, when the last surviving Klansman was convicted and sentenced to life in prison, where he died. mississippitoday.org/2025/06/10/1...

#OnThisDay in 1963, Fannie Lou Hamer and other activists were arrested when they rode in the “white” section of a Greyhound bus & sat at the “whites-only” lunch counter in Winona, Mississippi. Inside the jail, they were beaten and tortured. mississippitoday.org/2025/06/09/1...

#onthisday in 1953, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that segregation in restaurants in Washington, D.C., was unlawful. Civil rights activist Mary Church Terrell, who led the fight, returned to the restaurant that had turned her away and ate with her friends. mississippitoday.org/2025/06/08/1...

#OnThisDay in 1875, Peter Crosby, a Black sheriff, was shot in the head in the wake of the Vicksburg Massacre in which armed White Leagues overthrew the Reconstruction government in Mississippi, killing as many as 300 Black Americans they regarded as a threat. mississippitoday.org/2023/06/07/1...

#OnThisDay in 1966, James Meredith was shot a day after he began his 220-mile March Against Fear across Mississippi. Meredith survived & the sniper was arrested. #MLK & other civil rights leaders helped finish the march to encourage Black Mississippians to vote. mississippitoday.org/2025/06/06/1...

#OnThisDay in 1963, Cleve McDowell became 1st Black student at Ole Miss law school, rooming w/ James Meredith. But university officials expelled him after they caught him with a pistol for self-protection. McDowell became field secretary for Mississippi NAACP. mississippitoday.org/2025/06/05/1...

Tameshia Shelton will finally get what she said she’s been praying for — another day in court to try to prove her innocence. The Mississippi Supreme Court declined to disturb the December decision by the state Court of Appeals ordering a new trial for Shelton. mississippitoday.org/2026/06/04/s...

James Meredith believes his 1966 March Against Fear was more important than becoming the 1st Black student to enroll at the University of Mississippi. A program commemorating that event is set for 2 today at Smith Robertson Museum and Cultural Center in Jackson. mississippitoday.org/2026/06/03/j...

#OnThisDay in 1899, the Rev. D.A. Graham of Indianapolis decried 1,200+ lynchings of Black Americans in just 7 years. The newly formed Afro-American Council had held a National Day of Fasting and Prayer to protest the lynchings of Black Americans: mississippitoday.org/2025/06/04/1...

#OnThisDay in 1967, Aretha Franklin, “Queen of Soul,” hit #1 on Billboard singles chart with her cover of Otis Redding’s song, “Respect.” She changed the lyrics and transformed the tune, which became a powerful anthem for both women and the civil rights movement. mississippitoday.org/2025/06/03/1...

#OnThisDay in 1863, Harriet Tubman, along with Black soldiers, took part in a daring Union raid in SC, rescuing 700+ Black Americans from slavery. She made 18 more trips back to the South for additional rescues. mississippitoday.org/2025/06/02/1...

Tameshia Shelton, a Mississippi mother of four, remains in prison for life for murder — a conviction contradicted by much of the evidence, including an apparent suicide note never presented to the jury, a four-year investigation by Mississippi Today has found. mississippitoday.org/2026/06/01/o...

#OnThisDay in 1964, the Supreme Court overturned Alabama’s ban on NAACP. An Alabama judge fined the organization for refusing to turn over membership list. NAACP appealed, saying this could invite attacks on members. mississippitoday.org/2025/06/01/1...

#OnThisDay in 1921, Tulsa race massacre began. A white mob set fire to 12 Black churches, 5 hotels, 31 restaurants, 4 drug stores, 8 doctor’s offices, 24+ grocery stores & the Black public library. That rampage left as many as 300 dead & 10,000 homeless. mississippitoday.org/2023/05/31/1...

#OnThisDay in 1965, Vivian Malone became the first Black graduate of the University of Alabama in its 134 years of existence. Gov. George Wallace had blocked her entry two years earlier. She endured, despite curses and bomb threats. mississippitoday.org/2025/05/30/1...

#OnThisDay in 1980, civil rights leader Vernon Jordan survived an assassination attempt in Fort Wayne, Indiana, by racist serial killer Joseph Paul Franklin, who killed at least 22 people and was executed in 2013 in Missouri. mississippitoday.org/2025/05/29/1...

#OnThisDay in 1963, the nation’s most violent reaction to a sit-in protest took place when a mob attacked Black and white activists at a Woolworth’s lunch counter in Jackson, Mississippi. mississippitoday.org/2025/05/28/1...

#OnThisDay in 1958, Ernest Green became 1st Black American to graduate from Central High School in Little Rock. 40 years later, school became part of the National Park Service & Little Rock 9 received the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian honor. mississippitoday.org/2025/05/27/1...

#OnThisDay in 1956, a bus boycott began in Tallahassee FL after Florida A&M students Wilhelmina Jakes and Carrie Patterson refused to give up their seats to white passengers. A judge later ruled segregation laws unconstitutional, and segregation ended. mississippitoday.org/2025/05/26/1...

#OnThisDay in 1774, Lancaster Hill & others enslaved in the Massachusetts Bay declared they were born free & “never forfeited this Blessing.” State's justices concluded that slavery was inconsistent with constitution, making it the first state to abolish slavery. mississippitoday.org/2025/05/25/1...

