This Week in History, October 3–9:
Contributions of African-Americans
   
Note: Here, learn about some of the African-Americans who have influenced history and contributed to the culture we now enjoy. To learn more about each individual, click on that person's name. Information for "This Week in History" is taken from the African American Registry.

October 3
On this day in 1881, mathematician Dudley Weldon Woodard was born. Only the second African-American to receive a Ph.D. in mathematics, he established the mathematics library at Howard and sponsored several professorships and many scholarly seminars in mathematics. Woodard devoted his entire professional life to the promotion of excellence in mathematics through the advancement of his students, teaching, and research.

October 4
On this day in 1913, writer Carrie Allen McCray was born. In addition to several books and a first-person memoir, she is a prolific writer of poetry.

October 5
On this day in 1932, lawyer and politician Yvonne Burke was born. The first Black woman to be elected to the California State Legislature, she served three terms in the United States House of Representatives as a Democrat from California.

October 6
On this day in 1767, revolutionary and king Henri Christophe was born. A soldier in both the Haitian and the American Revolutionary War, he was elected president of Haiti's Northern State before creating the first Black kingdom in the Western Hemisphere. At a council of state on March 28, 1811, he declared Haiti a kingdom, with himself as King Henri I.

October 7
On this day in 1912, African-American administrator and churchwoman Charleszetta Campbell Waddles was born. She founded Detroit's Perpetual Mission, which still serves more than 90,000 people a year and provides emergency aid, job training, a graphic arts program, and a culinary arts school.

October 8
On this day in 1992, African-American poet Derek Walcott was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, becoming the first Black to achieve that honor. Also on this day in 2004, Kenyan ecologist Wangari Maathai became the first African woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. In 1977, she founded the Green Belt Movement, the largest tree-planting project in Africa.

October 9
On this day in 1823, abolitionist Mary Ann Shadd was born. The first Black woman to obtain a law degree from Howard University, she fought alongside Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton for women's suffrage, testifying before the Judiciary Committee of the House of Representatives and becoming the first Black woman to cast a vote in a national election.