People, Locations, Episodes

Lawrence Nixon, Physician, and Voting Advocate born

*Lawrence Nixon was born on this date in 1883. He was a Black physician and voting-rights advocate.

Hubert Harrison, Activist born

*The birth of Hubert Harrison in 1883 is marked on this date. He was an African American activist, educator, and writer.

Elizabeth Ross Haynes, Writer, and Administrator born

The birth of Elizabeth Ross Haynes in 1883 is marked on this date. She was an African American activist, writer, and administrator.

She was born in Lowndes County, AL, the daughter of prosperous farmers Henry and Mary Cames Ross. Elizabeth Ross was class valedictorian at State Normal School of Montgomery, and she received an A. B. degree from Fisk University in 1903. She got her M. A. in sociology from Columbia University in 1923. Haynes’ 1923 Master’s thesis was the most comprehensive study of Black women in America until the 1970s.

Jessie Daniel Ames, Activist born

*Jessie Daniel Ames was born on this date in 1883.  She was a white suffragist and American Civil Rights leader.  She was born Jessie Harriet Daniel in Palestine, Texas. Her mother was Laura Maria Leonard, and her father was James Malcolm Daniel.  Ames was admitted to the Ladies Annex of Southwestern University at 13 and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in […]

Daisy Lampkin, Suffragist born

*Daisy Lampkin was born on this date in 1884. She was a Black suffragist, civil rights activist, administrator, and community leader. Daisy Elizabeth Adams was from Washington, D.C. She was the daughter of George Adams from Virginia and Rose Proctor from Charles County, Maryland. Her grandparents were Joseph Jenifer Proctor and Elizabeth Swann, free persons […]

David Hamilton Jackson, Labor Rights Advocate born

*David Hamilton Jackson was born on this date in 1884. He was a Black educator and labor rights advocate. He was born in Estate East Hill, St. Croix, Danish West Indies. Jackson worked as an educator and later a bookkeeper and clerk before becoming involved in the politics of the Danish West Indies. He traveled […]

Chris Braithwaite, Union Activist born

*This date marks the birth of Chris Braithwaite in 1885. He was an Afro Barbadian union activist in the Colonial Seamen’s Association.   Braithwaite, also known as Chris Jones, was born in Barbados. As a teenager, he went to sea with the British Merchant Navy and traveled the world as a sailor. He settled in Chicago before rejoining the Merchant Navy during World War I. […]

The ‘Brotherhood of Liberty’ is formed

*The Brotherhood of Liberty was formed on this date in 1885. Known as Mutual United Brotherhood of Liberty, it was in Baltimore, Maryland, that the organization sought to remove social injustices and protect the civil rights of Blacks against the structures of the Jim Crow Era. The Brotherhood of Liberty used legal means to protect […]

Eugene Jones, Union Advocate born

*Eugene Jones was born on this date in 1885. He was a Black administrator of the National Urban League and a union advocate. Eugene Kinckle Jones was born in Richmond, Virginia, to Joseph Endom Jones and Rosa Daniel Kinckle. He graduated from Richmond’s Virginia Union University in 1905 and Cornell University with a master’s degree […]

Richard B. Moore, Businessman, and Activist

*On this date in 1885, Richard B. Moore was born. He was an African American activist and businessman.

From Barbados, he emigrated to New York, working as an office boy, elevator operator, and for a silk manufacturing firm. The racism Moore encountered while in America prompted him to a life of activism. In 1915, he founded and was treasurer of the Pioneer Cooperative Society, a grocery store that featured West Indian products. Moore was self-educated and began to collect an extensive library of literature.

Mary Edwards Hunter, Community Educator born

*Mary Edwards Hunter was born on this date in 1885. She was a Black teacher, extension agent, and advocate for women and children. Mary Evelyn Virginia Edwards was born in Fitchburg, Alabama, the fifteenth of seventeen children of Elijah E. and Frances (Moore) Edwards. While still a girl, she became the bookkeeper for her father’s […]

John Artemus, Union Organizer born

The birth of John Artemus in 1885 is celebrated on this date. He was an African American labor organizer.

The Black Hebrew Israelites, a story

*The Black Hebrew Israelites are affirmed on this date in 1886. Also called Hebrew Israelites, Black Hebrews, Black Israelites, and African Hebrew Israelites, these groups of African Americans believe they are the descendants of the ancient Israelites. Black Hebrew Israelites are not associated with the mainstream Jewish community, and they do not meet the standards used […]

I. Willis Cole, Newspaper Publisher born

*I. Willis Cole was born on this date in 1887. He was a Black newspaper editor, publisher, and human rights activist. He was born in Memphis, Tennessee, and started a newspaper career as a carrier at the age of 12. Cole graduated from Lemoyne Junior College in 1906 and later attended the University of Chicago. He became […]

National Afro-American League is Formed

*On this date in 1890, the National Afro-American League was formed. Put together by Timothy Thomas Fortune it preceded the NAACP.

Fortune was the crusading editor of the New York Age, which was the leading Negro journal of the era. The organization dedicated itself to protest based on racial solidarity and self-help. It became defunct in 1893 because of lack of support and funds.