March is for Our People
We remember Selma to Montgomery
The Selma to Montgomery marches were three protest marches, held in 1965, along the 54-mile (87 km) highway from Selma, Alabama, to the state capital of Montgomery.
The marches were organized by nonviolent activists to demonstrate the desire of African-American citizens to exercise their constitutional right to vote, in defiance of segregationist repression; they were part of a broader voting rights movement underway in Selma and throughout the American South. By highlighting racial injustice, they contributed to passage that year of the Voting Rights Act, a landmark federal achievement of the civil rights movement.
Welcome
to March Black History
2025 Black Holiday Listings
Source: Thank you to Ms. Jacquelynn Coles
Salem United - Black History Facts Month Of March
BIRTHS
March 1, 1914 – Writer Ralph Ellison is born
March 1, 1966 – Journalist Don Lemon is born
March 1, 1927 – Entertainer and activist Harry Belafonte is born
March 3, 1919 – South African author Peter Abrahams is born
March 3, 1962 – Olympic track athlete Jackie Joyner-Kersee is born
March 3, 1894– Comedian “Moms” Mabley is born
March 4, 1877 – Inventor Garrett A. Morgan is born
March 4, 1867 – Ida Gray Nelson Rollins, first Black woman dentist, is born
March 4, 1990 – NBA player Draymond Green is born
March 4, 1932 – South African singer Miriam Makeba is born
March 5, 1938 – Former NFL player and actor Fred Williamson is born
March 6, 1972 – NBA Superstar Shaquille O’Neal is born
March 6, 1947 – Retired U.S. Diplomat Howard Franklin Jeter is born
March 6, 1966 – Maurice Ashley, first Black chess grandmaster, is born
March 7, 1950 – NFL Player Franco Harris is born
March 7, 1964 – Comedian Wanda Sykes is born
March 8, 1825 – Dr. Alexander Thomas Augusta, first Black med school faculty member, is born
March 9, 1871 – Civil rights activist Oscar De Priest is born
March 9, 1987 – Rapper Lil Bow Wow is born
March 10, 1972 – Producer Timbaland is born
March 11, 1926 – Civil rights activist Ralph David Abernathy is born
March 12, 1934 – Children’s writer Virginia Hamilton is born
March 12, 1932 – Activist Andrew Jackson Young Jr. is born
March 13, 1972 – Hip Hop artist Common is born
March 14, 1988 – NBA Superstar Stephen Curry is born
March 14, 1933 – Music mogul Quincy Jones is born
March 14, 1960 – Hall of Fame baseball player Kirby Puckett is born
March 16, 1938 – Foreign Service Officer Irvin Hicks Jr. is born
March 17, 1912 – Civil rights leader Bayard Rustin is born
March 17, 1917 – Alonzo “Lonnie” Clayton, youngest jockey to win Kentucky Derby, is born
March 17, 1919 – Entertainer Nat King Cole is born
March 17, 1933 – Activist Myrlie Evers-Williams is born
March 17, 1825 – Former Alabama U.S. House Rep. Benjamin Sterling Turner is born
March 18, 1934 – Country singer Charley Pride is born
March 18, 1941 – Singer Wilson Pickett is born
March 18, 1959 – Actress and singer Irene Cara is born
March 18, 1963 – Entertainer Vanessa Williams is born
March 18, 1970 – Icon Queen Latifah is born
March 20, 1915 – Rock ‘N’ Roll pioneer Sister Rosetta Tharpe is born
March 20, 1957 – Filmmaker Spike Lee is born
March 21, 1938 – Lois Jean White, first Black President of the National Parent Teacher Association (PTA) is born
March 22, 1943 – Jazz guitarist George Benson is born
March 23, 1942 – Political activist Walter Rodney is born
March 23, 1955 – NBA player Moses Malone is born
March 23, 1992 – NBA star Kyrie Irving is born
March 24, 1912 – Civil rights activist Dorothy Height is born
March 24, 1884 – Art dealer Zoë Dusanne is born
March 25, 1942 – The “Queen of Soul,” Aretha Franklin, is born
March 25, 1971 – WNBA player Sheryl Swoopes is born
March 26, 1944 – Icon Diana Ross is born
March 26, 1950 – Singer Teddy Pendergrass is born
March 27, 1876 – Alonzo “Lonnie” Clayton, youngest jockey to win Kentucky Derby, is born
March 27, 1924 – Jazz singer Sarah Vaughan is born
March 27, 1934 – Arthur Mitchell, first Black principal dancer with NYC Ballet Company, is born
March 27, 1969 – Entertainer Mariah Carey is born
