AUGUST 18, 1963: James Meredith becomes the first Arrican American to graduate from the University of Mississippi.

AUGUST 19, 1989: Bishop Desmond Tutu defies apartheid laws by walking alone on a South African beach.

AUGUST 20, 1619: The first group of twenty Africans is brought to Jamestown, Va.

AUGUST 21, 1904: Bandleader and composer William “Count” Basie is born in Red Bank, N.J.

AUGUST 22, 1978: Kenyan president and revolutionary Jomo Kenyatta dies.

AUGUST 23, 1900: Booker T. Washington forms the National Negro Business League in Boston, Mass.

AUGUST 24, 1948: Eidith Mae Irby becomes the University of Arkansas’ first African American student.