December

Events in history help complete the understanding of African American history. This month-by-month outline of historic dates relevant to South Carolina African American history offers readers a perspective that compliments the biographical data on African American leaders. This timeline view helps complete the picture of the African American impact on South Carolina history. 

January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December

December
Hanukkah is celebrated.

1

Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a public bus in 1955.

17

Noble Sissle, lyricist and bandleader, died in 1975.

2

Historian Charles Wesley was born in 1891.

18

13th Amendment ratified in 1865.

3

First issue of North Star newspaper published in 1847.

19

Carter G. Woodson, historian, born in 1875.

4

American Anti-Slavery Society organized in 1833.

20

South Carolina seceded from the Union in 1860.

5

Mary McLeod Bethune, educator, founded National Council of Negro Women, 1935.

21

Motown Records established in 1959 by Berry Gordy, Jr.

6

In 1971 Lewis Franklin Powell was confirmed as Supreme Court justice.

22

Historian and author of Destruction of Black Civilization Dr. Chancellor Williams was born in 1898.

7

Lester Granger was named executive director of the National Urban League in 1941.

23

Alice H. Parker patented the gas heating furnace in 1919.

8

Entertainer Sammy Davis, Jr., was born, in 1925.

24

Irwin C. Mollison, first African-American judge of the Customs Court was born in 1898.

9

Entertainer Red Foxx was born in 1925.

25

Christmas Day
In 1971 Rev. Jesse Jackson organized Operation PUSH (People United to Save Humanity).

10

Ralph J. Bunche becomes the first Black person awarded a Nobel Peace Prize, 1950.    

26

Kwanzaa Begins
In 1924, DeFord Bailey, Sr., became the first African-American to perform on the Grand Ole Opry.

11

P.B.S Pinchback became the first African-American governor of an American state, Louisiana, in 1872.

27

Pioneer of blood plasma research, Dr. Charles Richard Drew, established a pioneer blood bank in New York City, 1941.

12

Joseph H. Rainey (S.C.) first African- American elected to Congress in 1870.

28

Earl "Fatha" Hines, famed jazz musician and father of modern jazz piano, was born in 1905.

13

First Black women complete officer training for the WAVEs, 1944.

29

Thomas Bradley was born in 1917.

14

Congressman John Langston was born in 1829.

30

Blues composer and singer Bo Diddley was born in 1928.

15

Maggie Lena Walker, banker, died in 1934.

31

New Year's Eve
Odetta Felious Gordon, folk singer and activist, was born in 1930.

16

Andrew Young of Georgia named ambassador and chief delegate to the United Nations in 1976.