People, Locations, Episodes

Pura Belpré, Afro Puerto Rican Writer born

*Pura Belpré was born on this date in 1899. She was an Afro Puerto Rican writer, folktale collector, and puppeteer. Belpré was born in Cidra, Puerto Rico.  She graduated from Central High School in Santurce, Puerto Rico, in 1919 and enrolled at the University of Puerto Rico in Río Piedras, where she originally planned on […]

Ethel Ray Nance, Writer born

*Ethel Ray Nance was born on this date in 1899. She was a Black writer, activist, and administrator.   Ethel Ray was born in Duluth, Minnesota. She was the youngest of four children born to William H. Ray, a Black man from North Carolina and a white-American Swedish mother. She was raised in Iowa by a […]

Lydia Cabrera, Afro Cuban Writer, and Activist born

Lydia Cabrera was born on this date in 1899. She was an Afro Cuban writer and literary activist.

Frank Horne, Poet, and Optometrist born

*Frank Horne was born on this date in 1899. He was an African American optometrist, administrator and poet.

Marcus B. Christian, Poet, and Teacher born

*Marcus B. Christian was born on this date in 1900. He was an African American poet, and educator.

From Mechanicsville (Houma), LA, he was the son of Emanuel and Rebbecca (Harris) Christian, Sr. Marcus Bruce Christian was educated at Houma Academy in New Orleans, from 1906-1913. He and his family moved to New Orleans in 1919. Christian also started Bluebird Cleaners in 1926. From 1932-1976, his writing career began and flourished with the Louisiana Weekly, New Orleans, as poetry editor and as a special feature writer.

Wilhemina Crosson, Educator, Writer, and Administrator born

*Wilhelmina Crosson was born on this date in 1900. She was a Black educator and school administrator known for her innovative teaching methods. Wilhelmina Marguerita Crosson was born in Rutherford, New Jersey, to Charles Tasker Crosson and Sallie Alice Davis Crosson. She was the fourth of nine children. 1906, Crosson moved with her family to […]

The Colored American Magazine is Published

*May 19, 1900 celebrates the first publication of the Colored American Magazine (CAM). This was one of the first monthly magazines created for the national African American consumer.

Lewis Alexander, Writer and Playwright born

*Lewis Alexander was born on this date in 1900. He was and African American writer and actor.

Cyril Lionel James, Journalist born

Cyril Lionel Robert James was born on this date in 1901. He was an Afro Trinidadian journalist, socialist theorist, and writer.

James was born in Trinidad and Tobago, then a British Crown colony. The son of a schoolteacher from Tunapuna, Trinidad, he was strongly influenced by his mother who was an avid reader.

Sterling Brown, Professor, and Poet born

Sterling Allen Brown was born on this date in 1901. He was an African American English professor and literary critic whose poetry was rooted in folklore sources and Black dialect.

He was born in Washington, D. C., the son of a professor at Howard University. His father, Reverend Sterling Nelson Brown, had been born a slave but after the Civil War, he managed to attend Fisk University and Oberlin College, became a pastor, and later a professor of religion at Howard. His mother was also a graduate of Fisk University.

Regina Anderson, Playwright, and Librarian born

This date celebrates the birth of Regina M. Anderson in 1901. She was an African American librarian, playwright, and patron of the arts.

Up from Slavery (the book) is published

*Up from Slavery is celebrated on this date in 1901. This book is the autobiography of Black educator Booker T. Washington. The book was first published as a serial in 1900 in The Outlook, a Christian newspaper of New York. It was serialized so that Washington could receive feedback from his audience during the writing […]

Clarrisa Scott Delaney, Poet and Social Worker born

The birth of Clarissa Scott Delaney in 1901 is celebrated on this date. She was an African American educator, poet, and social worker.

Gwendolyn Bennett, Poet, and Artist born

Gwendolyn Bennett was born on this date in 1902. She was an African American poet, essayist, short-story writer, and artist who was a vital figure in the Harlem Renaissance.

Nicolas Guillén, Afro Cuban Poet born

Nicolas’ Guillen was born on this date in 1902. He was an Afro Cuban poet, writer, journalist, and social activist.

From Camageuey, Cuba, he was the sixth child of Argelia Batista y Arrieta and Nicolas’ Guillen y Urra, both of whom were of mixed African-Spanish decent. Guillen’s fathe, a journalist, introduced him to Afro-Cuban music when he was very young. His father was assassinated by the Cuban government, and as Nicolas and his brothers and sister finished school in pre-revolutionary Cuba, they encountered the same racism Black Americans lived with before the 1950s.