| November is Native American Heritage Month, also commonly referred to as American Indian and Alaska Native Heritage Month. In 1990, President George H. W. Bush approved a joint resolution designating November 1990 “National American Indian Heritage Month.” Similar proclamations, under variants on the name (including “Native American Heritage Month” and “National American Indian and Alaska Native Heritage Month”) have been issued each year since 1994. The month is a time to celebrate rich and diverse cultures, traditions, and histories and to acknowledge the important contributions of Native people to the U.S. Heritage Month is also an opportune time to educate the general public about tribes, to raise a general awareness about the unique challenges Native people have faced both historically and in the present, and the ways in which tribal citizens have worked to conquer these challenges. | |||||||||
 | “Movember” is a month-long fundraiser involving the growing of moustaches during the month of November to raise awareness for men’s health issues including prostate cancer, testicular cancer, mental health, and suicide. Movember is the only global charity focused solely on men’s health, and its mission is to help change the face of men’s health by encouraging men to talk and take action when it comes to prioritizing their mental and overall health and well-being. | ||||||||
| 1st | All Saints’ Day: A Christian holiday commemorating all known and unknown Christian saints. It is followed by All Souls’ Day on November 2nd to commemorate those who have passed within the faith. In Eastern Christianity, the day is observed on the first Sunday after Pentecost.Black National Anthem. On November 1st, 1900, brothers James Weldon Johnson (author, educator, and general secretary of the NAACP from 1920-1930) and John Rosamond Johnson composed the song “Lift Every Voice and Sing”, commonly referred to as “The Black National Anthem.” | ||||||||
| 2nd | On this day in 1804, Native American Sacagawea, while 6 months pregnant, met explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark during their exploration of the territory of the Louisiana Purchase. The explorers realized her value as a translator upon learning she spoke Hidatsa and Shoshone and could act as a translation link in communications with the Shoshone people who had horses that the explorers sought to purchase. Sacagawea delivered her son, Jean-Baptiste Charbonneau (known as Baptiste), on February 11, 1805. Then, on April 7, Sacagawea, Baptiste, and her husband, Toussaint Charbonneau, headed West with the 31 other members of Lewis and Clark’s expedition Corp. | ||||||||
| 3rd | In 1868 John W. Menard makes history as the first Black person elected to Congress. He was affiliated with the Republican party. Menard who was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1868, was then denied his seat by the House. | ||||||||
| In 1992, Carol Moseley Braun, angered by incumbent Democratic senator Alan Dixon‘s vote to confirm Clarence Thomas despite accusations of sexual harassment from Anita Hill, Moseley Braun challenged Dixon in the primary election for his seat.On November 3rd she became the first African American woman to be elected to the United States Senate, defeating Republican Richard S. Williamson. Moseley Braun was also the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate from Illinois and the first African American elected to the U.S. Senate as a Democrat. | |||||||||
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| 3rd | In 1993, The Hate Crimes Sentencing Enhancement Act is added as an amendment to the Violent Crime and Law Enforcement Act of 1994. It is later enacted. Six years later, on this same date, Aaron McKinney is found guilty in the murder of Matthew Shepard. In a deal that is approved by the Shepard family, McKinney avoids the death penalty and is sentenced to two consecutive life sentences with no chance for parole. | ||||||||
| TransParent DayEstablished in 2009, TransParent Day is celebrated each year on the first Sunday of November to celebrate parents who are transgender, in lieu of traditional Mother’s and Father’s Day. Over time it has evolved into a celebration and recognition of the love between transgender parents and their children as well as the love of transgender children and their parents. The day typically involves gift-giving and other acknowledgements of gratitude. | |||||||||
| 10th | On this day in 1960, Journalist Andrew Hatcher was named associate press secretary to President John F. Kennedy, becoming the first black press secretary. | ||||||||
| 11th | Vietnam Women’s MemorialSculpted by Glenna Goodacre and dedicated as part of the Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial on this day in 1993, the Vietnam Women’s Memorial is a memorial to honor the 265,000 U.S. nurses and women who voluntarily served in the Vietnam War. The memorial is located in National Mall in Washington, D.C. | ||||||||
| 1951 – Famed ballerina, Janet Collins becomes the first black dancer to appear with the Metropolitan Opera Company in New York. | |||||||||
