November 20
Zumbi dos Palmares Killed
Zumbi dos Palmares, the last king of Quilombo dos Palmares, was betrayed and killed by Portuguese forces on November 20, 1695. He had led the quilombo's resistance against colonial forces for years after refusing a peace treaty that would have granted freedom only to those born in Palmares. His death date, November 20, is now celebrated as Dia da Consciência Negra (Black Consciousness Day) across Brazil.
Quilombo dos Palmares Founded in Brazil
Quilombo dos Palmares was a self-governing community of escaped enslaved Africans in present-day Alagoas, Brazil. At its peak, it had a population of over 20,000 people and survived for nearly a century (c. 1605–1694). Led most famously by Zumbi dos Palmares, the community resisted repeated Portuguese and Dutch military expeditions and became a powerful symbol of Black resistance throughout the Americas.
Pauli Murray Born
Born November 20, 1910, Pauli Murray was a pioneer whose legal arguments against segregation influenced Thurgood Marshall's Brown v. Board strategy. Ruth Bader Ginsburg later cited Murray's work in her arguments for gender equality. Murray was also a co-founder of the National Organization for Women.
Dorothy Vaughan Becomes NASA's First Black Supervisor
In 1949, Dorothy Vaughan was promoted to head the West Area Computing unit at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), becoming its first African American supervisor. She later became an expert FORTRAN programmer. Her story was featured in "Hidden Figures."