Civil Rights
Movements, leaders, victories and the continuing fight for equality.
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Explore the people, places, events, achievements, struggles and stories that shaped our journey.
Movements, leaders, victories and the continuing fight for equality.
Innovation, patents, science, technology and world-changing contributions.
Pioneers, champions, Negro Leagues, records, activism and excellence.
Meet the people whose lives, choices and achievements shaped the journey.
Black towns, communities, institutions and places where history happened.
Moments that changed communities, movements, institutions and the nation.
Mansa Musa was the ruler of the Mali Empire in West Africa. Details recorded here should be sourced; unknown information is left blank.
MORE →Reflects the personal views, recollections, and perspective of the author, Mike Davis.
This is a personal recollection on the Move fire on May 13, 1985
Richard Ihetu GCOI (August 14, 1929 – December 14, 1971), professionally known as Dick Tiger was a Nigerian professional boxer and former military officer of the Biafran army often regarded as one of the best boxers of the 20th century and one of the greatest boxers of his generation, Tiger held the undisputed middleweight and light-heavyweight championships making him the first African to do so. He is the first African to be inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame. Tiger was born in Amaigbo in Imo State and later moved to Aba in 1946 at aged 17 where he began boxing while working as a market trader with his mother, he later emigrated to Liverpool, England to pursue his boxing career and later to the United States. In 1963, Tiger hosted the first-ever world boxing championship bout held on African soil at the Liberty Stadium in Ibadan, Nigeria which he won. Tiger was Igbo and officially joined the Biafran Army in December 1967 after he publicly declared his allegiance to Biafra during a press conference in New Jersey in June 1968, he was officially commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the morale corps of the Biafran Armed Forces primarily training soldiers in hand-to-hand combat. He was appointed a Member of the British Empire (MBE) by Queen Elizabeth II as Queen of Nigeria in 1963, but famously returned his insignia on May 15, 1968, to protest Britain's support and weapon supplies to Nigeria during the Nigerian-Biafran civil war. Tiger was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1991. The Ring magazine named him Fighter of the Year in 1962 and 1965, while the Boxing Writers Association of America (BWAA) named him Fighter of the Year in 1962 and 1966. In 1996, Tiger was voted as one of the best boxers of the 1960s. Tiger was included in the 1998 book "Best Boxers of the 20th Century". In 2002, Tiger was voted by The Ring magazine as the 31st greatest fighter of the last 80 years. His first world title win in 1962 was ranked the 15th most memorable moment in Nigerian sports history since 1960 by Premium Times in 2020, the highest ranked combat sports-related moment.
Tiger is a surname. Notable people with the name include: Dana Tiger (born 1961), Muscogee/Seminole/Cherokee artist Dick Tiger (1929–1971), Nigerian boxer Jerome Tiger (1941–1967), Seminole/Muscogee artist Johnny Tiger Jr. (1940–2015), Seminole/Muscogee artist Lionel Tiger (born 1937), anthropologist Peggy Tiger (1943–2017), Cherokee author Yuriko Tiger or Eleonora Aureliana Guglielmi (born 1993), Italian cosplay celebrity
Robert Wayne Foster (December 15, 1938 – November 21, 2015) was an American professional boxer who fought as a light heavyweight and heavyweight. He won the world light heavyweight title from Dick Tiger in 1968 via fourth-round knockout, and went on to defend the title fourteen times against thirteen different fighters in total from 1968 to 1974. Foster challenged Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali during his career, but was knocked out by both (the fight with Frazier being for the WBA, WBC and The Ring world heavyweight titles). He was named to Ring's list of 100 Greatest Punchers of all time. He was also named to Ring's list of the 80 Best Fighters of the Last 80 Years, ranking at No. 55. He was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in the inaugural class of 1990.
During the 1960s, boxing, like mostly everything else around the world, went through changing times. Notable was the emergence of a young boxer named Cassius Clay, who would, in his own words shock the world, declare himself against war, and change his name to Muhammad Ali. Among significant boxers in lower weights, were middleweights Emile Griffith, Nino Benvenuti and Dick Tiger, and lightweights Joe Brown, Carlos Ortiz and Ismael Laguna as also bantamweight Eder Jofre. The first world champions from Venezuela, Brazil and Thailand were crowned during the 1960s, and the WBA and WBC started competing against each other, after the WBA changed its name from the National Boxing Association in 1962 and a group split from the WBA in 1963 to form the WBC. A new division was created in the Jr. Middleweights, where a high school teacher, Freddie Little, was crowned world champion. Fights were seen on color television for the first time, and one of the most famous tragedies, Benny Kid Paret's, was also shown live on TV.
Before the 1921 destruction of Tulsa’s Greenwood District, Black residents had created a remarkable center of business and community life. The district included stores, professional offices, entertainment venues and homes owned by Black citizens. Understanding Greenwood means learning what was built—not only what was burned.
MORE →Brown v. Board of Education in 1954.