Black History Knowledge — September 4

What happened on this day. These are the September 4 moments in Black history worth knowing, remembering, and passing on.

1781 — Los Angeles is founded by settlers of African descent

On September 4, 1781, forty-four pobladores founded El Pueblo de Los Ángeles under the Spanish flag. More than half of the founding settlers were of African or mixed African ancestry, meaning one of America’s greatest cities was built from its first day by Black and Afro-Latino families.

1875 — White terror strikes Clinton, Mississippi

On September 4, 1875, white paramilitaries attacked a Republican political rally in Clinton, Mississippi, then spent days hunting and killing Black residents, with estimates of the dead reaching fifty. The Clinton massacre was part of the violent Mississippi Plan that overthrew Reconstruction and stripped Black voters of political power.

1957 — Elizabeth Eckford faces the mob at Central High

On September 4, 1957, fifteen-year-old Elizabeth Eckford arrived alone at Little Rock Central High, where National Guardsmen turned her away and a screaming white mob surrounded her. The photograph of her composure amid hatred traveled around the world and became one of the defining images of the civil rights era.

2005 — Police kill unarmed civilians on the Danziger Bridge

On September 4, 2005, days after Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans police officers opened fire on unarmed Black civilians crossing the Danziger Bridge, killing seventeen-year-old James Brissette and forty-year-old Ronald Madison and wounding four others. Officers were later convicted in federal court of civil rights violations and covering up the shootings.