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Ngugi wa Thiong’o, the famed Kenyan novelist and cultural critic, was born on this day in 1938 in Limuru, Kenya.

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On this day in 1911, Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc was founded at Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana.

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George Washington Carver made his name as an agricultural scientist and creator of products derived from soybeans, potatoes, and peanuts. He is reported to have developed over 300 products from peanuts. He died on this day in 1943.

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Choreographer Alvin Ailey was born on this day in 1931 in Rogers, Texas.

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“My friends, I must say to you that we have not made a single gain in civil rights without determined legal and nonviolent pressure. Lamentably, it is an historical fact that privileged groups seldom give up their privileges voluntarily. Individuals may see the moral light and voluntarily give up their unjust posture; but, as Reinhold Niebuhr has reminded us, groups tend to be more immoral than individuals.

We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. Frankly, I have yet to engage in a direct action campaign that was "well timed" in the view of those who have not suffered unduly from the disease of segregation. For years now I have heard the word "Wait!" It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This "Wait" has almost always meant ‘Never." We must come to see, with one of our distinguished jurists, that "justice too long delayed is justice denied.’ We have waited for more than 340 years for our constitutional and God given rights.”

MLK, Jr, ‘Letter from Birmingham Jail’