Janurary February March April May June July August September October November December
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| March 1 1864: Rebecca Lee becomes the first African American woman to earn a U.S. medical degree. 1987: The Association of Black Nursing Faculty founded. |
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| March 2 1807: Congress declares the importation of slaves into U.S. illegal. 1867: Congress enacts charter to establish Howard University. |
March 3 1865: Freedmen's Bureau established by federal government to aid newly freed slaves. |
March 4 1965: Bill Russell of the Boston Celtics honored as NBA most valuable player for fourth time in five years. |
March 5 ASH WEDNESDAY 1770: Crispus Attucks becomes one of the first casualties of the American Revolution. |
March 6 1857: Supreme Court issues Dred Scott decision. |
March 7 1965: Supreme Court upholds key provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. |
March 8 1945: Phyllis Mae Daley becomes first African American to join the Navy Nurse Corps. 1977: Henry L. Marsh III becomes first African American elected mayor of Richmond, Virginia. |
| March 9 1841: Amistad mutineers freed by Supreme Court. |
March 10 1913: Harriet Tubman, abolitionist and Civil War nurse, dies. 1989: Louis Sullivan confirmed as Secretary of Health and Human Services. |
March 11 1959: Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun opens at Barrymore Theater, New York, the first play by a black woman to premiere on Broadway. |
March 12 1932: Andrew Young, former U.N. ambassador and former mayor of Atlanta, born. |
March 13 1773: Jean Baptiste Pointe Du Sable, black pioneer and explorer, founded Chicago. |
March 14 1956: Montgomery bus boycott ends when municipal bus service is desegregated. |
March 15 1947: John Lee, first black commissioned officer in the U.S. Navy, assigned to duty. |
| March 16 1827: Freedom's Journal, the first U.S. black newspaper, is founded. 1846: Rebecca Cole, second black female physician in the U.S., born. |
March 17 ST. PATRICK'S DAY 1885: William F. Cosgrove patents automatic stop plug for gas and oil pipes. 1890: Charles B. Brooks patents street sweeper. |
March 18 1822: The Phoenix Society, a literary and educational group, founded by blacks in New York City. |
March 19 1971: The Rev. Leon Sullivan elected to board of directors of General Motors. |
March 20 1883: Jan E. Matzeliger patents shoemaking machine. 1912: Carter Woodson receives doctorate from Harvard University. |
March 21 1965: Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. leads march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, for voting rights. |
March 22 1898: J.W. Smith patents lawn sprinkler. |
| March 23 1873: Slavery abolished in Puerto Rico. |
March 24 1837: Canada gives black citizens the right to vote. |
March 25 1843: Explorer Jacob Dodson sets out in search of the Northwest Passage. |
March 26 1872: Thomas J. Martin patents fire extinguisher. 1911: William H. Lewis becomes U.S. assistant attorney general. |
March 27 1930: Of the 116,000 African Americans in professional positions, more than two-thirds were teachers or ministers. |
March 28 1870: Jonathan S. Wright becomes first black state supreme court justice in South Carolina. |
March 29 1898: W.J. Ballow patents combined hat rack and table. |
| March 30 1870: Fifteenth Amendment ratified, guaranteeing voting rights to African Americans. |
March 31 1988: Toni Morrison wins Pulitzer Prize for Beloved. |