Today in history

March 2

1807
The U.S. Congress sought to end the slave trade by passing an act to “prohibit the importation of slaves into any port or place within the jurisdiction of the United States…from any foreign kingdom, place, or country.”
The first shipload of African captives to North America had arrived at Jamestown, Virginia, in August 1619, and the first American slave ship, named Desire, sailed from Marblehead, Massachusetts, in 1637. In total, nearly 15 million blacks were transported as slaves to the Americas. The African continent, meanwhile, lost approximately 50 million human beings to slavery and related deaths. Despite the federal prohibition, an additional 250,000 slaves would be imported illegally by the time the Civil War began.

1899
Congress allows railroad companies blanket approval for rights- of-way through Indian lands.

1955
Nine months before Rosa Parks made headlines, teenager Claudette Colvin was arrested in Montgomery, Alabama, for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white person.

Claudette Colvin