The Making a Difference Learning Lab
January Black History
* January 1, 1863. The Emancipation Proclamation freed all slaves in states in rebellion against the United States.
* January 23, 1964. The Twenty-fourth Amendment forbade the use of the poll tax to prevent voting.
*January 2, 1965. The SCLC launched a voter drive in Selma, Alabama. which escalated into a nationwide protest movement.
* January 16, 1986. A bronze bust of Martin Luther King, Jr., was the first of any black American in the halls of Congress. The first national Martin Luther King, Jr., holiday was celebrated four days later on January 20.
*January 29, 1989. Barbara Harris was elected the first woman bishop of the Episcopal Church. August 10. General Colin L. Powell was named chair of the United States Joint Chiefs of Staff.
* January 15, 1991. Roland Burris became the first black attorney general of Illinois.
*January 15, 1998. Civil rights veteran James Farmer was one of 15 men and women awarded the Medal of Freedom from President Clinton. Born in Marshall, Texas, he was the national director of the Congress of Racial Equality during the 1960s and was one of the most influential leaders of the civil rights movement throughout its most turbulent decade
* January 18, 1998. Now an annual observance, the New York Stock Exchange closed, for the first time, in honor of the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
