People, Locations, Episodes

Hester C Jeffery, Activist, Suffagist born

*The birth of Hester C. Jeffrey is celebrated on this date in c. 1842. She was a Black activist, suffragist, and community organizer. IN NORFOLK, VIRGINIA, Hester C. Whitehurst was born to free black parents Robert and Martha Whitehurst. She was educated and considered an accomplished musician. In 1860, Jeffrey, her brother, and her sister […]

Josephine Ruffin, News Publisher born

Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin, a Black journalist and civil rights leader, was born on this date in 1842.

Ruffin was born into one of Boston’s leading black families. In 1858, at the age of 15, she became the wife of George Lewis Ruffin, the first African American to graduate from Harvard Law School. During the Civil War, Ruffin was involved in various civil rights causes, charity work, and the women’s suffrage movement. In 1879, she established the Boston Kansas Relief Association, a charity organization that provided food and clothing to black Bostonians who were migrating to Kansas.

The Dawn Settlement is formed

*The Dawn settlement was formed on this date in 1842.  Often called Dawn, this was a Canadian refuge community and a place of work for former American slaves. Josiah Henson and Hiram Wilson formed it with 200 acres of property purchased. Henson also purchased an additional 200 acres of land adjacent to the community, later […]

Thomas Henry Lyles, Businessman born

*The birth of Thomas Henry Lyles is celebrated on this date in 1843. He was a Black soldier, businessman, and activist. Born in Maryland, Lyles served in the Union Army during the American Civil War.  Around 1870, Lyles married  Amanda Lyles, and the couple arrived in St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1874. The 1880 Census shows Lyles […]

The Palladium of Liberty Newspaper is Published

*The Palladium of Liberty published its first issue on this date in 1843.  This was the first newspaper published by Black Ohioans to promote Black civil rights in Ohio. David Jenkins and other Black community leaders launched the Columbus-based weekly.   The Palladium of Liberty was established by the resolutions of two African American citizens’ conventions in 1843, which David […]

Helen Villard, Activist, and Suffragist born

*Helen Villard was born on this date in 1844. She was a white-American women’s suffrage campaigner, pacifist, and racial activist.   Born in Boston, MA., Helen Frances Garrison, known to family and friends as “Fanny,” was the only surviving daughter of five sons and two daughters born to Helen Eliza Benson and William Lloyd Garrison. Her brother, William […]

Moorfield Storey, Lawyer, and Activist born

*Moorfield Storey was born on this date in 1845.   He was a white-American lawyer, anti-imperial activist, and civil rights leader.   Moorfield Storey was born in 1845 in Roxbury, Massachusetts. His family descended from the earliest Puritan settlers in New England and had close connections with the abolitionist movement. His father was a Boston lawyer. Young Storey attended the Boston […]

Henry Lowry, Lumbee Outlaw, born

*The birth of Henry Lowry is celebrated on this date, c. 1845. He was a Lumbee Native American outlaw. Henry Berry Lowry was born to Allen and Mary (Cumbo) Lowry in the Hopewell Community in Robeson County, North Carolina. His father owned a successful 350-acre mixed-use farm in the county. Henry Lowry was one of 12 multi-racial […]

Frances Anne Rollin Whipper, Teacher, and Doctor born

*On this date, in 1845, Frances Anne Rollin Whipper was born.  She was a Black activist, teacher, doctor, and author. Frances Rollin was born in 1845 in Charleston, South Carolina, into a free family of color who came from Santo Domingo (now known as the Dominican Republic). Her father was a well-to-do lumber merchant. She lived her early life as a […]

The American Missionary Association is Founded

*On this date in 1846 the American Missionary Association (AMA) was founded. The AMA trained and educated slaves, it was the first such organization to teach southern slaves in a creditable and organized manner.

Isaiah Montgomery, Political Activist born

*Isaiah Montgomery was born on this date in 1847. He was a Black politician, administrator, and civil rights activist.  Born into slavery, he was the son of Ben Montgomery, a slave whose owner, Joseph Davis, promoted him to overseer. The younger Montgomery learned to read and write due to his father’s influential position on the Davis Bend plantation. Davis wanted to […]

The Pittsburgh Saturday Visiter Newspaper is Published

*The Pittsburgh Saturday Visiter newspaper, published on this date in 1847, was an abolitionist and women’s rights newspaper printed in Pittsburgh.   Jane Swisshelm edited the paper, and Robert M. Riddle printed it. Swisshelm funded the work through money in her estate; at the time, the abolitionist newspaper in Pittsburgh had closed. Crowds were waiting in the […]

Redoshi Smith, Child Laborer born

*The birth of Redoshi is celebrated on this date in c. 1848.  She was a 12-year-old Black West African girl kidnapped, enslaved, and taken to the United States.    Redoshi lived in a village in West Africa, in today’s Benin.  Her village was attacked in a raid by the Dahomey people, who killed her father.  […]

Maritcha Remond Lyons, Suffragist born

*Maritcha Remond Lyons was born on this date in 1848. She was a Black educator, civic leader, suffragist, and public speaker in New York City and Brooklyn, New York. She taught in public schools in Brooklyn and was the second black woman to serve as an assistant principal in their system.   She was born at 144 Centre Street in New York […]

Albert Parsons, Labor Activist born

*On this date, in 1848, Albert Parsons was born.  He was a white-American socialist, newspaper editor, orator, and labor activist.   Albert Richard Parsons was born in Montgomery, Alabama, one of the ten children of a shoe and leather factory owner originally from Maine.  His parents died when he was a small child, leaving him to be raised by his eldest brother, who was married […]