1926 – Theodore Flowers Becomes Middleweight Boxing Champion
On this day in 1926, Theodore “Tiger” Flowers defeats Harry Greb in a boxing match at Madison Square Garden, becoming the first African American middleweight champion in boxing history.
Flowers, often dubbed, The Georgia Deacon, was known to carry his Bible into the ring and recited passages from Psalm 144 before every match he fought. He is the second African American to try for a world boxing title, and defended his position in a rematch against Greb 6 months later.
1928 – Fats Domino is Born
Fats Domino, born February 26, 1928, in New Orleans, became one of rock ’n’ roll’s earliest superstars. His 1949 hit “The Fat Man” was among the first rock records to sell a million copies, launching a run of 37 Top 40 hits.
Domino sold more than 65 million records, making him one of the best-selling artists of the 1950s. A charter inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986 and a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award recipient, he remains a foundational figure in music history.
1965 – Jimmie Lee Jackson Passes Away
Jimmie Lee Jackson died on February 26, 1965, eight days after being shot during a peaceful protest in Marion, Alabama. His painful death at age 26 shocked the nation and exposed the brutality faced by Black voting-rights activists in the South.
His funeral, where Martin Luther King Jr. delivered a powerful eulogy, galvanized the movement. Southern Christian Leadership Conference leaders organized the Selma-to-Montgomery march, and the violent attack on demonstrators on “Bloody Sunday” intensified national outrage. The events following Jackson’s death helped drive passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 later that year.