*On November 24, 1851, Institute, West Virginia was founded. Originally an all-Black town, Institute is an unincorporated community on the Kanawha River in Kanawha County, West Virginia. The town was founded by a Black former slave woman, Mary Barnes. She bequeathed land to her children that became Institute and later home to West Virginia State […]
learn more*Adelicia Hayes Franklin Acklen Cheatham was born on this date in 1817. She was a white-American planter and slave trader. Adelicia Hayes was born in Nashville, Tennessee. Her parents were Northerners: her father was Oliver Bliss Hayes, a lawyer and later Presbyterian minister from South Hadley, Massachusetts. Her mother was Sarah Clements (Hightower) Hayes. They […]
learn more*The Franklin and Armfield Office opened on February 28, 1828. This office of American slave trading is a historic commercial building in Alexandria, Virginia (until 1846, the District of Columbia). The 1315 Duke Street building is located just west of Alexandria’s Old Town, on the north side of Duke Street, between Southwest and South Payne […]
learn more*Isaac Franklin was born on this date in 1789. He was a white-American slave trader and plantation owner. Isaac Franklin was born in Sumner County, TN, to Mary (née Lauderdale) and James Franklin Sr., who came from western North Carolina. James Franklin Sr. served Lord Dunmore during the American Revolutionary War and assisted in the construction […]
learn more*Margaret Collins was born on this date in 1922. She was a Black entomologist (zoologist) and a civil rights advocate. Margaret James was born in Institute, West Virginia. Collins was the fourth child of Rollins James and Luella Bolling James. Institute was an all-Black town and a college town. Collins’s father earned his bachelor’s degree […]
learn more*Roger Guenveur Smith was born on this date in 1955. He is a Black actor, director, and writer. Roger Guenveur Smith was born in Berkeley, California, and was the son of Helen Guenveur, a dentist, and Sherman Smith, a judge. He attended Loyola High School in Los Angeles and graduated from Occidental College (American Studies) […]
learn more*Chi-Chi Nwanoku was born on this date in 1956. She is a Black British double bassist and professor of Historical Double Bass Studies. Chinyere Adah “Chi-Chi” Nwanoku was born in Fulham, London, and is of Nigerian and Irish descent. She is the oldest of her parents’ five children, Dr. Michael Nwanoku and his wife Margaret […]
learn more*Mary Armstrong was born on June 7, 1847. She was a Black slave and nurse. She was born Mary Adams into slavery near St. Louis, Missouri, on a plantation to Sam Adams and Silby. Mary, her baby sister, and her mother belonged to plantation owners William and Polly [Pauline] Cleveland. Mary’s father belonged to William Adams, a […]
learn more*The birth of Georgia Rooks Dwelle is celebrated on this date in 1884. She was a Black physician who specialized in obstetrics and pediatrics. Georgia Rooks Dwelle was born in Albany, Georgia, to former slaves Rev. George Henry Dwelle and Eliza (Dickerson) Dwelle. Her father was a founder of the Missionary Baptist Convention of Georgia […]
learn more*Lucreaty Clark was born on this date in 1903. She was a Black folk artist known for basket weaving. Lucreaty J. Clark was born in rural Jefferson County, Florida. She was one of the youngest sixteen children in a sharecropping family that worked on plantations, picking cotton and performing other farm-related tasks. She learned how to weave baskets […]
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