On this day in February 26, 1965 Jimmie Lee Jackson dies from gun shots inflicted by the police after a voting-rights meeting in Marion, Alabama.

In response to the death of Jimmie Lee Jackson the SCLC wanted to march from Selma to Montgomery.  A state trooper shot Jackson when he attempted to keep his mother from being hurt by police during a nighttime protest in Marion.

Although the march was banned nearly 600 marchers participated any. The march was named “Bloody Sunday” as a result of severe police brutality.

February 26, 1869 The Fifteenth Amendment guaranteeing the right to vote was sent to the states for ratification

February 26, 1870 The Black leader of the Union League in Alamance N.C. Wyatt Outlaw was lynched.

February 26, 1884 Congressman James O’Hara of North Carolina was born.

February 26, 1926 Theodore “Georgia Deacon” Flowers becomes the first middle-weight boxing champion.

February 26, 1926 Carter G Woddson started Negro History Week which would later become Black History Month

February 26, 1928 include the birth of Antoine “Fats” Domino.

February 26, 1930 The Green Pastures opened at Mansfield Theater

February 26, 1933 Actor/Comedian Godfrey Cambridge was born.

February 26, 1946 two people were killed and ten wounded during a race riot in Columbia, Tennessee.

Source: Blackfacts.com

 

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