Black History Knowledge — September 16

What happened on this day. These are the September 16 moments in Black history worth knowing, remembering, and passing on.

1940 — The first peacetime draft becomes law with segregation intact

On September 16, 1940, President Franklin Roosevelt signed the Selective Training and Service Act, the nation’s first peacetime draft. The law barred discrimination in selection yet the military remained rigidly segregated, a contradiction Black leaders attacked throughout World War II with the Double V campaign for victory abroad and at home.

1966 — Leontyne Price opens the new Metropolitan Opera House

On September 16, 1966, the Metropolitan Opera opened its new home at Lincoln Center with the world premiere of Antony and Cleopatra, composed for soprano Leontyne Price. The daughter of a Mississippi sawmill worker stood at the absolute center of American high culture on its grandest night.

2016 — Terence Crutcher is killed by Tulsa police

On September 16, 2016, Terence Crutcher, an unarmed forty-year-old Black father whose SUV had stalled on a Tulsa street, was shot and killed by police officer Betty Shelby while his hands were raised. Video of the killing fueled national protests, and Shelby’s acquittal deepened calls for police accountability.