On Sept. 6, 1960 Rafer Johnson won the Olympic Decathlon--the first for an African American

Kendrick Meek, former highway patrolman, Florida state representative, and state senator, has served in the United States House of Representatives as a Democratic representative from Florida’s 17th District since 2003. Meek was born on September 6, 1966 in Miami, Florida, and is the son of former U.S. Representative Carrie Meek, who also represented Florida’s 17th District before her son took over her position.

Meek’s childhood was influenced by his mother’s role as an elected official.  He remembers sleeping under his mother’s desk at the Florida House Office Building on days when she worked late. Carrie Meek, whose grandmother was a slave, was the first African American elected to Congress from Florida since the Reconstruction. Kendrick Meek as a teenager understood her important symbolic role to the entire African American population of the state.  

Despite dyslexia, Meek worked his way through high school and attend Florida A&M University on a football scholarship. He graduated in 1989 with a degree in science.

After graduating, Meek joined the Florida Highway Patrol and was assigned to the security detail for Democratic Lieutenant Governor Buddy MacKay. Meek used the opportunity to further his knowledge of state politics, often attending political meetings when he was off duty.  During his four year career with the Florida Highway Patrol, Meek became the first African American to reach the rank of captain.

In 1994, Meek ran for the state legislature, and won when his opponent, State Representative Elaine Gordon (who was battling a brain tumor at the time), dropped out. Four years later, Meek easily won reelection.  While in the Florida House, Meek worked with Republicans in order to provide compensation for two African Americans who had been falsely convicted for murder 35 years earlier.

During his four years in the state Senate (1998-2002) Meek found himself embroiled in the national debate over the issue of affirmative action. Florida Governor Jeb Bush put forward a new program called One Florida,

Race riot, Charleston, South Carolina.

African American Jordan Freeman dies after killing Major William Montgomery in the Battle of Groton Heights

Idris Elba , in full Idrissa Akuna Elba (born September 6, 1972, London, England), British actor who was perhaps best known for his work on the television series The Wire and Luther.

Elba was born to immigrant working-class parents (his father was from Sierra Leone, and his mother was born in Ghana). He became interested in drama while attending school and was awarded a grant by the Prince’s Trust to join (1990) the National Youth Music Theatre. Beginning in his late teens, he worked as a disc jockey under the name DJ Big Driis (later Big Driis the Londoner) while auditioning for acting roles. From the mid-1990s he appeared often on British TV, his roles including recurring characters on Insiders (1997), Family Affairs (1997), and Dangerfield (1999).

Elba’s career break came on the HBO crime drama The Wire, in which for three seasons (2002–04) he played the financially savvy drug kingpin Russell (“Stringer”) Bell. He branched out into comedy on the American version of the sitcom The Office and into romance on the comedy-drama The Big C. Elba later earned critical acclaim as the complex antihero Detective Chief Inspector John Luther in the crime series Luther (2010–15). His interpretation of the brilliant but self-destructive Luther earned him a Golden Globe Award (2012) as well as three Emmy Award nominations and a BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) nod. Elba’s later TV credits include the miniseries Guerrilla (2017), about radical activists in 1970s London.

During this time, the imposing 6-foot 3-inch (1.9-metres) Elba also appeared on the big screen, having made his feature film debut in Belle maman (1999; Beautiful Mother). He subsequently appeared in such movies as 28 Weeks Later (2007), American Gangster (2007), and Obsessed (2009). In 2011 he joined the Marvel Comics universe as the Norse deity Heimdall in Thor (2011), a role that he reprised in Thor 2: The Dark World (2013) and Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015). The versatile actor earned critical acclaim for his moving portrayal of

Lee Roy Young becomes the first African American Texas Ranger in the police forces 165 year history.

Leander Jay Shaw, Jr., justice of the Florida State Supreme Court (1983), first African American chief justice (1990) in Florida, the second African American chief justice in any state supreme court, born

George Little Chocolate Dixon betas Jack Skelly in New Orleans to win the world featherweight title. While some African American citizens celebrate for two days, the New Orleans Times-Democrat says, It is a mistake to match a Negro and a white man ...to bring the races together on any terms of equality even in the prize ring.

President Lyndon B. Johnson named Walter E. Washington commissioner and unofficial mayor of Washington, D.C.

Birthday of singer, Macy Gray

Foxy Brown is an African American rap musician, model and actress. Her birth name is Inga DeCarlo Fung Marchand. She was born on September 6, 1978 in Brooklyn, New York. As a teenager, she won a talent contest, where she was discovered by the rapper LL Cool J’s production team. They were so impressed by her rapping skills that they signed her on to rap on LL Cool J’s upcoming album “I Shot Ya”. This was followed by appearances on several other artists’ songs and albums such as “You’re Makin’ Me High” by Toni Braxton and “Ain’t No Nigga” by Jay-Z. Her early success led to many labels singling her out and she eventually signed with Def Jam Records. She was also featured on the soundtrack of the 1996 film “The Nutty Professor” starring Eddie Murphy.

