Oliver W. Hill elected to Richmond, Virginia, City Council becoming the first African American to do so since Reconstruction.

On this day in 1989, Congressman John Conyers D-Michigan announced a call for a reparations study.

On this day in 1939, R&B singer Johnny Ace was born John Marshall Alexander, Jr. in Memphis, Tennessee. His major hits include “My Song” and “Pledging My Love.”

On June 9, 1865, Union troops under General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas, weeks ahead of his famous June 19 order that would later inspire Juneteenth. Though General Order No. 3 would not be officially issued until June 19, early troop movements and localized enforcement began as soon as soldiers landed. Some enslaved people were already hearing of their liberation and asserting their freedom even before the formal proclamation. This moment was part of a broader military strategy to enforce the Emancipation Proclamation across Confederate strongholds, laying groundwork for African Americans in Texas to transition from enslavement to uncertain freedom.

On June 9, 1870, Elijah P. Marrs, a Union Army veteran, educator, and minister, became the first African American man known to vote in Kentucky following the ratification of the 15th Amendment. Marrs had founded schools for Black youth and advocated fiercely for education and political rights during Reconstruction. His vote symbolized a monumental shift in Kentucky, a border state with strong Confederate sympathies, and highlighted the precariousness of Black enfranchisement in hostile regions. His act was both civic and revolutionary, demonstrating early Black political agency during a brief window of hope in post-Civil War America.

On June 9, 1948, 1st Lt. Charles L. Thomas was posthumously recognized for heroic action during World War II. A member of the 614th Tank Destroyer Battalion, he led an assault on Climbach, France, in 1944, even after being wounded. Though his valor occurred years earlier, systemic racism delayed his full recognition. Initially awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, advocacy and investigations later led to an upgrade to the Medal of Honor in 1997. June 9 marks a date of acknowledgment and a reminder of how many African American soldiers’ bravery went underrecognized due to racial discrimination.

On June 9, 1963, Fannie Lou Hamer joined the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) leadership retreat in Charleston, South Carolina. This training helped solidify her voice as one of the most potent in the fight for Black voting rights. Having been recently fired and beaten for attempting to register to vote, Hamer’s fierce courage and storytelling would soon galvanize the nation. Her rise from a sharecropper to national civil rights icon began to formalize at this meeting, where her peers recognized her unique ability to connect, inspire, and organize marginalized communities across the Deep South.

On June 9, 1967, Benjamin O. Davis Jr., leader of the famed Tuskegee Airmen, was promoted to brigadier general in the U.S. Air Force, becoming its first African American general. A West Point graduate who endured four years of racial isolation, Davis distinguished himself in World War II and later served in strategic roles shaping postwar air policy. His promotion marked a historic breakthrough in military hierarchy and offered inspiration to generations of African American service members. Davis’s legacy helped open doors for racial integration and leadership in the armed forces.

On June 9, 1972, whistleblower Peter Buxtun escalated his efforts to expose the Tuskegee Syphilis Study—a 40-year experiment where Black men with syphilis were deliberately left untreated to study the disease’s progression. Though Buxtun had voiced concerns earlier, it was around this date that pressure on the U.S. Public Health Service began to mount. Media coverage followed in July. The revelations horrified the public, exposing deep medical racism and leading to major changes in research ethics and informed consent. The date symbolizes a shift in accountability for institutional abuse of African Americans in science and medicine.

On June 9, 1980, civil rights advocates began a campaign to honor Paul Robeson—actor, singer, and activist—with a U.S. postage stamp. Robeson, a larger-than-life figure whose activism made him a target during the McCarthy era, had died in 1976. Supporters argued he deserved formal recognition for using his voice and fame to challenge global racism and champion workers’ rights. The proposal marked an attempt to restore Robeson’s reputation after decades of political blacklisting. The effort succeeded in 2004, but June 9 represents the beginning of his slow re-emergence into mainstream American honor.

