John Willis Menard was born on April 3, 1838. He was a black politician.

From Kalkaska, Ill., he was the first Black elected to the U.S. Congress who was denied his seat by that body. During the Civil War (1861-65) he served as a clerk in the U.S. Department of the Interior. In 1865 he moved to New Orleans, where he became active in the Republican Party, serving as inspector of customs and later as a commissioner of streets. He also published a newspaper, The Free South, later named The Radical Standard. Elected to Congress from Louisiana in 1868 to fill an unfinished term, Menard failed to overcome an election challenge by the loser and Congress refused to seat either man.   more »

On Nov. 2, 1983, President Reagan signed into law a bill designating the third Monday of January each year as a federal holiday to honor the late civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

The ceremony in the White House Rose Garden was attended by Mrs. Coretta Scott King and family, members of Congress, Civil Rights Movement veterans, educators and business and religious leaders.

During the signing President Reagan said:

"All right-thinking people, all right-thinking Americans are joined in spirit with us this day as the highest recognition which this nation gives is bestowed upon Martin Luther King Jr., one who also was the recipient of the highest recognition which the world bestows, the Nobel Peace Prize.

"America is a more democratic nation, a more just nation, a more peaceful nation because Martin Luther King, Jr. became her preeminent   more »

First issue of Ebony magazine published on November 1, 1945.

John H. Johnson, who was born in poverty and who rose in one generation from the welfare rolls to the rolls of Forbes 400 richest Americans, was the most honored of all publishers. He was a member of the Publishing Hall of Fame, the National Business Hall of Fame, the Advertising Hall of Fame and the Arkansas Business Hall of Fame, and he received the Spingarn Medal, the highest award of the NAACP, and the Salute to Greatness Award, the highest honor of the Martin Luther King Jr. Center, for his contribution to civil rights. In 1972, he was named Publisher of the Year by the Magazine Publishers Association. In 1974 he was named “The Most Outstanding Black Publisher in History” by the National Newspaper Publishers Association. In 2003, he was named “The Greatest Minority Entrepreneur in U.S. History” by Baylor University. In the same year, Howard University named its journalism school the John H. Johnson School of Communications.   more »