*Marion Thompson Wright was born on September 12, 1902. She was a Black scholar, educator, and activist. Marion Manola Thompson was born in East Orange, New Jersey, to Minnie Thompson and Moses R. Thompson. Wright was the youngest of four children and had two older twin sisters and a brother. She attended Barringer High School […]
learn more*The birth of Walter Hawkins is celebrated on this date in 1809. He was a Black bishop in the British Methodist Episcopal (BME) Church. From Georgetown, MD., as a child, his father worked to save enough to purchase his freedom. However, he could not afford to free his children. Young Hawkins grew up in the […]
learn more*Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States is celebrated on this date in 1937. On that date, John Lomax, then a national advisor for the Federal Writers Project, drew up questions for field workers to use to capture enslaved Africans’ oral histories in America. After 1916, The Journal of Negro History […]
learn more*On this date in 1933, the ‘Black Cabinet’ is celebrated. This was an unofficial group of Black advisors to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Beginning in 1933, Secretary of the Interior (and former Chicago NAACP president) Harold Ickes led an effort to open high-level civil servant positions to Black professionals. The first group of these professionals, […]
learn more*The birth of Rufus Buck is affirmed on this date in 1876. He was a Black Indigenous Indian outlaw who terrorized Arkansas and Oklahoma in the summer of 1895. Born to a Black mother and Creek father in about 1875, Rufus was in trouble from a young age, and by the time he was 18, […]
learn moreAbbé Youlou was born on July 19, 1917. He was a Black African Congolese Roman Catholic priest, nationalist leader, and politician. Abbé Fulbert Youlou, whose last name means “Grape” in the Lari language, was born in Madibou in Pool. At nine years old, a younger child in a family of three boys, he was baptized […]
learn more*Madeline W. Murphy was born on October 24, 1922. She was a Black writer and community activist. Madeline Wheeler was born in Boston and raised in Wilmington, Delaware. She was the second of three children of Arthur E. Wheeler, Sr., and Madeline (née Hall) Brooks. Murphy attended Wilmington public schools and graduated from Howard High […]
learn more*On this date in 1865, the 104th U.S. Colored Troops Infantry Regiment was formed. It was partially organized in Beaufort, South Carolina, by Orindatus Wall. The 104th had garrison and guard duty at various points in South Carolina till it was mustered out on February 5, 1866. To Have a Military Career
learn more*William H. Murphy, Sr. was born on this date in 1917. He was a Black lawyer, judge, and community activist. He was born into the Baltimore Black elite. His life was spent upholding the rights of the underprivileged. His concern for others came from his parents, who were both politically and socially active. His paternal […]
learn more*Madeline Murphy Rabb was born on this date in 1945. She was a Black art collector, dealer, and lover of art. Born in Wilmington, Delaware, she was the second of five children, the daughter of Madeline W. Murphy and William H. Murphy, Sr. After completing high school, Murphy attended the University of Maryland in 1961. […]
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