This Day in History: 2017-11-14
November 8, 2016 – “Minnesota Elects Country’s First Muslim American Woman Legislator”
Ilhan Omar became the first Muslim American woman elected to any legislative body in the country’s history. Omar, a Somali-American, is a former refugee and was elected to serve in Minnesota’s state legislature. In order to win her party’s nomination in Minneapolis, where she serves, she had to defeat a 44-year incumbent. She is an advocate for affordable college, criminal justice reform, economic equality and clearn energy.
1773 - “Phillis Wheatley's 'Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral' Published” "Phillis Wheatley, the first professional African-American woman poet, became the first African-American woman whose writings were published with the printing of this volume. The book was published by Archibald Bell, the leading bookseller and printer London at the time, who required proof that Wheatley had written the poems herself. The volume of poems, 39 in all, broke barriers for African-American writers, as it was illegal in several of the states in the U.S. for a slave to learn how to read or write."