Black History Knowledge
Black History Knowledge — September 18
Sep
What happened on this day. These are the September 18 moments in Black history worth knowing, remembering, and passing on.
1850 — The Fugitive Slave Act turns the whole nation into slave country
On September 18, 1850, President Millard Fillmore signed the Fugitive Slave Act, compelling citizens and officials in free states to help capture people fleeing slavery and denying the accused any jury trial. The law put every Black person in the North at risk of kidnapping and drove thousands to Canada, while resistance to it radicalized the antislavery movement.
1895 — Booker T. Washington delivers the Atlanta Compromise
On September 18, 1895, Booker T. Washington addressed the Cotton States Exposition in Atlanta, urging Black Southerners to pursue economic self-improvement while accepting, for the moment, social segregation. The speech made him the most powerful Black leader in America and ignited the great debate with W. E. B. Du Bois over the path to freedom.
1948 — Ralph Bunche takes over the United Nations’ hardest job
On September 18, 1948, following the assassination of mediator Folke Bernadotte, American diplomat Ralph Bunche became acting United Nations mediator for Palestine. His patient negotiation of the 1949 armistice agreements earned him the Nobel Peace Prize, the first awarded to a Black person.
