Celia, a 19-year-old enslaved Black woman whose white “owner” repeatedly raped her, kills him during an attempted rape and is later convicted and hanged.
June 22, 1961
Ten Interfaith Riders go on trial after being arrested for seeking service at segregated airport restaurant in Tallahassee, Florida, and face $500 fine or 30 days in jail.
June 21, 1940
Jesse Thornton, a Black man in Luverne, Alabama, is lynched for referring to a white police officer by his name, without using “Mr.”
June 20, 1940
After NAACP members try to register to vote in Brownsville, Tennessee, a mob of white men retaliates by abducting and lynching local NAACP secretary, Elbert Williams.
June 19, 1865
Months after the Emancipation Proclamation is signed, enslaved Black people in Texas finally learn about it when Union troops arrive and tell them the Confederacy lost the Civil War.
June 18, 2015
In Charleston, South Carolina, white teen who embraced racist ideology and wanted to start a “race war” is arrested for shooting nine Black people attending Bible study at Emanuel AME Church.
June 17, 1971
President Richard Nixon declares “War on Drugs,” contributing to 700% increase in U.S. prison population by 2007.
June 17, 1958
In California, 14 Mexican migrant workers die in burning bus.
June 16, 1963
South Carolina electrocutes George Stinney Jr., a 90-pound, Black, 14-year-old, after he is falsely accused of rape and murder; he is the youngest person executed in 20th century America.
June 15, 1920
Three Black circus workers are accused of raping a white woman and lynched by a mob of 10,000 in Duluth, Minnesota.