This Week In Black History – May 15, 2025

May 15, 1820 – U.S. Congress declared foreign slave trade an act of piracy, punishable by death.

May 16, 1927 – William Harry Barnes became the first African American certified by any American surgical board.

May 17, 1954 – U.S. Supreme Court declared segregation in public schools unconstitutional in Brown v. Board of Education decision.

May 18, 1896 – In Plessy vs. Ferguson, Supreme Court upheld the doctrine of “separate but equal” education and public accommodations.

May 19, 1925 – Malcolm X was born Malcolm Little in Omaha, NB.

May 20, 1961 – U.S. Attorney General Robert Kennedy dispatched U.S. Marshals to Montgomery, AL, to restore order in the “Freedom Rider” disturbance.

May 21, 1833 – African Americans enrolled for the first time at Oberlin College in Ohio.