Ernie Davis,  an American football halfback at Syracuse University and the first African-American athlete to win the Heisman Trophy in 1961, dies on this day from Leukemia before playing a pro game.

On this day, President Rutherford B. Hayes appointed Frederick Douglass as the U.S. Marshal for the District of Columbia, making him the first Black American to hold this prestigious federal position. The appointment marked a significant step in Douglass’s distinguished public service career and symbolized a brief period of federal support for Black political advancement during the post-Reconstruction era.

On this day, President Richard Nixon formally rejected a list of sixty demands put forth by the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), which had been pressing for stronger federal commitments to Black communities. Nixon stated that his administration would continue to support “jobs, income, and tangible benefits—the pledges that this society has made to the disadvantaged in the past decade.” The CBC expressed deep disappointment with the response, noting that it lacked meaningful commitments and failed to address the structural inequities their demands aimed to remedy.

Ernie Davis, the star running back from Syracuse University and the first Black player to win the Heisman Trophy (1961), tragically passed away from leukemia just two days later, on May 18, 1962, before ever playing a professional football game.

On May 18, 1960, Yannick Noah was born in Sedan, France. He would go on to become one of France’s greatest tennis players, winning 39 professional titles, including the prestigious 1983 French Open. Noah remains the last Frenchman to win the tournament and later became a celebrated music artist and Davis Cup team captain.

Mary McLeod Bethune, one of the most influential educators and civil rights leaders in American history, died on this day at age 79 in Daytona Beach, Florida. Born on July 10, 1875, in Mayesville, South Carolina, she was the fifteenth of seventeen children born to Samuel and Patsy McLeod—former slaves on the McLeod Plantation.

Though born after Emancipation, Bethune grew up amidst the deep racial inequalities of the Reconstruction-era South. With a fierce belief in the power of education, she became the only child in her family to attend school. Her journey led to the founding of the Daytona Educational and Industrial Training School for Negro Girls in 1904, which would later merge and evolve into Bethune-Cookman University.

Bethune served as a trusted advisor to President Franklin D. Roosevelt and was the highest-ranking African American woman in government at the time. She was the founder of the National Council of Negro Women and dedicated her life to civil rights, women’s empowerment, and Black education.

Her death marked the end of an era, but her vision continues to inspire generations of leaders and learners.

Reginald Martinez Jackson is born in Wyncote, Pennsylvania. Known to the world as Reggie Jackson, he will rise to fame as a legendary Major League Baseball player, starring for the Oakland A’s and the New York Yankees. Jackson will earn the nickname “Mr. October” for his clutch performances in the postseason and go on to set or tie seven World Series records, becoming a cultural icon and Hall of Famer.

On this day, the U.S. Supreme Court delivered its landmark decision in Plessy v. Ferguson, upholding the constitutionality of racial segregation under the doctrine of “separate but equal.” The ruling provided legal justification for the Jim Crow laws that enforced racial segregation across the Southern United States for decades, shaping systemic discrimination in education, transportation, housing, and public accommodations.

On May 17, 1848, William Alexander Leidesdorff, one of the first prominent Black entrepreneurs and diplomats in early California history, died at the age of 38 in San Francisco. Of Afro-Caribbean and Danish descent, Leidesdorff was a pioneering figure in the development of San Francisco as a major port and was appointed U.S. Vice Consul to Mexico for California under President James K. Polk. At the time of his death, he was one of the wealthiest men in California.