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In Washington DC, at the edge of the National Mall, at 7th Street and Maryland Avenue, S.W., there were slave markets called "Robey's Den."
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Chemist George Washington Carver used peanuts, soybeans, sweet potatoes, and pecans in his work at Tuskegee University.
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In 1948, President Harry S. Truman signed Executive Order 9981 to integrate the U.S. military.
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In 1870, Hiram Revels of Mississippi became the first African American senator. Blanche K. Bruce of Mississippi took the oath of office five years later. In 1967, a century later, Edward Brooke of Massachusetts followed. In 1993, Carol Moseley-Braun became the first African American female U.S. senator. In 2005, Senator Barack Obama of Illinois took the oath of office and became the fifth African American to serve and the third to be popularly elected.
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W. E. B. Du Bois' initials stand for William Edward Burghardt Du Bois. Having received a Ph.D. from Harvard in 1895, Du Bois focused his extraordinary intellectual energies on studying the question of race in America.
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In 1964, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act, declaring discrimination on race illegal.
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The United States Capitol was constructed using slave labor.
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While enslaved, Elizabeth Keckley (c. 1818-1907) developed a cutting and fitting women's clothing system. She bought her freedom with her earnings.
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In 1964, the Nobel committee awarded Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. the Nobel Peace Prize today in Oslo, Norway. He was the youngest person to receive the prize.
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In 1619, the first African Americans arrived at Jamestown, VA.
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Olympic gold-medal winner Wilma Rudolph had polio as a child.
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Frederick Douglass spoke with such dignity of bearing and brilliance as an orator that some questioned whether he had ever been a slave. Douglass wrote three autobiographies, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (1845), My Bondage, My Freedom (1855) and The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass (1881). After an extensive lecture tour in Britain, where supporters raised the funds to purchase his freedom, Douglass returned to the United States in 1847 and expanded his antislavery activism by launching the North Star newspaper.
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In 1965, Satchel Paige pitched three no-hitter innings at the age of 57.
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In 1776, blacks made up almost one quarter of the population of the American colonies.
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In early 1923, African-American inventor Garrett Augustus Morgan designed a cross-shaped traffic signal, for which he submitted a patent application on February 27 of that year. He also invented a gas mask.
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In 1967, Thurgood Marshall became the first African American to sit on the Supreme Court.
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In 1783, Massachusetts outlawed slavery within its borders.
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The "Black Edison," Granville T. Woods' inventions, including his automatic air brake, helped to make railway operations safer.
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In 1969, Marie Brown patented the first video home security system.
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In 1881, Booker T. Washington, who was born into slavery, established the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama.
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The National Museum of African American History and Culture was established on December 16, 2003, when President Bush signed into law legislation establishing the museum as part of the Smithsonian Institution.
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In 1970, the Congressional Black Caucus was established.
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In 1900, James Weldon Johnson and his brother, John Rosamond Johnson composed the song, Lift Every Voice and Sing.
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In 2005, the founding Council of the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture held its first meeting.
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In 1983, the legislation creating the holiday to honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was signed into law.
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In 1911, Nathaniel Alexander received a patent for a folding chair.
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In 1998, Dr. Patricia Bath, an ophthalmologist became the first African American woman doctor to receive a patent for a medical invention, a method for removing cataract lenses.
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The Smithsonian Board of Regents, the governing body of the Institution, voted in January 2006 to build the National Museum of African American History and Culture on a five-acre site on Constitution Avenue adjacent to the Washington monument.
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In 1993, Rita Dove became the first black woman Poet Laureate.
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In 1926, historian Carter Godwin Woodson established Negro History Week.
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Frederick Douglass was a Republican, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a Democrat, and at the end of his life, W.E.B. Du Bois was a Socialist.
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Billie Holiday had to wear make-up to darken her complexion when she performed.
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In 2002, Halle Berry was the first African American woman to receive the "Best Actress" Oscar award.
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In 1935, Porgy and Bess debuted on Broadway.
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In 1943, the first cadets graduated from the segregated flying school at Tuskegee Institute (later Tuskegee University).