Black - African American History Facts

Atlanta University was founded on this date in 1865.

Tuskegee Institute opened with a student body of 30 on this date in 1881. Booker T. Washington was the school's lone teacher.

E. R. Robinson, inventor, patented the Electric Railway trolley on this date in 1893. Patent # 505,370.

J. Herman Banning and his mechanic, Thomas Allen, became the first Blacks to initiate a successful flight across the United States on this date in 1932. They flew from Los Angeles to New York, taking 20 days to complete the 22-hour flight. They arrived October 9.

The first International Conference of Black Writers and Artists convened in Paris on this date in 1956. This four-day conference was held at the Sorbonne, a famous institution of learning.

The Iota Phi Theta fraternity was founded at Morgan State University on this date in 1963.

Gordon Alexander Buchanan Parks, filmmaker and the first Black to direct a major motion picture studio production, had his film, The Learning Tree, registered by the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress on this date in 1989.