February 25, 2010 in Black History

Hiram Rhodes Revels of Mississippi was sworn in as the first Black U.S. Senator on this date in 1870.



Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., civil rights activist, was ordained a Baptist minister on this date in 1948.





Casius Clay, boxing legend, changed his name to Muhammad Ali after converting to Islam on this date in 1964 immediately after winning his first heavyweight title (KO of Sonny Liston, round seven).



Elijah Muhammad, activist and founder of the Nation of Islam, died at age 77 in Chicago, IL, on this date in 1975.






Edgar Daniel "E. D." Nixon, civil rights leader and primary figure in the Montgomery Bus Boycott, died in Montgomery, AL, on this date in 1987.



1999-White supremacist John King, one of three white men accused of chaining James Byrd to a pickup and dragging him along a Texas road until he was decapitated, was sentenced to death by lethal injection. If his death penalty is carried out, he will be the first white Texan executed for killing a black since slavery ended.



1839-Seminoles and their Black allies shipped from Tampa Bay, Florida, to the West.