#OnThisDay in 1961, 27 Freedom Riders, headed for New Orleans, were arrested as soon as they arrived in the bus station in Jackson, Mississippi. Many were sent to Parchman prison. Within a few months, police arrested more than 400 Freedom Riders. mississippitoday.org/2025/05/24/1...

#OTD in 1961, days after a violent attack by a white mob, civil rights leaders James Farmer, John Lewis, Ralph Abernathy & #MLK announced that the Freedom Rides would continue. Lewis was wearing bandages from the beating he received in Montgomery. mississippitoday.org/2025/05/23/1...

#OTD in 2002, an Alabama jury convicted Bobby Cherry of taking part in KKK’s 1963 bombing of Birmingham church that killed four girls. Cherry received four life sentences — one for each slaying. In 2004, he died in prison. mississippitoday.org/2025/05/22/2...

#OTD 1892, crusading journalist Ida B. Wells exposed the lynchings of Black men. Upset by her words, a white mob destroyed her presses & threatened to kill her. She fled to Chicago & continued to expose lynchings, calling for legislation to make lynching a crime. mississippitoday.org/2025/05/21/1...

#OTD in 1961, a white mob of more than 300, including Klansmen, attacked Freedom Riders at the Greyhound Bus Station in Montgomery, including future Congressman John Lewis. The mob beat James Zwerg so badly that his suit was soaked in blood. mississippitoday.org/2025/05/20/1...

Mississippi College School of Law has given an honorary law degree to Medgar Evers, who was barred from enrolling at the University of Mississippi law school in 1954 and was assassinated in Jackson nine years later. Reena Evers-Everette said she is overwhelmed by this award for her father.

#OTD in 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the “separate but equal” doctrine in Plessy v. Ferguson was unconstitutional. The historic decision brought an end to federal tolerance of racial segregation. mississippitoday.org/2025/05/17/o...

#OnThisDay in 1950, 20 Black families from SC filed a lawsuit attacking “separate but equal” doctrine. Those who stood up were fired from jobs, their homes & churches burned to the ground. In 2003, the families received Congressional Gold Medals. mississippitoday.org/2025/05/16/1...

#OnThisDay in 1970, Mississippi law enforcement officers opened fire at Jackson State University, killing 2 Black students, Phillip Lafayette Gibbs & James Earl Green. The killings took place 11 days after the slayings of 4 students at Kent State University. mississippitoday.org/2025/05/15/1...

#OnThisDay in 1961, a mob of white men led by a Klansman bombed a bus full of Freedom Riders in Anniston AL & then beat them with baseball bats and iron pipes. No one was ever prosecuted. mississippitoday.org/2025/05/14/1...

#OnThisDay in 1862, Robert Smalls pretended to be a Confederate officer steering a Confederate ship north. He had actually commandeered the ship, helping free 18 people from slavery, including his wife, Hannah. mississippitoday.org/2025/05/13/1...

#OnThisDay in 1967, Benjamin Brown, a former civil rights organizer, was shot in the back in Jackson. Eyewitnesses pointed at Mississippi Highway Patrolman Lloyd Jones, who reportedly admitted his involvement in the killing. He was never charged. mississippitoday.org/2025/05/12/1...

#OnThisDay in 1968, the Poor People’s Campaign arrived in the nation's capital and erected “Resurrection City” to honor #MLK. He had conceived the campaign before his assassination.(Photo by Bob Fitch) mississippitoday.org/2025/05/11/1...

#OnThisDay in 2007, former AL trooper James Bonard Fowler was indicted for the 1965 killing of Jimmie Lee Jackson, whose death inspired the Selma march. In 2010, Fowler pleaded guilty to 2nd-degree manslaughter in Jackson’s death and served 6 months in prison. mississippitoday.org/2025/05/10/2...

#OnThisDay in 1969, the Black Psychiatrists of America interrupted APA trustees to express concerns. Their prez, Charles Pierce, was especially concerned about TV. He became a senior adviser for “Sesame Street,” the most successful children's show of all time. mississippitoday.org/2025/05/08/1...

#OnThisDay in 1955, the Rev. George Lee was shot to death in Belzoni, Mississippi, after helping more than 90 other Black Mississippians register to vote. More than 1,000 attended his funeral, and his wife insisted on an open casket to show what happened. mississippitoday.org/2025/05/07/o...

Couldn't be more pleased with the work that our investigative team at Mississippi Today has done — work now honored by IRE: "The characters seem like they’re from Central Casting & the stories read as if they belong in an Elmore Leonard novel.” www.ire.org/2026/05/05/a...

#OnThisDay in 1983, a federal judge sentenced Raymond Bledsoe to life for beating Black jazz saxophonist Steven Harvey to death in a Kansas City park because of his race. He reportedly bragged to his girlfriend about killing a “n—–” and getting away with it. mississippitoday.org/2025/05/06/1...

#OnThisDay in 1917, Eugene Jacques Bullard became 1st Black American combat pilot, fighting for the French Aéronautique Militaire in WWI. He became one of France’s most decorated war heroes, earning the French Legion of Honor. mississippitoday.org/2025/05/05/1...