This Week in Black History February 14-20, 2024

MARIAN ANDERSON FEBRUARY 14 1760—The great religious leader Rich­ard Allen is born in slavery in Philadel­phia. After being required to sit in the back of a White church, Allen would go on to help found and become the first ac­tive bishop of the African Methodist Epis­copal Church. Today, the church, one of the largest predominantly Black de­nominations in America, has more than 1 million members in the U.S., Canada, the Caribbean and Africa. Allen died in 1831. 1817—This is the most likely birthdate of abolitionist and orator Frederick Dou­glass. Douglass purchased his freedom in 1845 and went on to become the most influential Black leader of his day. He did most of his work while living in Roches­ter, N.Y. But after the Civil War, he moved to Washington, D.C. 1867—One of the nation’s most distin­guished institutions of higher learning, Morehouse College, was founded on this day in Augusta, Ga., as the Augusta Institute. It moved to Atlanta in 1879 and became the Atlanta Baptist Seminary. It became “Morehouse” in 1913. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. graduated from More­house. 1936—The National Negro Congress is organized on this day at a meeting in Chicago, Ill., attended by more than 800 delegates representing...