There’s so much to learn!
November marks the official start of the holiday season as we prepare to end the year strong. There are so many Black historical moments that happened in this month; from speeches to birthdays and everything in between, we’ve got you covered. In our latest recap, here is a list of important things that happened in November that you may not have known, courtesy of BlackFacts.com.
November 9, 1731 – Scientist and inventor Benjamin Banneker is born
November 1, 1787 – The first free school, the African Free School, opens in New York City
November 18, 1787 – Abolitionist Sojourner Truth is born
November 11, 1831 – Nat Turner is executed after leading a slave revolt in Southampton County, Virginia
November 5, 1836 – Theo Wright makes history as first Black person to receive a Theology Degree in the U.S.
November 25, 1841 – 35 formerly enslaved survivors of the Amistad ship returned home to Africa
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November 3, 1868 – John W. Menard makes history as the first Black person elected to Congress
November 9, 1868 – Howard University Medical School opens
November 7, 1876 – Meharry Medical College founded at Central Tennessee College
November 3, 1882 – John Baxter Taylor, the 1st African-American Olympic Gold Medalist, is born
November 27, 1884 – The Philadelphia Tribune is founded by Christopher J. Perry
November 2, 1889 – Menelik II, the former emperor of Ethiopia, was crowned King of Kings of Abyssinia, Ethiopia.
November 30, 1889 – Black Inventor Samuel R. Scottron patents the curtain rod
November 10, 1891 – Granville T. Woods patents the electric railway
November 6, 1900 – James Weldon Johnson and J. Rosamond Johnson compose Lift Every Voice and Sing
November 9, 1901 – William Monroe Trotter founded The Guardian newspaper in Boston, Massachusetts
November 29, 1908 – Politician and civil rights activist Adam Clayton Powell Jr. is born
November 1, 1910 – W.E.B. Du Bois began publishing NAACP monthly magazine, Crisis.
November 20, 1910 – Activist Pauli Murray is born
November 17, 1911 – Omega Psi Phi Fraternity is founded on the campus of Howard University
November 30, 1912 – Iconic photographer Gordon Parks is born
November 13, 1913 – Dr. Daniel Hale Williams makes history as the first Black person elected to the American College of Surgeons
November 14, 1915 – Educator Booker T. Washington passes away
November 6, 1920 – W.E.B. Du Bois awarded the Spingarn Medal for his role in the founding and calling of the Pan African Congress
November 9, 1922 – Actress Dorothy Dandridge is born
November 12, 1922 – Sigma Gamma Rho, Sorority Inc. was founded by seven Black women in Indianapolis, Indiana
November 25, 1922 – Marcus Garvey gives a speech in New York City outlining “The Principles of The Universal Negro Improvement Association”
November 20, 1923 – Inventor Garrett T. Morgan patents the traffic signal
November 30, 1924 – Shirley Chisholm, first Black woman to run for President, is born
November 6, 1928 – W.A. Scott Jr. founded the Atlanta Daily World newspaper
November 28, 1929 – Motown founder Berry Gordy is born
November 2, 1930 – Haile Selassie crowned emperor of Ethiopia
November 16, 1930 – Nigerian author Chinua Achebe is born
November 8, 1933 – Actress Ester Rolle is born
November 7, 1934 – Arthur L. Mitchell defeats Oscar DePriest in Chicago to become the first Black Democratic congressman
November 26, 1939 – Singer Tina Turner is born
November 12, 1941 – Madame Lillian Evanti founds the National Negro Opera Company
November 1, 1942 – John H. Jonson publishes the 1st issue of Negro Digest
November 4, 1942 – Inventor Patricia Bath is born
November 22, 1942 – Guion “Guy” Bluford, the first African American in space, is born
November 27, 1942 – Jimi Hendrix is born
November 1, 1945 – John H. Johnson publishes the 1st issue of Ebony Magazine, which sells 25,000 copies
November 3, 1945 – Paul Robeson is presented with the Spingarn Medal for outstanding achievement in theater
November 1, 1946 – Dr. Charles S. Johnson makes history as the first Black president of Fisk University.
November 23, 1946 – Civil Rights Activist and Illinois Congressman Bobby Lee Rush is born
November 3, 1949 – Heavyweight champion boxer Larry Holmes is born
November 25, 1949 – Ralph J. Bunche awarded Spingarn Medal for his achievements as UN mediator of the Palestine conflict
November 25, 1949 – American tap dancer Bill “Bojangles” Robinson passes away
November 15, 1950 – Arthur Dorrington makes history as the first Black person to play organized hockey
November 1, 1951 – John H. Johnson founded Jet Magazine.
November 13, 1951 – Ballerina Janet Collins makes history as the first Black dancer to appear with the Metropolitan Opera Company
November 8, 1953 – Actress Alfre Woodard is born
November 2, 1954 – Charles C. Diggs Jr. makes history as Michigan’s first Black congressman.
