On Sunday, May 3, 1992, I’m asked by my dear friend Pastor John Bowie to address his congregation in South Los Angeles. The city is…
Comments closedCategory: Civil Rights
Stories about the rights of the people of California
Born enslaved in Georgia or Mississippi in 1818, Bridget “Biddy” Mason — with a nursing baby on her back and her two other young daughters…
Comments closedMargaret “Maggie” Yee grows up dreaming of being a pilot like Amelia Earhart. She becomes one of only two Chinese American WASPs, serving in WWII.
Comments closed“For the first time in the history of this nation a political party has chosen a Negro woman for the second highest office in the…
Comments closedOn October 24, 1884, Marietta Stow declares her candidacy for vice president of the United States on the Equal Rights Party ticket, during a speech…
Comments closedIn 1961, José Sarria runs for a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and becomes the first openly gay candidate to run for…
Comments closedMiriam Matthews, often referred to as the “Dean of Los Angeles Black History,” is the first African American librarian in California. She’s hired as a…
Comments closedBetween January and April of 1858, Northern California is rocked by the “case of the decade” – a determination of whether Archy Lee is allowed…
Comments closedIn 1975, Edward V. Roberts is named director of the California Department of Vocational Rehabilitation — the same agency that had previously declared him “unemployable.”…
Comments closedEarly on the morning of June 18, 1983, the space shuttle Challenger roars off of Kennedy Launch Complex 39 beginning a six-day mission to deploy…
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