Black History Knowledge
Black History Knowledge — November 8
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What happened on this day. These are the November 8 moments in Black history worth knowing, remembering, and passing on.
1892 — Black and white workers begin the New Orleans general strike
On November 8, 1892, tens of thousands of New Orleans workers, Black and white, walked off the job in support of the ‘Triple Alliance’ of teamsters, scalesmen and packers, who demanded a ten-hour day and union recognition. Newspapers tried to split the strikers along racial lines, but the unions held together. The strike ended on November 12 with shorter hours and higher pay but no formal union recognition.
1938 — Crystal Bird Fauset is elected to the Pennsylvania House
On November 8, 1938, Philadelphia voters elected Crystal Bird Fauset, a Democratic organizer and social worker, to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. She became the first African American woman elected to a state legislature in the United States. She later advised Eleanor Roosevelt and worked in the federal Office of Civilian Defense.
1966 — Edward Brooke is elected to the U.S. Senate
On November 8, 1966, Massachusetts attorney general Edward Brooke, a Republican, was elected to the U.S. Senate. He was the first African American elected to the Senate by popular vote and the first Black senator since Blanche K. Bruce left in 1881. He served two terms and, with Senator Walter Mondale, added the fair-housing provisions to the Civil Rights Act of 1968.
1983 — W. Wilson Goode is elected Philadelphia’s first Black mayor
On November 8, 1983, W. Wilson Goode, the city’s former managing director, was elected mayor of Philadelphia, the first African American to hold the office. He served two terms. In May 1985, under his administration, police dropped a bomb on the MOVE house on Osage Avenue; the fire killed 11 people, including five children, and destroyed more than 60 homes.
2022 — Wes Moore is elected governor of Maryland
On November 8, 2022, Wes Moore, an author, Army veteran and former nonprofit chief executive, was elected governor of Maryland. He became the state’s first Black governor and only the third African American elected governor of any U.S. state. He took office in January 2023.
