black history

Marcus Garvey was born on August 17, 1887, in Saint Ann’s Bay, Jamaica. In 1914, he founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) with the goal of uniting all of African diaspora to “establish a country and absolute government of their own.”

Voting Rights Act Of 1965, August 1965 In August 1965, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law with the goal of overcoming the legal barriers at the state and local levels that prevents African Americans from exercising their right to vote under the 15th Amendment in the Constitution of the U.S. The […]

As we now celebrate Black History Month, here is a reflection of a hometown establishment that was celebratory of African American culture 365 days a year. In 1986, then married couple Gerald Chaka, a member of the black cultural nationalist US Organization & Terry Chaka, a Rochester native and visual artist, opened Rochester, New York’s first […]

Claudette Colvin was born on September 5, 1939, in Montgomery, Alabama. Months before Rosa Parks, in 1955, at the young at of 15 years old, Claudette Colvin stood up against segregation when a bus driver told her to give up her seat to a white passenger. In an interview Colvin said that she felt compelled […]

Nat Turner was born into slavery on October 2, 1800 in Southhampton County, Virginia. He is known for leading the only effective slave rebellion in U.S back in the summer of 1831. In early 1831, Nat Turner interpreted a solar eclipse as a sign from God that the time for a revolution was near.

The Great Western Staircase is located in the New York State Capitol Building in Albany, NY, and portrays busts of famous New York State historical figures and significant scenes in American history. Among the 77 busts carved, some of the names include, Susan B. Anthony, Christopher Columbus, Benjamin Franklin, and, most importantly, Frederick Douglass.

Today we honor one of black history’s greatest and most underrated, Perry Young, the first African American pilot to fly for a regularly scheduled commercial airline in the United States. It’s August 14, 1939. The second World War has begun, Marvin Gaye had just been born a few months prior, and no one knew who […]

Congratulations Mareena Robinson Snowden!! #keepshining Mareena Robinson Snowden became the first black woman to earn a P.h.D in nuclear engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology! 

Thomas Boyde Jr. was the first Black architect in Rochester, NY.

The inventor of refrigeration equipment used to transport food and blood.