People, Locations, Episodes

Mary Burnett Talbert, Educator, and Activist born

*Mary B. Talbert was born on this date in 1866. She was an African American teacher, clubwoman and civil rights activist.

Shorter College is Founded

*On this date in 1866, we celebrate the founding of Shorter College.  They are a private, historically black junior college (HBCU) in North Little Rock, Arkansas. It was founded as Bethel Institute by the African Methodist Episcopal Church and offered bachelor’s degrees until 1955. The Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools accredits it. Daisy […]

Dock J. Jordan, Educator, and Author born

*D. J. Jordan was born on this date in 1866. He was a Black lawyer, author, politician, educator, historian, and activist.    Dock Jackson Jordan was born to Giles and Julia Jordan in Cuthbert, Georgia. Giles Dolphus Jordan was born a slave in 1840 in South Carolina and died in 1898 in Early County, Georgia. […]

The Colored School of Watsonville, CA., Opens For Classes

On this date in 1866, The Colored School in Watsonville, CA, was established.

James Diggs, Activist, College President, and Pastor born

*James Diggs was born on this date in 1866. He was a Black activist, college president, and pastor. From Upper Marlboro, Maryland, James Robert Lincoln Diggs was the son of John Henry Diggs and Mary Virginia Clark Diggs. Little is known about his childhood or youth. Diggs lived in Washington, D.C., in 1885 when he […]

Howard University is Founded

On this date in 1866, Howard University, one of over 100 Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU)’s in America, was founded.

General Oliver O. Howard established Howard Theological Seminary in an abandoned dance hall, today called Howard University. From its outset, it was nonsectarian and open to people of both sexes and all races..

With a campus covering 89 acres in northwest Washington D.C., more than 11,000 students, including 7,000 undergraduates, are currently enrolled there and 88 per cent are African American.

Rust College is Founded

Rust College, one of the first institutions of higher education in Mississippi was founded on this date in 1866. It is one of over 100 Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) in America.

Rust College was organized by missionaries from the North who opened a school in Asbury Methodist Episcopal Church, where Moses Adams, a local Black preacher, was pastor. The school accepted adults of all ages, as well as children, for instruction in elementary subjects. A year later the first building on the present campus was erected.

Elizabeth Carter Brooks, Educator, and Preservationist born

*This date in 1867 is celebrated as the birth date of Elizabeth Carter Brooks, a Black educator, social activist, and architect. Elizabeth Carter was born in New Bedford, Massachusetts. Her mother, Martha Webb, was a former slave owned by President John Tyler and involved with the Underground Railroad. Her daughter developed a “passion for equality” […]

Charles Turner, Zoologist, and Inventor born

*On this date in 1867, Charles Turner was born in Cincinnati, Ohio. He was an African American zoologist and inventor.

Alabama State University Begins Classes

*On this date, 1867, Alabama State University (ALASU) was founded. It is a public Historically Black University (HBCU) in Montgomery, Alabama, and a Thurgood Marshall College Fund member school. ALASU began as the Lincoln Normal School of Marion in Marion, Ala. In December 1873, the State Board accepted the transfer of title to the school after a legislative act was passed authorizing […]

Morehouse College is Founded

*On this date we celebrate the founding of Morehouse College in 1867. This is a private institution for men, located in Atlanta, Georgia. Morehouse College is a member of the 39 United Negro College Fund lists of higher learning institutions.

Johnson C. Smith University is Founded

*On this date in 1867, Johnson C. Smith University was founded. It is one of over 100 historically Black colleges and universities in America.

Howard High School (Wilmington, Delaware) is Founded

The founding of Howard High School in Wilmington, Delaware in 1867 is celebrated on this date.

For more than a century this historic institution played a central role in educating the Black Community of Wilmington, Delaware. The Society for the Improvement of Morals of the People of African Descent was active in its beginning. The school was named for General Oliver Otis Howard, who worked with the Freedmen’s Bureau. Edwina B. Kruse served as Howard’s first principal between 1871 and 1922. From 1902 to 1920, Alice Dunbar Nelson was a teacher and administrator there.

The Howland Chapel School (Virginia) Opens

*The Howland Chapel School was opened on this date in 1867.  This historic school was for Black students near Heathsville, Northumberland County, Virginia. The building is a rare, little-altered Reconstruction-era schoolhouse built to serve the children of former slaves. The building’s construction was funded by New York educator, reformer, and philanthropist Emily Howland, for whom it is named. […]

Emma Hackley, Music Educator born

On this date in 1867, Emma Azalia Smith Hackley was born. She was an African American classical singer, social worker, writer, philanthropist, and activist who championed the use of the Black spiritual among her own people as a tool for social change.

Emma Smith was born in Murfreesboro, TN, the daughter of Henry and Corilla Smith, a blacksmith and a schoolteacher. Corilla Smith had established a school to teach freed black people and their children, but white hostility drove the family out and they moved to Detroit.