People, Locations, Episodes

Virginia Hewlett Douglass, Suffragist born

*Virginia Hewlett Douglass was born on this date in 1849. She was a Black suffragist. Virginia Lewis Molyneaux Hewlett was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She was the daughter of the first Black instructor at Harvard University, Aaron Molyneaux Hewlett, and physical education instructor, Virginia Josephine Lewis Molyneaux Hewlett. On August 4, 1869, Virginia Hewlett Douglass […]

Archibald Grimke, Journalist and Activist born

*Archibald Grimké was born on this date in 1849.  He was a Black lawyer, intellectual, journalist, and activist.   Archibald Henry Grimké was born into slavery near Charleston, South Carolina, in 1849. He was the eldest of three sons of Nancy Weston, who was also born into slavery, daughter of an enslaved black African woman […]

Harriet Tubman Begins Working with The Underground Railroad

On this date in 1853, Harriet Tubman began her work with the Underground Railroad. This was a network of antislavery activists who helped slaves escape from the South.

On her first trip, Tubman brought her own sister and her sister’s two children out of slavery in Maryland. A year later she rescued her brother, and in 1857 returned to Maryland to guide her aged parents to freedom.

Over a period of ten years Tubman made an estimated 19 expeditions into the South and personally escorted about 300 slaves to the North

Rodolphe Desdunes, Author, and Scholar born

*Rodolphe Desdunes was born on this date in 1849. He was an African American civic leader, author and scholar.

Rodolphe Lucien Desdunes spent much of his professional life as a clerk with the U.S. Customs Service, but his contribution to history lies in his efforts to promote the achievements of his Blacks and to challenge the legality of Jim Crow laws. On September 5, 1891, he helped to organize the Comite des Citoyens, which backed Homer Plessy’s unsuccessful attempt to challenge segregation in public transportation.

Amanda Dickson, Black Aristocrat born

Amanda America Dickson was born on this date in 1849. She was an African American aristocrat.

She was born on the Hancock County plantation of white agricultural reformer Davis Dickson, who raped her Black slave mother, Julia Frances Lewis. At the time, David Dickson was the wealthiest planter in the county. Young Dickson grew up in the house of her white grandmother and owner, where she learned to read, write, and play piano–unusual opportunities for a slave child. Records show that her father doted on her openly and her mother became his concubine and housekeeper.

Hallie Q. Brown, Suffragist born

This date marks the birth of Hallie Quinn Brown in 1850. She was a Black educator and elocutionist who pioneered in the movement for Black women’s clubs in the United States.

Felix Adler, Social Activist born

*Felix Adler was born on this date in 1851.  He was a white Jewish-American professor, rationalist, lecturer, and social reformer.   Felix Adler was born in Alzey, Rhenish Hesse, Grand Duchy of Hesse, Germany, the son of a rabbi, Samuel Adler, a leading figure in European Reform Judaism. The family immigrated to the United States from Germany when Felix was six so his father could accept the appointment as head rabbi at Temple Emanu-El in New […]

Julia Hooks, Activist, and Educator born

The birth of Julia A. B. Hooks in 1852 is celebrated on this date. She was an African American musician, educator and social worker.

Lucy Parsons, Activist, and Socialist born

*On this date we recall the birth of Lucy Parsons in 1853. She was a Black socialist and anarchist whose work made her a prominent figure in American politics.

Accounts differ as to Parson’s birth place but some historians have said she was born a slave in Texas. Certainly her marriage to Albert Parsons, a former Confederate soldier turned Radical Republican, was viewed as controversial. Shortly after their 1871 marriage, they left Waco, Texas, for Chicago, then a center of labor unrest and radical political movements.

The Provincial Freeman News is Published

*On this date in 1853, the Provincial Freeman published its first edition.  This was a Black Canadian progressive newspaper.   The Provincial Freeman was active for four and a half years and published weekly. It advocated equality, integration, and self-education for Black people in Canada and the United States. The paper’s tone toward any stereotype of Uncle Tom’s […]

Josephine Bruce, Teacher, and Activist born

Josephine Bruce, a Black teacher and social activist, was born on this date in 1853 in Philadelphia, PA.

Josephine Beall Willson Bruce was raised in Cleveland, Ohio, the daughter of a Dr. Joseph Willson who was a dentist and writer and Elizabeth Harnett Willson a talented musician. After graduating from Cleveland’s Central High School in 1871, and completing a teachers training course, Willson was the first Black to join the faculty of an integrated Cleveland elementary school. In 1878, she married Blanche K. Bruce, senator from Mississippi.

John Cheatham, Pullman Porter, and Fireman born

*John Cheatham was born on this date in 1855. He was a Black Pullman Porter and Minnesota Fireman.

Born into slavery in St. Louis, Missouri he was freed on January 1, 1863, when the Emancipation Proclamation went into effect. Shortly afterwards, his family moved to Minneapolis where he attended school. After graduation he held a number of jobs, including porter and church sexton.

Fannie Williams, Social Reformer born

*This date marks the birth of Fannie Barrier Williams in 1855. From Brockport, N.Y., she was a Black social reformer, lecturer, clubwoman, and co-founder of the National League of Colored Women.

Williams graduated from the local State Normal School (now the State University of New York College at Brockport) in 1870. Thereafter she taught in freedmen’s schools at various places in the South and in Washington, D.C. She also studied for periods at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston and at the School of Fine Arts in Washington, D.C.

John Edward Bruce, Journalist born

*John Edward Bruce was born on this date in 1856. He was a Black journalist, historian, writer, orator, civil rights activist, and Pan-African nationalist.    Also known as Bruce Grit or J. E. Bruce-Grit, he was born a slave in Piscataway, Maryland, to enslaved parents Robert and Martha Allen (Clark) Bruce. When he was three years old, his father was sold to a slaveholder in Georgia, and […]

Booker T. Washington, Educator, and Inspirational Source born

On this date in 1856, Booker T. Washington was born. He was a Black activist and educator, who urged Blacks to gain equality through education and economic advancement.