*Beuford Smith was born on April 12, 1936. He was a Black photographer and educator. Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, his father, Theodore Smith, worked as a porter, and his mother, Beulah Conner Smith, managed the household. Smith was an only child. He developed an interest in photography at a young age and taught himself photography. […]
learn more*Black history and theatre or stage performance are affirmed on this date in 1500. Excluding performing arts, stage/theater productions have a rich, diverse, and profound history and culture. From the early African griots to Broadway performances, Black performers and creators have played a pivotal role in shaping the global landscape of theater. These actors have […]
learn more*On this date in 1881, the United Links Party held its first convention. In 1880, Benjamin Singleton was called to testify at Congressional hearings on the migration of Blacks from the South. By 1881, however, Singleton had begun a new phase in his campaign to aid his people, organizing a party called the ‘United Colored […]
learn more*The Readjuster Party was founded on this date in 1879. They were a bi-racial state-level political party formed in Virginia across party lines. Formed during the turbulent period following the Reconstruction era, they sought to reduce the state’s outstanding debt. Readjusters aspired “to break the power of wealth and established privilege” among the planter elite […]
learn more*Louis Draper was born on this date in 1935. He was a Black art photographer. Louis Hansel Draper was born in Richmond, Virginia. He and his sister Nell attended a private Catholic school near Richmond, the Van deVere Institute, and Virginia Randolph High School in Glen Allen, VA. In 1953, he enrolled in Virginia State […]
learn more*On this date in 1976, for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf premiered. Ntozake Shange wrote this theatrical play. It consists of a series of poetic monologues to be accompanied by dance movements and music, a form which Shange coined the word choreopoem to describe. It tells the stories […]
learn more*Who Speaks for the Negro? It was published on this date in 1965. This is a book of interviews by Robert Penn Warren conducted with 20th-century American Civil Rights Movement activists. In preparation for the book, Warren traveled throughout the United States in early 1964 and spoke with many men and women who were involved […]
learn more*Marian Croak was born on May 14, 1955. She is a Black engineer and inventor known for her voice-over IP (VoIP) related inventions. Dr. Marian Rogers Croak was born and raised in New York City. She credits her lifelong interest in technology to her father. While he did not have formal education beyond elementary school, […]
learn more*On this date in 1849, we celebrate Colored School #4. This school was built in New York City as an early segregated education building for Black students. The former Colored School No. 4 is a three-story mid-block brick school building constructed in 1849-50 on West 17th Street in the Chelsea neighborhood. It is the only […]
learn more*Joan Howard was born on this date in 1848. She was a Black educator and principal. Joan Imogen Howard was born in Boston. Her father, Edwin Frederick Howard, was a well-known citizen of that City, and her mother, Joan Louise Turpin Howard, was a native of New York. She had one sister, Adeline Turpin Howard, […]
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