March 30, 1964 – Grammy Award Winning artist Tracy Chapman is born
March 31, 1878 – Heavyweight Champion Jack Johnson is born
Source: Thank you to Ms. Doreen Wade
DEATHS
March 6, 1972 – Art dealer Zoë Dusanne passes away
March 6, 2006 – Hall of Fame baseball player Kirby Puckett passes away
March 9, 1955 – African American explorer Matthew Henson passes away
March 9, 1895 – Dr. Rebecca Davis Lee Crumpler, first Black woman physician, passes away
March 9, 1997 – Rapper Notorious B.I.G. is killed in Los Angeles
March 10, 1913 – Abolitionist Harriet Tubman passes away
March 12, 1955 – Jazz pioneer Charlie Parker passes away
March 14, 1977 – Activist Fannie Lou Hamer passes away
March 15, 1959 – Saxophonist Lester Willis Young passes away
March 21, 1955 – Walter F. White, former NAACP president, passes away
March 21, 1894 – Former Alabama U.S. House Rep. Benjamin Sterling Turner passes away
March 21, 2013 – Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe passes away
March 23, 1985 – Former HUD Secretary Patricia Roberts Harris passes away
March 25, 1931 – Journalist Ida B. Wells-Barnett passes away
March 25, 2009 – Historian John Hope Franklin passes away
March 29, 2005 – Attorney Johnnie Cochran passes away
March 31, 1980 – 4x Olympic gold medalist Jesse Owens passes away
March 31, 1876 – Singer Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield, also known as “The Black Swan,” passes away
INVENTIONS
March 1, 1892 – Ms. Anna M. Mangin invents the pastry fork
March 17, 1896 – Inventor Charles Brooks receives patent for street sweeper
March 26, 1872 – Inventor Thomas J. Martin receives patent for fire extinguisher
MISCELLANEOUS
March 18, 1895 – 200 free Blacks leave Savannah, Georgia for Liberia
March 24, 1916 – Marcus Garvey arrives in the United States
AWARDS
March 5, 1985 – U.S. Postal Service issues Mary McLeod Bethune commemorative stamp
March 15, 1933 – Civil rights leader and missionary Max Yergan receives NAACP Spingarn Medal
March 17, 1970 – Artist Jacob Lawrence awarded Spingarn Medal
March 18, 1972 – USS Jesse L. Brown, ship named after first Black naval aviator, launched
March 24, 2002 – Halle Berry makes history as first Black woman to win Best Actress Oscar
EDUCATION
March 19, 1939 – Langston Hughes founds The New Negro Theater in Los Angeles, California
March 27, 1969 – The Black Academy of Arts and Letters is founded
CAREERS
March 2, 1990 – Carole Gist makes history as the first Black Miss USA
March 2, 1972 – Dr. Jerome H. Holland becomes first Black person to serve on the board of the NY Stock Exchange
March 8, 1945 – Phyllis Mae Dailey becomes first Black person to swear in as Navy nurse
SPORTS
March 1, 1949 – Joe Louis retires from boxing
March 2, 1962 – Wilt Chamberlain scores 100 points in a single basketball game
March 11, 1948 – Dr. Reginald Weir becomes first Black player to compete in the U.S. Indoor Lawn Tennis Association Championship
PROTEST MARCHES
March 7, 1965 – Selma to Montgomery marches begin
March 21, 1965 – Selma to Montgomery marches end
BUSINESS/ORGANIZATION
March 3, 1865 – Congress established The Freedmen’s Bureau
WRITER
March 20, 1852 – Martin R. Delany, father of Black Nationalism, publishes The Condition, Elevation, Emigration and Destiny of the Colored People of the United States
THE DEMISE OF SALEM UNITED'S BLACK HISTORY MONTH EXPO AT OLD TOWN HALL - SALEM MA
“What the people want is simple.
They want an America as good as its promise.”
—Barbara Jordan, U.S. congresswoman, lawyer, educator and leader during the Civil Rights Movement
BLACK HISTORY MONTH
FROM 1965 TO 2025
Remember What Has Been Done And How We Lost Black History
Black History Month, the City of Salem MA decided to Breach their Agreement, with Salem United and its President, Doreen Wade. They are inserting their own adaptation of what Black Culture is, and what Black History Month represents. Therefore, another means to
silence the Black Voice.
Our work for justice continues!
We will work for 2025. See you in another location .
"It is certain, in any case, that ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have."
— James Baldwin