Happy Juneteenth I will celebrate by making a thread of little known black history events

Hiram Rhodes Revels (R-Mississippi) was the first black person to be elected to Congress in 1870. White southern Democrats attempted to block his swearing in as he wasn’t a citizen for 9 years. They failed & he took office.

Mound Bayou, Mississippi was the oldest all Black settlement. Founded in 1887 by freed slaves Isaiah T. Montgomery and Benjamin T. Green when they bought 840 acres of Mississippi swampland. It was designed to be a self-reliant, autonomous, all-black community.

The 6888th Battalion was the largest all Black female military unit in World War 2.

The Louisiana Separate Car Act called for equal, but separate train accommodations for black & white travelers. It was challenged in the Supreme Court by Homer Plessy, but he lost. This is where the “separate, but equal” doctrine spawned until 1954 when Brown v. Board ended it.

Susie King Taylor was the first Black Army nurse. She tended to an all Black army troop called the 33rd United States Colored Infantry Regiment during the Civil War. Despite her service, like many African-American nurses, she was never paid for her work.

Phyllis Wheatley was the first published African-American female poet. The publication of her Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral on September 1, 1773 brought her fame both in England and the American colonies. Figures such as George Washington praised her work.

Thomas L. Jennings became the first African American to hold a patent in 1821 when he patented the dry-cleaning process. With the proceeds of his invention he bought his wife and children’s freedom.

An extremely special one to me, Macon Bolling was the first black person in America to practice law after passing the Maine bar exam in 1844. He later went on to be the first black person hold a judicial position.

Lastly, and perhaps most relevant, would be June 19, 1865 when the State of Texas received word that the war had ended & all who were enslaved were now free. The official end to slavery in the US (almost 3 years after the Emancipation Proclamation).