On this date, Wallace D. Fard Muhammad began teaching in Detroit, Michigan, marking the founding of the Nation of Islam (NOI). He taught a unique interpretation of Islam focused on Black empowerment, self-sufficiency, and liberation from systemic racism.

Elijah Muhammad became one of his early followers and was appointed by Fard as his successor. After Fard’s mysterious disappearance in 1934, Elijah Muhammad took leadership and transformed the NOI into a major religious and political movement, especially influential during the Civil Rights era.

Under Elijah Muhammad’s leadership, the NOI grew rapidly and influenced prominent figures like Malcolm X, Muhammad Ali, and Louis Farrakhan.

Colonel Frederick D. Gregory, a U.S. Air Force pilot and NASA astronaut, became the first African American to command a space mission when he led Space Shuttle Discovery (STS-33). The shuttle launched on November 22, 1989, from Kennedy Space Center. His historic leadership role marked a significant milestone in both space exploration and African American achievement in the sciences.

On this day, George Branham III made history by becoming the first African American to win a title on the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) Tour. He claimed victory at the Brunswick Memorial World Open, breaking racial barriers in a sport where few Black athletes had found visibility or success at the professional level.

Branham would go on to win five PBA titles in his career and later became the first African American to win a PBA major, the 1993 Tournament of Champions.

President John F. Kennedy, the 35th President of the United States, was assassinated at age 46. While not African American himself, JFK played a pivotal role in advancing civil rights during his presidency. He supported desegregation, protected the Freedom Riders, and in June 1963, gave a landmark speech calling civil rights a “moral issue,” laying groundwork for the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which was passed posthumously under President Lyndon B. Johnson.

Guion S. Bluford Jr. was born on November 22, 1942, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. A decorated Air Force pilot, aerospace engineer, and NASA astronaut, Bluford made history on August 30, 1983, when he became the first African American to travel into space, serving as a mission specialist aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger (STS-8). Over the course of his NASA career, he flew on four space missions, logging over 688 hours in space.

Bluford’s legacy continues to inspire generations in the fields of STEM, aviation, and space exploration.

Alrutheus Ambush Taylor, a pioneering African American historian and educator, was born on this day in Washington, D.C. Taylor was instrumental in documenting Black experiences during the Reconstruction era, particularly the role of African Americans in the South after the Civil War.

He earned degrees from Harvard University and later taught at Fisk University and Howard University, where he worked to establish a robust archive of African American history. His scholarship helped lay the foundation for the study of Black history as an academic discipline.

Timothy Thomas Fortune, a pioneering African American journalist and civil rights leader, founded the New York Freeman on this day. The publication would later become the New York Age, one of the most influential Black newspapers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Under Fortune’s leadership, the Freeman became a powerful voice advocating for racial equality, labor rights, and anti-lynching legislation. The paper later came under the editorial leadership of Fred R. Moore, continuing its legacy of Black activism and journalism.

Christopher J. Perry founded The Philadelphia Tribune, which would become the oldest continuously published African American newspaper in the United States. Based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the Tribune has played a critical role in informing and empowering the Black community, advocating for civil rights, education, and economic progress for over a century.

Oscar J. Dunn, the first African American elected as Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana (and the highest-ranking Black elected official in U.S. history at the time), died suddenly in New Orleans during a political power struggle. His unexpected death at age 49 led to suspicions of poisoning, particularly from his aides and supporters, although no official cause was ever confirmed.

Dunn had been a strong advocate for Black civil rights, public education, and Radical Republican Reconstruction policies. His leadership threatened both white supremacists and conservative factions, and his death marked a turning point in the political instability of post-Civil War Louisiana.

On November 22, 1865, the Mississippi legislature passed one of the first sets of Black Codes in the post-Civil War South. These laws severely restricted the rights, freedom of movement, and economic independence of freedmen—African Americans who had recently been emancipated from slavery.

The Mississippi Black Codes:

• Compelled freedmen to sign labor contracts with white employers or face punishment.

• Criminalized vagrancy, allowing authorities (often white citizens) to arrest Black individuals for being unemployed or “idle.”

• Restricted land ownership and mobility.

• Denied Black people the right to serve on juries or testify against whites.

These laws aimed to maintain white supremacy and reestablish a system of racial control resembling slavery. Other Southern states quickly followed Mississippi’s lead, prompting strong opposition from the federal government and eventually leading to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and the 14th Amendment.