We at Historianspeaks are starting a new feature where we highlight stories of interest that occuring in contemporary Black America. We will elaborate on some of these stories in the coming weeks. Click on the hyperlinks for more information about the story.
Willie Mays died at 94 on June 18, 2024. Mays was known as a five-tool player. He played center field for 23 seasons in the MLB. He began his career in the Nehro Leagues with the Birmingham Barons and spent the rest of his career in the MLB playing with the New York/San Francisco Giants and the New York Mets. His nickname was "the Say Hey Kid."
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
Reggie Jackson spoke out at the tribute to the Negro Leagues event commemoration at Rickwood Field on June 20th in Birmingham, Alabama. Jackson discussed in detail the treatment of Black players in the league and the discrimination he experienced in public accomodations. Jackson played for the Birmingham A's at the outset of his career. He went on to a 21 season career in the MLB playing for the Kansas City/Oakland Athletics, Baltimore Orioles, New York Yankees and California Angels. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1993.
We are commerating the 60th Annniversary of the murder of Civil Rights Workers Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner on June 21, 1964 (60 years ago). James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner were Civil Rights Activists associated with the Congress of Federated Organizations (COFO) and Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). They were active in the Mississippi Freedom Summer in June 1964. The three men were abducted and murdered and their bodies were found near Philadelphia, Mississippi.
The first event Juneteenth Honor flight celebrated and transported 26 Black veterans from Atlanta, Georgia to Washington, DC war memorials.
Octavia Butler, the prolific science fiction and Afro-futuristic writer, was born on June 22, 1947. Best known for her novels, Kindred (1979), Wild Seed (1980) and Clay's Ark (1984), Dawn, Adulthood Rites (1988) and Imago (1989), Parable of the Talents (1998), Bloodchild and Other Stories (1995) and several others. Butler won the Hugo and Nebula Awards and became the first science fiction writer to win a MacArthur Genius Grant.