*Martin Luther King Sr. was born on this date in 1899. He was a Black Baptist pastor, missionary, and early figure in the 20th-century American Civil Rights Movement. He was born Michael King in Stockbridge, Georgia, the son of Delia Linsey and James Albert King. He was a member of the Baptist Church and decided to become a preacher after being inspired […]
learn more*George Kelsey was born on this date in 1910. He was an African American educator, theologian and administrator.
learn moreDecatur Nichols was born on this date in 1900. He was an African American minister, deacon, and bishop.
He was from Georgetown, SC, the son of Reverend Ruffin and Anna Nichols. Decatur Ward Nichols was educated in the public schools of Charleston. He received his AB degree from Howard University, Washington, DC, and BD degree from Drew University, Madison, NJ.
learn more*On this date in 1901 we celebrate the song We Shall Overcome. “We Shall Overcome” is a protest song that became a key anthem of the African American civil rights movement during the 20th and 21st century.
learn more*Joachim Prinz was born on this date in 1902. He was a White German American Rabbi outspoken against Nazism and an activist for the American Civil Rights movement.
learn more*On this date in 1903, St. Stephen Baptist Church held its first service. This church began with a courageous young preacher, Reverend James Wesley Hurse. Preaching from a tent and a few dedicated followers, they worked, prayed, and sacrificed on a street corner in “Bellevidere Hollow.” As a prominent leader, he became the second President of […]
learn more*On this date in 1903, The New Hope Baptist Church of Newark was organized. The New Hope Baptist Church is one of the oldest Black churches in the state of New Jersey.
learn more*Denzil Carty was born in St. John’s Antigua, British West Indies on this date in 1904. He was an African American minister and civic leader.
learn more*On this date in1905, Rev. William Holmes Borders was born. He was an African American minister and activist and writer.
learn more*Reverend Noah Smith was born on this date in 1908. He was a Black musician, businessman, and minister. From Marion, Indiana, after high school, Smith played the drums in bands, moving in 1930 to Minneapolis, where he also ran a business painting signs on buildings and vehicles. Smith was a cartoonist briefly before getting a […]
learn moreEdler Garnett Hawkins was born on this date in 1908. He was an African American minister and civil rights activist through the Presbyterian Church.
learn moreAlexander Memorial Baptist Church began on this date in 1908 when a group of worshipers left the First Baptist Church in Georgetown, Washington D.C., because they did not like the way the church was managed.
learn more*On this date in 1909, John Burgess was born. He was an African American bishop.
From Grand Rapids, Michigan, John Melville Burgess’ father was Theodore T. Burgess, a dining car waiter on the Pierre Marquette Railroad. His mother was Ethel I. (Beverly) Burgess. In 1930, he graduated from the University of Michigan and received his master’s degree in sociology a year later. He graduated from the Episcopal Theological School in 1934 and returned began his ministry in Grand Rapids.
learn more*The Holt Street Baptist Church is celebrated on this date in 1909. This was a Baptist church in Montgomery, Alabama. The Holt Street Baptist Church building is located at the corner of Holt Street and Bullock Street and was completed in 1913. The first reverend was I.S. Fountain. From 1939 until 1952, Charles Kenzie Steele […]
learn more*Bethel AME Church in Reno, Nevada, is celebrated on this date in 1910. The church was a religious, social, and political center of Black settlers in the 1910s and later for local American Civil Rights activists during the 1960s. From its inception, Bethel AME has held to the principles of the AME church to provide self-expression and […]
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