*Anne Hampton was born on this date in 1808. She was a free Black domestic and chef. She was raised in Hudson Falls, New York, and was of African, Indigenous, and European ancestry. In 1829, she married Solomon Northup, and she gave birth to their children Elizabeth in 1831, Margaret in 1833, and Alonzo Northup […]
learn more*Samuel Bass’s birth is celebrated on October 30, 1807. He was a white-Canadian laborer and abolitionist. Bass was born and raised in Augusta Township, Upper Canada (now Ontario). His parents were John and Hannah Lakins Bass, who had twelve children. His grandparents, Adonijah and Lydia Draper Bass were United Empire Loyalists who lived in Walloomsac, […]
learn more*Rita Obama’s birth is celebrated on this date in 1960. She is a Black Kenyan-British community activist, sociologist, journalist, and author. Rita Auma Obama is from Nairobi, Kenya, and is the daughter of Barack Obama Sr. and his first wife, Kezia Obama (née Aoko). She is Barack Obama’s older half-sister. After attending a local elementary […]
learn more*This date in 1918 celebrates the founding of the African Progress Union (APU), which was founded in London as “an Association of Africans from various parts of Africa, the West Indies, British Guiana, Honduras, and America, representing advanced African ideas in liberal education.” The first president was John Archer. He was succeeded in 1921 by […]
learn more*Celestine Edwards was born on this date in 1857. He was an Afro Dominican editor, public speaker, author, and anti-racist activist. Samuel Jules Celestine Edwards was born in Dominica. According to Edwards’ essays, published in Lux and Fraternity journals, he left Dominica in 1870 and worked odd jobs on ships. He also lived in America […]
learn more*Benjamin Matthews was born on this date in 1933. He was a Black classic (bass-baritone) singer and opera administrator. Benjamin Matthews was born in Prichard, Alabama. After moving to Chicago for high school, he enlisted in the Army, where he won second place in an all-Army singing contest. After the military, he joined the Chicago […]
learn more*The African Blood Brotherhood (ABB) is celebrated on this date in 1919. Sometimes referred to as the African Liberation and Redemption, this was a U.S. Black liberation organization established in 1919 in New York City by journalist Cyril Briggs. The summer of 1919 in America was a time of racial rioting and violence, remembered retrospectively by […]
learn more*On this date in 1900, the First Pan-African Conference began. This three-day event was in London just before the Paris Exhibition of 1900 “to allow tourists of African descent to attend both events”). On September 24, 1897, Henry Sylvester Williams was instrumental in responding to the European partition of Africa that followed the 1884 Berlin Conference. The formation […]
learn more*Samuel H. Davis was born on this date in 1810. He was a Black minister, teacher, and community leader. Davis was born in Temple Mills, Maine. Samuel, Sr., was born into slavery in 1782 in Lunenburg, New York, near the Hudson River, later known as Athens, in Greene County, NY. (4) His father’s father was […]
learn more*Blaise Diagne was born on this date in 1872. He was a Black Senegalese and French political leader. He was born Gnagna Anthony Pereira Diagne in Gorée to a Senegalese Lebu father (Niokhor Diagne), a cook and sailor, and a Manjack mother of Guinea-Bissau origin. They baptized him as “Blaise.” He studied in France before joining the […]
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