The same year, Brown released her debut album titled “Ill Na Na”. The album was produced by Trackmasters and sold more than 109,000 copies in the first week alone. It debuted at #7 on the Billboard 200 album charts. It included several performances from other artists such as Jay-Z, Blackstreet, Method Man and Kid Capri. It was eventually certified platinum, with two of the most popular singles being “Get Me Home” and “I’ll Be”. After the successful release of her debut album, Brown went on to form a band named “The Firm” along with hip hop super stars Nas, AZ and Nature. Their first album was titled “Nas, Foxy Brown, AZ, and Nature Present The Firm: The Album” which sold half a million records and was certified gold.

Brown’s second studio album, ‘Chyna Doll’ was released in 1999 and sold 173,000 copies in its opening week. Sales couldn’t keep up, but the album was eventually certified platinum. Her third album “Broken Silence” was released in 2001 and debuted on the Billboard charts at #5. Her album “Black Roses” remained unreleased due to legal troubles and her temporary hearing loss between 2005 and 2006. In 2007, Brown signed on to Koch Records with whom she released the street album “Brooklyn’s Don Diva. It reached #83 on the Billboard 200 chart.

Foxy Brown has

Thaddeus Stevens, powerful U.S. congressman, urged confiscation of estates of Confederate leaders and the distribution of land to adult freedmen in forty-acre lots.

Race riot, Atlanta.

Atlanta Life Insurance Company established by A.F. Herndon.

It is widely accepted that John Brown Russwurm was the first

Black to graduate college in America on September

6, 1826 at Bowdoin College. However, just 14 days before Edward

Jones graduated Amherst College in Massachusetts.

National Black Convention met in Cleveland with some seventy delegates. Frederick Douglass was elected president of the convention.

Foxy Brown, born

Sylvester James, American singer and songwriter, was born in the Watts section of Los Angeles, California to Sylvester James and Letha Weaver on September 6, 1947.

American dancer, choreographer, and scholar.

She was a pioneer in the use of folk and ethnic choreography, and considered one of the founders of the anthropological dance movement.

With Aida in 1963, she became the first Black to choreograph for the Metropolitan Opera in New York city.

Hendrik Verwoerd , in full Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd (born September 8, 1901, Amsterdam, Netherlands—died September 6, 1966, Cape Town, South Africa), South African professor, editor, and statesman who, as prime minister (1958–66), rigorously developed and applied the policy of apartheid, or separation of the races.

Independence Day - The Kingdom of Swaziland

Idrissa Akuna “Idris” Elba is a British actor best known for his roles in The Wire and Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom. He has been nominated four times for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in miniseries or Television Film which he won one and was nominated five times for a Primetime Emmy Award.

Elba was born in London, England, on September 6, 1972. His father, Winston, was a Sierra Leonean who worked in the Ford Motor Factory at Dagenham, and his mother, Eve, was Ghanaian who worked in various clerical jobs. Elba was raised in East Ham, a suburb of London. In 1986 he began to help in his uncle’s disk jockey (DJ) business, but within a year Elba started his own DJ company. In 1988 after graduating from school, Elba won a place in the National Youth Music Theatre after receiving a £1,500 Prince Trust grant.

Elba landed a number of minor British television roles while working with his father at the Ford Motor factory. In 1995 he got his first significant role on the British series Bramwell, a medical drama set in the 1890s England. Elba also landed roles on other British television series, including Absolutely Fabulous, The Bill, The Ruth Rendell Mysteries, Family Affairs, Ultraviolet, and Dangerfield. Elba came to the United States and lived in New York City, New York and New Jersey but still returned to England occasionally for television roles.

Elba’s big break in U.S. television came when he starred as a Baltimore, Maryland drug crime boss named Russell “Stringer” Bell on HBO drama series The Wire for three seasons from 2002 to 2004. In 2005 he portrayed Captain Augustin Muganza in the HBO film Sometimes in April, which depicted the Rwandan genocide. Elba had a lead role in Tyler Perry’s film Daddys Little Girls (2007), playing the character Monty, a blue collar mechanic who falls in love with the attorney who helps him get custody of his kids from his former wife. He also appeared in 28 Weeks Later (2007), This Christmas (2007), RocknRolla (2008), and Obsessed (2009) with Beyoncé Knowles.  Elba continued