April 13, 1950 – Historian Carter G. Woodson, author of The Miseducation of the Negro, died.
April 14, 1775 – First abolitionist society in U.S. is founded in Philadelphia.
April 15, 1964 – Sidney Poitier becomes first black to win Academy Award for Best Actor for Lilies of the Field.
April 16, 1862 – Slavery abolished in the District of Columbia.
April 17, 1983 – Alice Walker wins Pulitzer Prize for fiction for The Color Purple.
April 18, 1864 – More than 200 black Union troops massacred by Confederate forces at Ft. Pillow, Tennessee.
April 19, 1972 – Stationed in Germany, Major Gen. Frederic E. Davidson becomes first black to lead an army division.
