Melanie Thornton, an American pop and Eurodance singer best known as the lead vocalist of the group La Bouche, tragically died in a plane crash on November 25, 2001, near Zurich, Switzerland. She was 34 years old. Thornton had recently launched a solo career and was promoting her single “Wonderful Dream (Holidays Are Coming)” at the time of her death. Her powerful voice and international success made her a beloved figure, especially in Europe.

On November 25, 1955, the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) issued an order banning racial segregation on interstate buses and in bus terminals, following a complaint filed by Sarah Keys, a Black Army private who had been forced to give up her seat on a bus in 1952. The case, Sarah Keys v. Carolina Coach Company, challenged the “separate but equal” doctrine in interstate travel.

This landmark decision was influenced by the legal strategy of the NAACP and was a precursor to the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which began just days later in December 1955. The ruling represented a significant legal victory in the struggle against Jim Crow laws and segregation in public transportation.

Ralph J. Bunche, diplomat and scholar, received the Spingarn Medal from the NAACP for his distinguished service as a United Nations mediator in the Palestine conflict, where he successfully negotiated the 1949 Armistice Agreements between Israel and neighboring Arab states. He was also recognized for his contributions to the Gunnar Myrdal study, An American Dilemma, a groundbreaking examination of race relations in the U.S.
Bunche went on to become the first African American awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1950.

On this day, the St. Louis chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) initiated a sit-in campaign to challenge and end racial segregation in downtown St. Louis facilities, including lunch counters and restaurants. Inspired by the principles of nonviolent direct action, the campaign marked one of the early uses of sit-ins in the civil rights movement, preceding the more widely known Greensboro sit-ins by over a decade.
This action helped lay the groundwork for future civil rights activism and demonstrated the power of grassroots organizing.

Luther “Bill” Robinson, famously known as Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, passed away at the age of 71. A pioneering African American tap dancer, Robinson broke racial barriers in entertainment during the early 20th century. He was known for his smooth style, signature stair dance, and for being one of the first Black performers to appear in Hollywood films alongside white actors—most notably, Shirley Temple.

Robinson’s legacy endures as a foundational figure in American dance and Black performance history.

After a landmark legal battle in the United States, 35 survivors of the Amistad revolt departed from New York aboard the ship Gentleman to return to Africa. These individuals had been kidnapped from present-day Sierra Leone and sold into slavery, but they famously seized control of the slave ship La Amistad in 1839. Their case reached the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled in their favor, declaring them free persons. Their return marked a powerful moment of justice and resistance against the transatlantic slave trade.