Black History Knowledge — September 22

What happened on this day. These are the September 22 moments in Black history worth knowing, remembering, and passing on.

1862 — Lincoln issues the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation

On September 22, 1862, five days after Antietam, President Abraham Lincoln issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, declaring that enslaved people in states still in rebellion on January 1, 1863, would be forever free. The war for union became a war against slavery, a transformation Black abolitionists and freedom seekers had demanded from the start.

1906 — The Atlanta race massacre begins

On September 22, 1906, inflamed by false newspaper stories, white mobs began days of attacks on Black residents of Atlanta, killing dozens, destroying businesses, and assaulting people pulled from streetcars. The massacre devastated the city’s Black community and pushed young witnesses like Walter White toward lifetimes of civil rights work.

1950 — Ralph Bunche is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize

On September 22, 1950, the Nobel Committee awarded the Peace Prize to Ralph Bunche for mediating the 1949 armistice between Israel and the Arab states. The grandson of an enslaved man became the first Black person ever to receive a Nobel Prize.

1961 — Segregation is ordered out of interstate bus travel

On September 22, 1961, the Interstate Commerce Commission, pressed by Attorney General Robert Kennedy after the Freedom Rides, issued rules banning segregation in interstate buses and terminals effective that November. The Freedom Riders’ beatings and jail sentences had forced the federal government to act.