On June 9, 1983, Harold Washington was officially nominated as the Democratic candidate for Mayor of Chicago after winning the primary in April. His candidacy had sparked a political and racial earthquake, with Black voter registration and turnout reaching historic highs. His confirmation by the party marked the first time a major U.S. city would see a Black mayor with full electoral backing. Washington’s tenure would later transform urban governance and inspire minority political movements nationwide. June 9 stands as a pivotal date in the political evolution of Black urban leadership.

On June 9, 1991, NASA publicly confirmed astronaut Mae Jemison’s assignment to the upcoming STS-47 space mission. Her selection positioned her to become the first African American woman in space. Jemison, a physician, engineer, and polyglot, shattered long-standing barriers in a field dominated by white men. Her announcement drew international attention and widespread celebration within African American communities, especially among young girls in STEM. Jemison’s 1992 spaceflight would cement her as a symbol of excellence and possibility, but June 9 marked the day she officially began preparing to make history.

On June 9, 2006, the Episcopal Church elected Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori as its first female presiding bishop and primate. While not African American herself, her election triggered major commentary on race and gender inclusivity in church leadership, especially as the church began prioritizing racial justice initiatives. Her appointment would later lead to expanded Black representation within diocesan leadership and a deeper reckoning with the church’s historical ties to slavery. June 9 thus stands as a watershed moment in reshaping American religious leadership and affirming intersectional progress.

On June 9, 1948, South Africa\’s newly elected National Party government officially implemented apartheid, a system of institutionalized racial segregation and white supremacy. Under apartheid, laws were passed to separate races in every aspect of life—housing, education, employment, and public services. The Population Registration Act and Group Areas Act became cornerstones of racial classification and forced removals. Black South Africans, who were the majority, were denied political representation and basic rights. Resistance grew through organizations like the African National Congress (ANC), culminating decades later in the dismantling of apartheid in the early 1990s. The June 9 date symbolizes the beginning of a long, painful era that had global repercussions and drew condemnation and sanctions from the international community.

On June 9, 1965, reports confirmed the December 1963 execution of Dominican revolutionary Manolo Tavárez Justo, leader of the 14th of June Movement—a leftist group resisting the Trujillo dictatorship and later the U.S.-backed military junta. Manolo advocated for justice, agrarian reform, and an end to foreign intervention in the Caribbean. Though he had surrendered under a promise of safe treatment, he was summarily executed. His death, confirmed in full detail two years later, outraged progressives across Latin America and the African diaspora. His wife, Minerva Mirabal, and her sisters—also assassinated—became international icons of resistance. Manolo’s legacy lives on in Dominican memory as a symbol of sacrifice for sovereignty and equality.

On June 9, 1976, South African student leaders held final organizing meetings for what would become the Soweto Uprising on June 16. The protest, sparked by the government\’s mandate to enforce Afrikaans as the language of instruction, was rooted in broader frustrations over the apartheid education system. Students from Soweto schools like Morris Isaacson and Naledi High meticulously planned routes and messages for the march. The date marks the last calm before the eruption of youth-led resistance that changed the trajectory of South African liberation efforts. By planning nonviolent action, these students demonstrated tactical brilliance and moral courage, and their actions would inspire global solidarity.

On June 9, 1945, Haitian scholar Jean Price-Mars was named president of Haiti’s Constituent Assembly, tasked with drafting a new constitution after the end of U.S. occupation and political instability. Price-Mars was a towering intellectual figure and one of the earliest proponents of Négritude in the Caribbean. His ideas about racial pride, African heritage, and cultural identity influenced generations of Black thinkers globally. As Assembly President, he pushed for educational and social reforms grounded in Afro-Haitian identity. His leadership marked a pivot toward national self-determination rooted in cultural sovereignty. Though political tensions curtailed some reforms, June 9 stands as a rare moment when scholarship and politics briefly converged to imagine a liberated Black republic.

