This Week In Black History December 18-24, 2025

DECEMBER 18 1865—Congress passes the 13th Amendment to the Constitution offi­cially abolishing slavery in America. The actual ratification of the Amend­ment had been completed on Dec. 6. Reconstruction began and legendary abolitionist Frederick Douglass consid­ered retiring to a farm after urging the nation to insure Black voting rights. But a February 1866 meeting with President Andrew Johnson shocked him out of retirement. Johnson told the Douglass delegation that he intended to support the interests of Southern Whites and would oppose giving voting rights to the ex-slaves. Johnson’s racism led to a radicalized Congress passing pro-Black legislation over his vetoes. & 1917—Performer Ossie Davis is born Raiford Chatman Davis on this day in Cogdell, Ga. Davis was probably Black America’s best example of a combina­tion entertainer and political activist. In addition to his stage and movie ca­reers, Davis and his wife, Ruby Dee, were deeply involved in the Civil Rights Movement. Davis was a key speaker at the funerals of both Malcolm X and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He died Feb. 4, 2005 of natural causes while in Miami Beach, Fla. & 1971—National Black political leader Rev. Jesse Jackson founds Operation PUSH (People United to Save Human­ity) in Chicago. Breaking...