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April 11, 1966 – Emmett Ashford became first black umpire in the Major Leagues Baseball.
April 12, 1983 – Harold Washington became first African American mayor of Chicago.
April 13, 1950 – Historian Carter G. Woodson, author of The Miseducation of the Negro, died.
April 14, 1775 – First abolitionist society in U.S. was founded in Philadelphia.
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April 15, 1964 – Sidney Poitier became 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 won Pulitzer Prize for fiction for The Color Purple.