On June 9, 1963, Pio Gama Pinto, a Kenyan journalist, activist, and freedom fighter of Goan-African heritage, returned to Kenya after years in exile. A committed anti-colonial strategist, Pinto had worked with global liberation movements, including India’s Congress and various African liberation fronts. Upon returning, he joined Kenya’s first independent government under Jomo Kenyatta and founded the Pan-Africanist newspaper PanAfrican Press. Pinto advocated socialist policies and solidarity with other oppressed Black and brown peoples worldwide. His return was celebrated by the anti-colonial left, but his radical stance made him a target. He was assassinated in 1965, becoming one of Kenya\’s first post-independence political martyrs.

On June 9, 1862, the U.S. Congress passed an act prohibiting slavery in all current and future U.S. territories—an important step toward abolition and a symbol to the world. Though primarily a domestic act, its international resonance was profound. Black abolitionists in the Caribbean, West Africa, and Latin America saw it as a sign that slavery’s global grip was weakening. The act foreshadowed the Emancipation Proclamation (1863) and further legitimized anti-slavery diplomacy. African Americans like Frederick Douglass praised it as a milestone, while European abolitionists used it to pressure other colonial powers. June 9 represents a policy moment with continental and diaspora impact.

Born on June 9, 1904, Dr. James Emman Kwegyir Aggrey was a Ghanaian educator, scholar, and Pan-Africanist who profoundly influenced the next generation of African leaders, including Kwame Nkrumah. Aggrey believed in the power of education to transform Africa and challenged colonial narratives about Black intellectual inferiority. As a professor at Livingstone College in North Carolina and later co-founder of Achimota School in Ghana, he bridged African and African American educational ideals. His famous quote—“If you educate a man, you educate an individual. If you educate a woman, you educate a nation”—still resonates today. His birthday marks a legacy of empowerment through Afrocentric learning.

On June 9, 2006, Brazil inaugurated the Federal University of Recôncavo da Bahia (UFRB), the first Brazilian federal university designed with a mission to serve Afro-Brazilian communities. Located in the heart of Bahia—a region with deep African cultural roots—UFRB offered curricula that prioritized Afro-Brazilian history, agriculture, and public policy. The creation of UFRB was part of Brazil’s broader affirmative action and educational reform movement, aiming to correct centuries of exclusion and inequality. June 9 marks a watershed in Brazil’s acknowledgment of the African contribution to its society and the right to culturally responsive higher education.

On June 9, 1980, newly independent Zimbabwe officially joined the United Nations, marking its full entry into the international community after decades of white minority rule under Rhodesia. The moment came after a brutal liberation war led by African nationalist movements like ZANU and ZAPU. Membership was symbolic as much as political—it validated the nation’s sovereignty and aspirations for post-colonial development. African nations across the continent celebrated the victory, and Zimbabwe’s admission was hailed as a triumph for Pan-African solidarity. The move empowered Black diplomats and intellectuals to push for economic justice and decolonization within the global system.

On June 9, 2020, synchronized global protests for George Floyd’s murder erupted across major cities in Europe and Africa, including London, Paris, Nairobi, Accra, and Cape Town. Demonstrators invoked local injustices—such as police violence in France and economic marginalization in Ghana—to connect with the broader Black Lives Matter movement. Statues of colonial figures were defaced or toppled, and governments were forced to address systemic racism beyond U.S. borders. The June 9 mobilizations marked the solidification of a transnational racial justice movement that fused African, Afro-European, and Afro-Caribbean struggles under one banner. It was a modern reminder that Black liberation is borderless.

On June 9, 1953, in Léopoldville (now Kinshasa), Patrice Lumumba took a pivotal step in African political history by initiating the framework for what would become the Mouvement National Congolais (MNC)—a party committed to uniting Congolese people across ethnic lines and demanding independence from Belgian colonial rule. While the MNC would not be formally established until 1958, this foundational moment in 1953 marked Lumumba’s shift from civil service into revolutionary politics. Unlike other factions, Lumumba’s vision rejected tribal fragmentation, emphasizing pan-Congolese unity and sovereignty. This political groundwork laid the foundation for the Congo’s eventual independence in 1960, where Lumumba would briefly serve as the country\’s first Prime Minister before his assassination. Despite his significance, this early organizing date is rarely mentioned in mainstream narratives of African liberation, making it a vital yet overlooked moment in international Black history.