People, Locations, Episodes

Harold Cruse, Author born

*Harold Cruse was born on this date in 1916. He was an African American author and intellectual.

Albert Murray, Writer, and Critic born

On this date, Albert L. Murray was born in 1916. He is an African American essayist and critic whose writings assert the vitality and the powerful influence of Black people in forming American traditions.

He was born in Nokomis, AL. He received his Bachelor’s degree from Tuskegee Institute in Alabama in 1939, and his M.A. from New York University in 1948. He also taught at Tuskegee. In 1943, he entered the U.S. Air Force, from which he retired as a major in 1962.

Frank Yerby, Novelist born

This date marks the birth of Frank Yerby in 1916. He was an African American author of popular historical fiction.

Frank Garvin Yerby was born in Augusta, GA. He was the son of an itinerant hotel doorman, Rufus Garvin Yerby and Wilhelmina Smythe Yerby. Young Yerby attended a private school for Black students, the Haines Institute. He received a Bachelor of Arts in English from Paine College, and a Master of Arts in English from Fisk University in 1938.

William Stetson Kennedy, Author born

*On this date, in 1916, William S. Kennedy was born.  He was a white-American author, folklorist, and human rights activist.   William Stetson Kennedy, commonly known as Stetson Kennedy, was born in Jacksonville, Florida, to Willye Stetson and George Wallace Kennedy.  A descendant of signers of the Declaration of Independence, Kennedy came from a wealthy, aristocratic Southern family with relatives such as John Batterson Stetson, founder of […]

Martha Putney, Historian, and Educator born

*Martha Putney was born on this date in 1916. She was an African American educator and historian.

Dena Epstein, Music Librarian born

*Dena Epstein was born on this date in 1916. She was a white Jewish-American music librarian, author, and musicologist. Dena Julia Polacheck was born in Milwaukee to William Polacheck and Hilda Satt. She studied music at the University of Chicago and library science at the University of Illinois, graduating in 1943. She worked as a […]

Lillie Patterson, Author, and Librarian born.

*Lillie Patterson was born on May 3, 1917. She was a Black writer and a school and college librarian. Lillie Griselda Patterson was from South Carolina. She grew up listening to her grandmother telling stories in Hilton Head, South Carolina. Patterson received a bachelor’s degree in elementary education from Hampton University in the 1940s and […]

Gwendolyn Brooks, Poet, and Author born

Gwendolyn Elizabeth Brooks was born on this date in 1917. A poet, she is the first African American to receive a Pulitzer Prize.

Henry Nxumalo, Journalist born

*This date in 1917 is celebrated as the birth date of Henry Nxumalo. Also known as Henry “Mr. Drum” Nxumalo, he was a pioneering South African investigative journalist. He was born in Margate, Natal, South Africa, and attended the Fascadale Mission School. Showing early capacity as a writer, he submitted various samples of his work […]

The Messenger Magazine is Published

*In August 1917, the first issue of Messenger magazine was published.  This was an early 20th-century political and literary magazine by and for African American people. It was important to the growth of the Harlem Renaissance and initially promoted a socialist political view. The Messenger was co-founded in New York City by Chandler Owen and A. Philip Randolph.   Toward the end of 1916, Randolph and Owen dropped out of […]

Doris Pemberton, Civic Leader, and Author born

On this date in 1917, Doris Hollis Pemberton was born. She was an African American civic leader, reporter, and author.

Pemberton was born in Nacogdoches, Texas, the daughter of John Henry and Della Mae (Powdrill) Hollis. She spent her childhood in Limestone County near Comanche Crossing, Webb Chapel, Rocky Crossing, and Groesbeck, Texas. She enrolled at Texas College, Tyler, when she was 16 years old and she graduated from Texas Southern University at Houston in 1955.

Samuel W. Allen, Author, Educator, and Lawyer born

*Samuel W. Allen was born on this date in 1917. He was a Black writer, poet, literary scholar, and lawyer from Columbus, GA. Samuel Washington Allen graduated as valedictorian of Fisk University in 1938 with an AB in sociology, where he studied with James Weldon Johnson. He received a JD from Harvard Law School in 1941. Drafted into […]

Bruce Wright, Judge, and Writer born

This date marks the birth of Bruce M. Wright in 1917. He was an African American judge, lawyer, and poet.

He was born in Princeton, N.J., and raised in Harlem, New York. Bruce McMarion Wright’s father was Black and his mother was white. He was awarded a scholarship to attend Princeton in 1939, but denied admission when the university learned that he was Black. Wright was denied admission to Notre Dame on the same grounds.

The Brownies’ Book is Published

*The Brownies’ Book publication is celebrated on this date in 1919. This was the first magazine published for African American children and youth in the United States. Three people created the magazine. Its editor was W. E. B. Du Bois, one of the founders of the NAACP, and its business manager was Augustus Granville Dill. The magazine’s […]

Theodore Allen, Writer, and Activist born

*Theodore “Ted” Allen was born on this date in 1919. He was a white American intellectual, writer, and activist. He is best known for his pioneering writings regarding the white race.