Jack Roosevelt "Jackie" Robinson (January 31, 1919 October 24, 1972) was the first African American Major League Baseball (MLB) player of the modern era. Robinson broke the baseball color line when he debuted with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. As the first black man to openly play in the major leagues since the 1880s, ...

In the UK the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) - an umbrella group which launches and co-ordinates responses to major disasters overseas - has launched a Haiti Earthquake Appeal. Disasters Emergency Committee The DEC represents 13 charities, many of which have bases around the world: * ActionAid * British Red Cross * CAFOD * Care International UK * Christian Aid * Concern Worldwide * Help ...

Martin Luther King, Jr. (January 15, 1929 April 4, 1968) was an American clergyman, activist and prominent leader in the African-American civil rights movement. His main legacy was to secure progress on civil rights in the United States, and he has become a human rights icon: King is recognized as a martyr by two ...

London Illustrated News - June 21, 1851 We have been favoured with the following intelligence, and the accompanying sketch, by an Officer serving in Kaffirland: - Camp, Fort White, April 20th, 1851. " As I have an opportunity of writing, which may not soon occur again, and as you no doubt wish to know how ...

Senegal, long held up as a great example of African democracy has it seems slipped into the mire of unreasonable corruption and despotism. What else could possibly explain the actions of President Abdoulaye Wade? Wade commissioned the building of the "African Renaissance", it was billed as Africa's Statue of Liberty, an artistic ...

Moira Stuart has accepted another job at the BBC, on The Chris Evans Breakfast Show on Radio 2. Stewart who was Britain's first African-Caribbean female newsreader became? the subject of huge controversy when she originally left the BBC in 2007, with many observers concluding the BBC was intent on getting rid of its middle-aged female newsreaders. Ms ...

by the Right Hon. The Lord David Alton of Liverpool November 19th marked the Centenary Anniversary of the Great Congo Demonstration when , one hundred year ago, the Archbishop of Canterbury and Christian leaders, along with many Peers and fifty Members of Parliament assembled at the Royal Albert Hall to protest against the abuses by ...

The late Mrs.Joy Gardner died on 28.7.93, after being gagged and restrained with a body belt at her home, whilst being served with a deportation order - leaving a 7 year old son. Police officers were charged with manslaughter, and later acquitted. She had come to visit her mother, Myrna Simpson, but overstayed her 6 month ...

This queen of Zazzua, a province of Nigeria now known as Zaria, was born around 1533 during the reign of Sarkin (king) Zazzau Nohir. She was probably his granddaughter. Zazzua was one of a number of Hausa city-states which dominated the trans-Saharan trade after the collapse of the Songhai empire to the west. Zaria's wealth ...

Ben Okri O.B.E. is a Booker Prize winning Author and Poet. Okri was awarded the Booker Prize for Fiction for his novel The Famished Road (1991). Set in a Nigerian village <p>Ben Okri was Born in Nigeria in 1959. He is a journalist and writer by trade. He traveled to Britain when he was just four years ...

Dame Kelly Holmes, DBE MBE (born 19 April 1970) is a retired British middle distance athlete. She specialised in the 800 metres and 1500 metres events and won a gold medal for both distances at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. She set British records in numerous events and still holds the records over the ...

Chris Ofili is an Artist known for his controversial use of Elephant dung in his work. He is also a former winner of the Turner Prize. Ofili was born in Manchester in 1968. He studied fine art at the Chelsea School of Art and completed a master's degree in painting at the Royal College of ...

Ignatius Sancho was the first African prose writer whose work was published in England. Ignatius Sancho was the first African prose writer whose work was published in England. A former slave and renowned shopkeeper, Sancho came to England at the age of two, it was 1731. The Duke of Montague made him presents of books to ...

Tom Molineaux was an American boxer who settled in Britain after seeking and winning the World Boxing Title. When Tom Molineaux reached the shores of England in 1809, He came to claim the world boxing title. Presumably Molineaux had partaken in his share of matches prior to his rise as Boxer in Great Britain. However, there ...

Randolph Turpin was a black British boxer in the 1940's/50s.? He has been described as the most exciting personality to grace the British boxing scene in the 1940s and 50s. Randolph came from a fighting family.? His elder brother , Dick, was the first black boxer to fight for and win a Lonsdale belt, his ...

Joseph Knight was  born in Africa, and taken as a slave to Jamaica.  He was sold to a Scottish landowner. He was taken to Scotland in 1769. Three years later a ruling in England (see Somersett's Case) cast doubt on the legality of slavery under the common law. Assuming this applied to the rest of ...