November 14, 1954 – Condoleezza Rice, the first Black woman to serve as U.S. Secretary of State, is born
November 13, 1955 – Whoopi Goldberg is born
November 29, 1955 – Alice Childress makes history as first Black woman to receive an Obie Award for her play, Trouble in Mind
November 9, 1956 – Mattiwilda Dobbs makes history as the first Black person to sing a romantic lead at the Metropolitan Opera
November 14, 1956 – Valerie Jarrett, President Barack Obama’s senior advisor, is born
November 18, 1956 – NFL player Warren Moon is born
November 18, 1956 – Comedian Sinbad is born
November 27, 1957 – Dorothy Height is elected as president of the National Council of Negro Women
November 10, 1960 – Andrew T. Hatcher named associate press secretary by President John F. Kennedy, making history as the first Black person to hold the position
November 23, 1960 – Television broadcaster Robin Roberts is born
November 28, 1960 – Native Son author Richard Wright passes away
November 28, 1961 – Ernie Davis makes history as the first African-American to win the Heisman Trophy
November 16, 1963 – Olympic gold medalist Zina Garrison is born
November 3, 1964 – A.W. Willis Jr. makes history as first Black person elected to the General Assembly
November 3, 1964 – John Conyers Jr. is elected to the House of Representatives from the city of Detroit
November 17, 1964 – Susan Rice, the first Black woman to hold the title of National Security Advisor under the Barack Obama Administration, is born
November 27, 1964 – Actress Robin Givens is born
November 30, 1965 – Judith Jamison debuts with Alvin Ailey’s American Dance Theatre
November 8, 1966 – John H. Johnson awarded Spingarn Medal for his productive imagination in the fields of publishing
November 13, 1967 – Carl Stokes elected as mayor of Cleveland, Ohio, making history as the first Black elected Mayor of a major American city
November 16, 1967 – Actress Lisa Bonet is born
November 5, 1968 – Shirley Chisholm makes history as first Black woman to be elected to Congress
November 4, 1969 – Entertainment mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs is born
November 11, 1969 – George R. Carruthers patents the image converter for detecting electromagnetic radiation
November 17, 1972 – Barbara Jordan of Houston & Andrew Young of Atlanta make history as the first African-Americans from the south to be elected to Congress since the Reconstruction era
November 6, 1973 – Coleman A. Young is elected mayor of Detroit, becoming one of the first two Black mayors of major cities
November 2, 1974 – Rapper Nelly is born
November 5, 1974 – Walter E. Washington becomes first elected mayor of Washington, D.C.
November 9, 1975 – Singer Sisqo of Dru Hill is born
November 11, 1975 – Angola proclaims its independence
November 20, 1976 – Three-time Olympic gymnast Dominique Dawes is born
November 27, 1976 – Actor Jaleel White is born
November 12, 1977 – Ernest Nathan Morial makes history as the first elected Black Mayor of New Orleans, Louisiana
November 12, 1977 – Alex Haley awarded the Spingarn Medal for his powerful portrayal of African-Americans in his book Roots
November 18, 1978 – United Nations Ambassador Andrew Young awarded Spingarn Medal “for his major role in raising the consciousness of American citizens to the significance in world affairs of the massive African continent.”
November 15, 1979 – Princeton Professor Arthur Lewis receives Nobel Prize in economics, becoming the first Black person to receive the award in a category other than peace
November 15, 1979 – Rosa Parks awarded the NAACP’s Spingarn Medal for her role in the Montgomery Bus Boycott
November 17, 1980 – Washington, D.C.’s WHMM-TV makes history as the first African-American broadcasting television station
November 4, 1981 – Zina Garrison makes history as the first black player to win the junior singles tennis championship at Wimbledon
November 30, 1981 – Detroit Mayor Coleman Young receives NAACP’s Spingarn Medal
November 2, 1983 – President Ronald Reagan officially signs a law declaring the third Monday in January as Martin Luther King Jr Day
November 3, 1983 – Civil Rights leader Jesse Jackson announces his candidacy for President
November 7, 1989 – David Dinkins makes history as first Black mayor of New York City
November 22, 1989 – Colonel Frederick D. Gregory makes history as the first African-American to lead a space mission
November 6, 1990 – Sharon Pratt Kelly makes history as the first elected woman mayor of Washington, D.C.
November 23, 1990 – August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson wins the Pulitzer Prize for drama
November 7, 1991 – Jimi Hendrix inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
November 3, 1992 – Carol Mosely Braun makes history as the first African-American woman elected to the U.S. Senate
November 17, 1992 – Poet Audre Lorde passes away
November 12, 1994 – Olympic Gold Medalist Wilma Rudolph passes away at the age of 54
November 18, 1994 – Jazz musician Cab Calloway passes away
November 29, 1997 – Former Detroit Mayor Coleman Young passes away
November 17, 1998 – Actress Esther Rolle passes away
November 25, 1998 – Comedian Flip Wilson passes away
November 4, 2008 – President-elect Barack Obama defeats John McCain, delivering his historic victory speech to an audience of 250,000 at Grant Park in Chicago
November 5, 2021 – Jonathan Scott Holloway inaugurated as first Black president of Rutgers University
November 29, 2021 – Singer Rihanna named National Hero of Barbados
Important things that happened in November that you may not know. Emperor Haile Selassie I. Photo Courtesy of Swiss National Museum