This Week In Black History December 20-26, 2023

MADAME C.J. WALKER & DECEMBER 20 1860—Believing the November elec­tion of Abraham Lincoln would bring the end of slavery; on this day in 1860 South Carolina becomes the first Southern state to secede from the Union. Other states hold conventions and by the time Lincoln takes office on March 4, 1861, seven Southern states had seceded to form the Confedera­cy. The secessions lay the foundation for the start of the Civil War. In 1865, the victory of the North brings an end to slavery but not before more than 600,000 people had been killed. 1988—Max Robinson, the first Black co-anchor of a nightly network news program (ABC’s World News Tonight), dies in Washington, D.C., of compli­cations due to AIDS. The 49-year-old Robinson was officially thought to be straight. It was never publicly ex­plained how he contracted the deadly disease. Robinson’s given name was Maxie Cleveland Robinson Jr. & Robinson was a founder of the& National Association of Black Journalists. DECEMBER 21 1865—Following the example set by Mississippi, South Carolina on this day enacted a series of “Black Codes.” The codes displayed a White Southern obsession with three things after losing the Civil War. 1) They still desperately wanted to control...