People, Locations, Episodes

John Mason Brewer, Folklorist, and Teacher born

*John Mason Brewer was born on this date in 1896. He was an African American author, scholar, teacher, historian, folklorist, and storyteller.

Brewer was born in Goliad, Texas, the son of a cowboy J. H. and Minnie T. Brewer. His sister, Stella Brewer Brooks, an authority on Joel Chandler Harris and the Uncle Remus tales, shared his interest in folklore. Educated in Austin, he advanced through Wiley College to a master’s degree from Indiana and Ph.D. from Paul Quinn College.

Catherine Allen Latimer, Librarian born

*This date in 1896 is celebrated as the birth date of Catherine Allen Latimer, a Black researcher and librarian.   Catherine Bosley Allen was born in Nashville, TN, in 1896 to Minta Bosley and H. W. Allen. Although she and her family were Black, Catherine was light-skinned and listed in the 1910 and 1930 censuses […]

Roarck Bradford, Writer, and Editor born

*Roark Bradford was born on this date in 1896. He was a white-American short story writer and novelist. From Lauderdale County, Tennessee, Roark Whitney Wickliffe Bradford attended the University of California, Berkeley, and served as a first lieutenant in the Coast Artillery. He did most of his newspaper work for The Times-Picayune, where he worked or […]

Theodore Boone, Lawyer born.

Theodore Sylvester Boone was born on this date in 1896. He was an African American attorney, pastor, author, and editor.

Born in Winchester, Texas, Boone was the son of Alexander and Lillian (Chaney) Boone. He attended Terrell High School in Terrell, Texas, and a number of universities, including Prairie View A&M and Bishop College in Texas. From 1918 to 1920, he studied at Des Moines University and the University of Iowa. In 1921, one year after graduation, he wrote a book titled “Paramount Facts in Race Development.”

Rudolph Fisher, Writer, and Gastroenterology Specialist born

Rudolph Fisher was born in Washington, DC on this date in 1897. He was an African American physician, roentgen logy specialist, novelist, short story writer, dramatist, musician, and orator.

Josephine Schuyler, Author born

*Josephine Schuyler was born on this date in 1897. She was a white-American author and poet.   Josephine Cogdell was born into a wealthy family in Granbury, Hood County, Texas. She was the youngest of seven children of Daniel Calhoun Cogdell and Lucy Norfleet Duke. She was a white woman born to great wealth and privilege […]

Edythe Mae Gordon, Writer and Poet born

*The birth of n is celebrated on this date in 1897.  She was a Black writer of short stories and poetry during the era of the Harlem Renaissance. Edythe Mae Chapman was born in Washington, D.C., and raised by members of her mother’s family, surnamed Bicks. She was educated at M Street School and graduated in 1916. […]

George Dawson, Author, and Laborer born

George Dawson was born on this date in 1898. He was an African American author and laborer and one of the oldest men in America to learn to read and write a book.

The grandson of a slave, Dawson was born in a log cabin in Marshall, Texas, the oldest of five children. The family lived in a three-room cabin, with an outhouse out back and a small barn. He started working full time for his father when he was just four, hauling water from the well, working the cotton fields, hand-combing the cotton, and feeding the family’s few chickens and lone mule. School was not an option.

Melvin Tolson, Poet, and Educator born

Melvin Tolson was born on this date in 1898. He was an African American writer, educator, politician, and poet.

Marita Bonner, Author born

On this date in 1898, Marita Bonner was born. She was an African American writer closely associated with the Harlem Renaissance.

One of four children, Bonner was born in Boston to Joseph Andrew and Mary Anne (Noel) Bonner. She was raised and educated in Boston, attended Brookline School, where she received musical training and began mastering German. In 1918, she entered Radcliff College, and was absorbed in English and comparative literature.

Gunnar Myrdal, Swedish Author, born.

*Gunnar Myrdal was born on this date in 1898. He was a white Swedish economist, author, and sociologist. Myrdal’s writing used social economics to illuminate 20th-century American racism. Karl Gunnar Myrdal was born in Skattungbyn, Sweden, to Karl Adolf Pettersson, a building contractor, and his wife, Anna Sofia Karlsson. He took the name Myrdal in 1914 after […]

Eric Walrond, Journalist born.

*On this date, in 1898, Eric Walrond was born. He was an Afro Guyanese writer and journalist.  Eric Derwent Walrond was born in Georgetown, British Guiana, to a Barbadian mother and a Guyanese father. When he was eight, his family moved to live with relatives in Barbados, where he attended St. Stephen’s Boys’ School, then Panama when the Panama Canal was being […]

Abram Harris, Economist born

Abram Harris, an African American economist, was born on the date in 1899 in Richmond, Virginia.

Arthur Fauset, Folklorist born

*Arthur Fauset was born on this date in 1899. He was a Black activist, anthropologist, folklorist, and educator. Born in Flemington, New Jersey, Arthur Huff Fauset grew up in Philadelphia. He was the middle child of three children in an interracial family. His father, Redmon Fauset, was a Black African minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, and his white wife, Bella, […]

May Miller, Playwright, and Poet born

*On this date we celebrate the birth of May Miller in 1899. She was an African American playwright and poet associated with New York’s Harlem Renaissance during the 1920s.

Born in Washington, D.C., the daughter of a Howard University sociologist, Miller grew up in an intellectual household in which W.E.B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington were frequent guests. She graduated from Howard University in 1920, while there she earned an award for her one-act play Within the Shadows. Afterwards she taught secondary school and continued to write.