On February 19, 1992, 24-year-old recent film school graduate
John Singleton became the youngest and first Black film
director nominated for an Academy Award for his movie,
Boyz n the Hood.

On February 13, 1923, the New York Renaissance, the first
all-Black professional basketball team, was organized.

The Renaissance, commonly called the Rens, become one
of the dominant teams of the 1920s and 1930s.

Robert L. Douglas (1882 – 1979)

Nicknamed the "Father of Black
Professional Basketball", Douglas
owned and coached the Rens from
1923 to 1949, guiding them to a
2,318-381 record.

On February 12, 1909, the 100th anniversary of Abraham
Lincoln’s birth, a group that included African American
leaders such as W.E.B. Du Bois and Ida B. Wells-Barnett
announced the formation of a new organization.          

Called the National Association for the Advancement of
Colored People, it would have a profound effect on the         
struggle for civil rights and the course of 20th-century
American history.

Leroy Robert "Satchel" Paige (July 7, 1906 – June 8, 1982)

On February 9, 1971, pitcher Leroy “Satchel” Paige became the
first Negro League veteran to be nominated for the Baseball
Hall of Fame.

In August of that year, Paige, a pitching legend known for his
fastball, showmanship and the longevity of his playing career,
which spanned five decades, was inducted. Joe DiMaggio (‘’the
Yankee Clipper”) once called Paige “the best and fastest pitcher
I’ve ever faced.” 

Joseph Paul DiMaggio (1914 – 1999)

The first organized immigration of freeborn Black Americans to
Africa from the United States departed New York harbor on a
journey to Freetown, Sierra Leone, in West Africa.

The immigration was largely the work of the American Colonization Society, a U.S. organization founded in 1816 by Robert Finley to
return formerly enslaved African people to Africa.

However, the expedition was also partially funded by the U.S.
Congress, which in 1819 had appropriated $100,000 to be used
in returning displaced Africans, illegally brought to the United
States after the abolishment of the slave trade in 1808, to Africa.