Happy New Year!
As we enter both a new month and year, it’s imperative that we continue to brush up on those who paved the way. From birthdays to inventions, these pioneers made it possible for us to accomplish amazing things each year and, with the strength of our ancestors, 2023 will be no different! Here’s a list of important things that happened in January that you never learned, courtesy of BlackFacts.com:
January 1, 1831 – William Lloyd Garrison publishes first issue of The Liberator, an abolitionist journal that was considered the most widely circulated anti-slavery newspaper during the antebellum period and throughout the Civil War
January 13, 1850 – Charlotte E. Ray, first Black woman to practice law in the U.S., is born
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January 18, 1856 – Pioneering surgeon Dr. Daniel Hale Williams is born
January 7, 1890 – Inventor WB Purvis receives patent for the fountain pen
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January 7, 1891 – Zora Neale Hurston is born
January 26, 1892 – Bessie Coleman is born
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January 4, 1911 – Charlotte E. Ray passes away
January 8, 1912 – African National Congress is founded
January 19, 1918 – Entrepreneur John H. Johnson is born
January 13, 1919 – Jackie Robinson is born
January 10, 1924 – Drummer Max Roach is born
January 17, 1927 – Eartha Kitt is born
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January 15, 1929 – Civil rights icon Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is born
January 5, 1931 – Dance legend Alvin Ailey is born
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January 17, 1931 – Actor James Earl Jones is born
January 22, 1931 – Singer Sam Cooke is born
January 9, 1935 – Entrepreneur Earl G. Graves is born
January 4, 1937 – Opera singer Grace Bumbry is born
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January 25, 1939 – Singer Etta James is born
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January 14, 1940 – Civil rights activist Julian Bond is born
January 23, 1941 – Author Richard Wright wins NAACP Spingarn Medal for “Native Son”
January 17, 1942 – Boxer Muhammad Ali is born
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January 5, 1943 – Scientist George Washington Carver passes away
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January 26, 1944 – Activist Angela Davis is born
January 20, 1947 – Negro Leagues baseball player Josh Gibson is born
January 10, 1949 – Boxer and entrepreneur George Foreman is born
January 16, 1950 – Famed actress and dancer Debbie Allen is born
January 21, 1951 – Former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder is born
January 27, 1952 – Ralph Ellison’s “Invisible Man” wins the National Book Award
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January 29, 1954 – Oprah Winfrey is born
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January 27, 1961 – Opera singer Leontyne Price debuts at the Metropolitan Opera House
January 24, 1962 – Jackie Robinson inducted into Baseball Hall of Fame
January 31, 1963 – James Baldwin collection of essays, The Fire Next Time, is published
January 2, 1964 – Professional boxer Pernell Whitaker is born
January 12, 1965 – Playwright Lorraine Hansberry passes away
January 6, 1968 – Famed director John Singleton is born
January 11, 1971 – The Queen of Hip Hop Soul, Mary J. Blige, is born
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January 27, 1972 – Mahalia Jackson passes away
January 6, 1973 – Fashion designer and style icon Misa Hylton is born
January 18, 1975 – The Jeffersons premieres on television
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January 23, 1976 – Singer and activist Paul Robeson passes away
January 16, 1979 – Singer and actress Aaliyah Dana Haughton is born
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January 18, 1981 – Willie O’Ree makes history as the first Black professional hockey player
January 31, 1988 – Doug Williams, first Black quarterback to play in Super Bowl, named MVP in Super Bowl XXII
January 3, 1989 – The Arsenio Hall Show premieres
January 6, 1993 – Musician John Birks “Dizzy” Gillespie passes away
January 24, 1993 – Thurgood Marshall passes away
January 17, 1996 – Barbara Jordan, first African American elected to Texas Senate, passes away
January 1, 1997 – Kofi Annan becomes the first Black Secretary-General of the United Nations
January 13, 1999 – Michael Jordan announces his second retirement from NBA
January 6, 2003 – Civil rights activist Mamie Till Mobley passes away
January 1, 2005 – Shirley Chisholm passes away
January 19, 2006 – Singer/songwriter Wilson Pickett passes away
January 30, 2006 – Civil rights leader Coretta Scott King passes away
January 20, 2009 – Barack Obama makes history as the 44th President of the United States
January 13, 2010 – Teddy Pendergrass passes away
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January 20, 2012 – Singer Etta James passes away
January 9, 2014 – Poet Amiri Baraka passes away
January 3, 2015 – Edward Brooke III, the first African-American popularly elected to U.S. Senate, passes away
January 27, 2016 – Black History Month is observed in the Netherlands as Black Achievement Month
January 10, 2017 – President Barack Obama delivered his farewell address in Chicago, Illinois
This month in Black History: Important things that happened in January that you never learned. Photo Courtesy of Joe Holloway/Associated Press