Black History Knowledge
Black History Knowledge — June 27
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What happened on this day. These are the June 27 moments in Black history worth knowing, remembering, and passing on.
1911 — Tom Allen and Joe Watts are lynched in Georgia
On June 27, 1911, Tom Allen and Joe Watts were lynched by a white mob in Walton County, Georgia. The mob acted after a judge refused to provide protection, showing how racial terror often operated with the failure, silence, or cooperation of the legal system.
1991 — Thurgood Marshall announces his retirement from the Supreme Court
On June 27, 1991, Justice Thurgood Marshall announced his retirement from the United States Supreme Court. His retirement marked the closing of a historic judicial era shaped by his work as a civil rights lawyer, architect of the Brown v. Board of Education legal strategy, and the first Black Supreme Court justice.
2023 — The International African American Museum opens to the public
On June 27, 2023, the International African American Museum opened to the public in Charleston, South Carolina. Built at Gadsden’s Wharf, a major arrival point for enslaved Africans, the museum connects slavery, memory, genealogy, resistance, and Black cultural survival.
