This Week In Black History September 25-October 1, 2024

SEPTEMBER 25 1861—The Secretary of the Navy authorizes the en­listment of free Blacks and slaves as Union sailors in a bid to help the North win the Civil War against pro-slavery South­ern Whites who had proven more difficult in battle than the North had originally expected. 1962—In another one of those instances demonstrating the tenacity of racism among Southern Whites, Mississippi Gov. Ross Barnett defies a fed­eral court order and personally stands in the door to block the admittance of a Black student— James Meredith—to the Uni­versity of Mississippi. Meredith would eventually be admitted and graduate. Historians now generally believe Ross’ “show” was primarily designed to curry favor among White voters not actually to stop desegregation of the then-all-White university. SEPTEMBER 26 1867—Maggie L. Walker is born. She would become the most prominent Black busi­nesswoman in the Richmond, Va., area and one of the wealth­iest Black women in the nation. She also became the first Black woman to establish a bank in the nation. A social activist, she would help establish the Lilly Black political party in part as a slap at the “Lilly White” polit­ical parties of the day. 1907—The People’s Savings Bank is incorporated in Phil­adelphia by one...