On May 31, 1955, The Supreme Court ruled in what became known as “Brown II,” that the task of carrying out school desegregation was delegated to district courts, with orders that desegregation occur “with all deliberate speed.” Many Southern states and school districts interpreted “Brown II” as legal justification for resisting, delaying, and avoiding significant integration for years—and in some cases for a decade or more—using such tactics as closing down school systems, using state money to finance segregated “private” schools, and “token” integration where a few carefully selected black children were admitted to former white-only schools but the vast majority remained in under-funded, unequal black schools.

On this day, the biracial government of Zimbabwe-Rhodesia proclaimed independence from the United Kingdom. However, the move was not internationally recognized, as it failed to include full democratic representation for the Black majority. True independence would come nearly a year later, in April 1980, after the Lancaster House Agreement and democratic elections that led to the formation of the Republic of Zimbabwe under Robert Mugabe.

On May 31, 1961, U.S. District Judge Irving Kaufman ordered the Board of Education of New Rochelle, New York, to integrate its public schools. This landmark ruling followed a lawsuit by African American parents who argued that the school board had maintained de facto segregation through zoning policies. Judge Kaufman’s decision marked one of the first northern desegregation rulings post-Brown v. Board of Education and helped set a legal precedent for challenging racial imbalance in schools outside the South.

?Patricia Roberts Harris, born on May 31, 1924, in Mattoon, Illinois, was a trailblazing American politician, diplomat, and legal scholar. She holds the distinction of being the first African American woman to serve in a U.S. presidential cabinet.?Women of the Hall

Harris’s early life was marked by academic excellence and civic engagement. She graduated summa cum laude from Howard University in 1945 and was actively involved in civil rights activities, including participating in one of the nation’s first lunch counter sit-ins in 1943. She later earned a law degree from George Washington University Law School in 1960, graduating first in her class.?WikipediaDiscover LBJ

Her career was characterized by a series of groundbreaking achievements:?

• In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed her as the U.S. Ambassador to Luxembourg, making her the first African American woman to hold an ambassadorial position. ?Women of the Hall

• In 1969, she became the first African American woman to serve as dean of a U.S. law school at Howard University. ?Encyclopedia Britannica

• In 1977, under President Jimmy Carter, Harris was appointed Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, becoming the first African American woman to serve in a presidential cabinet. ?Wikipedia

• She later served as Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, and continued as Secretary of Health and Human Services after the department’s reorganization in 1980. ?Encyclopedia Britannica

Beyond her government service, Harris was a pioneer in the corporate world, becoming the first African American woman to serve on the board of directors of a Fortune 500 company, IBM. ?Women’s Voices Media

Patricia Roberts Harris passed away on March 23, 1985, leaving behind a legacy of public service and breaking racial and gender barriers in American politics and society.

On May 31, 1921, one of the most devastating acts of racial violence in American history began in the Greenwood District of Tulsa, Oklahoma—widely known as “Black Wall Street.” Over the course of 18 hours, white mobs, some deputized and armed by local officials, looted and burned the thriving Black community to the ground.

The massacre left more than 15,000 Black residents homeless, with 1,500 homes destroyed and over 600 Black-owned businesses—including hotels, newspapers, banks, schools, and hospitals—reduced to ashes across a 35-square-block area. While official counts originally reported 36 deaths, modern scholarship and eyewitness accounts suggest that between 300 and 3,000 people were killed, wounded, or went missing.

Greenwood’s prosperity had made it a target, and its destruction was not spontaneous—it was methodical, coordinated, and even included aerial attacks from private planes dropping incendiary devices.

This event, long suppressed in American historical narratives, is now recognized as a Black Holocaust on American soil—a sobering reminder of the economic and human toll of racial hatred.

On May 31, 1909, approximately 300 Black and white activists gathered at the United Charities Building in New York City for the first official conference of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Spanning May 31 to June 1, the historic meeting laid the groundwork for what would become one of the most influential civil rights organizations in American history.

On this day, General Samuel C. Armstrong recommended Booker T. Washington to become the founding principal of the Tuskegee Normal School for Colored Teachers in Alabama. Washington, then just 25 years old, was chosen for his leadership and educational philosophy rooted in self-help, vocational training, and racial uplift. His appointment marked the beginning of one of the most influential educational institutions in African American history, known today as Tuskegee University.

On this day in 1870, the United States Congress passed the first Enforcement Act, a landmark piece of legislation aimed at protecting the civil and voting rights of Black Americans during the Reconstruction era. The act imposed strict penalties on public officials and private citizens who attempted to interfere with the suffrage or civil liberties of others—particularly targeting violent groups like the Ku Klux Klan.

Most notably, the law authorized the use of federal troops, including the U.S. Army, to safeguard elections and enforce civil rights in areas where these protections were under threat. This act marked an early federal effort to confront racial violence and voter suppression in the post-Civil War South.