| 13th | On November 13, 1956, in Browder v. Gayle, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a lower court’s decision declaring bus segregation unconstitutional under the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.The case was initially filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama by four women having disputes with the Montgomery, Alabama bus system. In June of 1956, a three-judge panel ruled2–1 that the bus segregation laws in Montgomery “deny and deprive plaintiffs and other Negro citizens similarly situated of the equal protection of the laws and due process of law secured by the Fourteenth Amendment.” (Browder v. Gayle, 1956). Following the U.S. Supreme Court’s November 1956 ruling, segregation on buses was outlawed. It took one month for the ruling to reach the city of Montgomery, Alabama, and while the ruling put an end to racial segregation on public buses, it did not put an end to racial prejudice. After the ruling, violence once again broke out in the South, with buses being fired on by snipers and the churches and homes of civil rights activists such as Martin Luther King, Jr. being attacked and bombed.On November 14, 1960, four federal marshals escorted six-year-old Ruby Bridges to her first day of first grade as the first Black student to attend previously all-white William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans, Louisiana. A riotous white mob organized by the local White Citizens’ Council gathered to protest her arrival, screaming hateful slurs, threats, and insults. After getting past the angry white crowd to enter the school, Ruby arrived in her assigned classroom to find that she and the teacher were the only two people present; it would remain that way for the rest of the school year. Within a week, nearly all of the white students assigned to the newly integrated elementary schools in New Orleans had withdrawn.Despite threats and retaliation against her family, including her grandparents’ eviction from the Mississippi farm where they worked as sharecroppers, Ruby remained at Frantz Elementary. The next year, Ruby advanced to the second grade, and the school’s incoming first grade class had eight Black students. | ||||||||
| 15th | 1950: Hockey player, Arthur Dorrington, becomes the first black person to sign an NHL contract, joining the New York Rangers organization. | ||||||||
| 1889: Brazil celebrates the Proclamation of the Republic – a military coup d’état that established the First Brazilian Republic. It overthrew the constitutional monarchy of the Empire of Brazil and ended the reign of Emperor Pedro II. | |||||||||
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| 16th | International Day for ToleranceIn 1996, the UN General Assembly (by resolution 51/95) invited UN Member States to observe the International Day for Tolerance on November 16th, with activities directed towards both educational establishments and the wider public. The UN founded this day to promote respect for diverse languages, ethnicities, cultures, and religions. Education is a key component of tolerance, and these tenets are more important in today’s society than ever before. | ||||||||
| 2004: President Bush announces his nomination of Condoleezza Rice as Secretary of State. She is the first black woman to serve in the position. | |||||||||
| 20th | Transgender Day of RemembranceStarted in 1999 by transgender advocate Gwendolyn Ann Smith as a vigil to honor the memory of Rita Hester, a transgender woman who was killed in 1998, this day now memorializes those who have been killed as a result of transphobia and seeks to raise awareness of the continued violence endured by the transgender community. | ||||||||
| 25th | 1981: The United Nations General Assembly has designated this day as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women (Resolution 54/134). The premise of the day is to raise awareness of the fact that women around the world are subject to rape, domestic violence, and other forms of violence; furthermore, one of the aims of the day is to highlight that the scale and true nature of the issue is often hidden. Women’s rights activists have observed the 25th of November as a day against gender-based violence since 1981. This date was selected to honor the Mirabal sisters, three political activists from the Dominican Republic who were brutally murdered in 1960 by order of the country’s ruler, Rafael Trujillo (1930-1961).1865: After the end of the Civil War and the adoption of the 13th Amendment, Mississippi adopted the South’s first “Black Codes,” creating a second servitude for former slaves. The new laws made it illegal for former slaves to stay in the state without jobs. Those with jobs, even children, were forced to sign long-term contracts and carry their work licenses at all times. An African American who ran away could be legally beaten. Other former slave states adopted their own Black Codes. | ||||||||
| 27th – 28th | Ascension of ‘Abdu’l-Baha (Baha’i)This day commemorates the life and death of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, eldest son and successor of Bahá’u’lláh, founder of the Bahá’í faith. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá passed away on November 28, 1921, at his home in Haifa, Palestine (now Israel). Observances on this day generally include prayers, music, and readings, ideally at 1:00 am, the time of his passing. | ||||||||
| 29th | 1861: At dawn, approximately 675 U.S. volunteer soldiers commanded by Colonel John M. Chivington attacked a village of about 750 Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians along Sand Creek in southeastern Colorado Territory. Over the course of eight hours, the troops killed around 230 Cheyenne and Arapaho people composed mostly of women, children, and the elderly. During the afternoon and following day, the soldiers wandered over the field committing atrocities on the dead before departing the scene on December 1st to resume campaigning. | ||||||||
| 30th | 1993: President Bill Clinton signs a military policy directive that prohibits openly gay and lesbian Americans from serving in the military, but also prohibits the harassment of “closeted” homosexuals. The policy is known as “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. | ||||||||
| Happy Birthday Shirley Chisholm! Shirley Anita St. Hill Chisholm (1924-2005) was the first African American woman elected to the U.S. Congress on November 5 (1968 In 1972, Chisholm became the first African American to run for a major party’s nomination for the U.S. presidency and the first woman ever to run for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination. | |||||||||
Sources:
https://libguides.moval.edu/c.php?g=1047109&p=7601668https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Willis-Menard
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