People, Locations, Episodes

John Merrick, Businessman born

*John Merrick was born on this date in 1859. He was an African American businessman and entrepreneur.

He was from the town of Clinton in Sampson County North Carolina. He did not know his father and was raised by his mother who cared for him and his brother until they could labor. At twelve years old, Merrick worked at a brickyard in Chapel Hill helping to support his mother. When he was 18, the family moved to Raleigh, N.C. where he continued working on buildings at Shaw University.

Edwin Henry Hackley, Lawyer born

*Edwin Henry Hackley was born on this date in 1859. He was a Black lawyer and journalist. His parents were John Hackley and Susan Belmore Hackley from Romeo, Michigan. As a child, he had pneumonia that affected his health into adulthood, and he was raised in the Black middle class. After graduating from high school, […]

Black History and the Hot Comb, a story

*Black history and the Hot Comb were affirmed on this date in 1860. The hot comb straightens hair without the use of harsh chemicals. A white Frenchman, Marcel Grateau, is often accredited with the invention in the late 1800s. At the time, the hot comb was used by white women in Europe. According to the […]

Charles Russell, Editor born

*Charles Russell was born on this date in 1860. He was a white-American journalist, opinion columnist, newspaper editor, and political activist. Charles Edward Russell was born in Davenport, Iowa, a transportation center on the Mississippi River on the state’s far eastern border. His father, Edward Russell, was editor of the Davenport Gazette and an abolitionist. The Russell family was […]

The ‘Five Points’ Community of Denver, CO, a story

*Denver, Colorado’s ‘Five Points’ community is celebrated on this date in 1860.  It is one of the few predominantly Black-owned commercial strips in America.  Five Points of Denver, Colorado, is one of their oldest neighborhoods, with block after block of Victorian homes mixed with luxury lofts and new housing developments.  Five Points was historically prominent […]

J. B. Stradford, Businessman born

*J.B. Stradford was born on this date in 1861.  He was a Black businessman and community activist.  John the Baptist (J.B.) Stradford was from Versailles, KY, the son of Julius Caesar (J.C.).  His father was enslaved, and his owner never gave him the last name, though his owner’s daughter befriended him and taught him to […]

Miriam Benjamin, Inventor, and Teacher born

*Miriam E. Benjamin was born on this date in 1861.  She was a Black school teacher, composer, and inventor.   Miriam Elizabeth Benjamin was born a free black woman in Charleston, South Carolina, the oldest of five children of Francis Benjamin and Eliza (Hopkins) Benjamin.  In 1873, the Benjamin family moved to Boston, Massachusetts, where she attended high school. She moved to Washington, D.C., where she […]

The Pacific Appeal Newspaper is Published

*On this date in 1862, the Pacific Appeal published its first edition. This was a weekly African American newspaper based in San Francisco, California.   The Pacific Appeal was co-founded by Philip Alexander Bell, a civil rights and antislavery activist who had established Weekly Advocate (edited by Samuel Cornish) and worked for William Lloyd Garrison’s Liberator News, and Peter Anderson, a San Francisco civil rights activist […]

The American South’s First Black Daily Newspaper (L’Union) is Published

*This date celebrates the first Black newspaper in the South, L’Union in New Orleans in 1862.

During these early days of journalism working along with other groups and institutions, the free Black press strove to give voice to and unite the desires of Louisiana African Americans. L’Union was founded and circulated as a biweekly and tri-weekly. Published primarily in French, the paper ran a few issues in English beginning in 1863. Dr. Louis Charles Roudanez was L’Union’s primary financier and Paul Trévigne its editor.

Black History and American Agriculture, a story

*Black History and American Agriculture are affirmed on this date in 1862. President Abraham Lincoln signed legislation establishing the United States Department of Agriculture on that date. During the agricultural business’s most significant era, when the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) was created, 90% of the American public were farmers. It was not until […]

Lydia Flood Jackson, Businesswoman born

*Lydia Flood Jackson was born on this date in 1862. She was a Black businesswoman, suffragist, and clubwoman.   Lydia Flood was born in Brooklyn, California, which is now part of Oakland, California. Her mother was Elizabeth Thorn Scott, and her father was Isaac Flood. Her mother was educated in New Bedford, Massachusetts. She moved […]

Ida B. Wells, Journalist, and Anti-Lynching Advocate born

On this date in 1862, Ida Bell Wells-Barnett was born. She was an African American journalist, advocate of civil rights, women’s rights, economic rights, and an anti-lynching crusader.

Julius Rosenwald, Businessman, and Philantropist born

*Julius Rosenwald was born on this date in 1862.  He was a white Jewish-American businessman and philanthropist.   Julius Rosenwald was born in Springfield, Illinois, just a few blocks from Abraham Lincoln’s home.  His parents were Samuel Rosenwald, a clothier, and his wife, Augusta Hammerslough.  They were a Jewish immigrant couple from Germany.  By his sixteenth year, Rosenwald was apprenticed by his parents to […]

William H. Baldwin Jr. Philanthropist born

William Henry Baldwin Jr. was born on this date in 1863. He was a white-American corporate executive and philanthropist    He was the son of William Henry Baldwin, a dry goods merchant, and Mary Chaffee. A descendant of an English settler who had arrived in Massachusetts before 1640, Baldwin grew up in a family noted for its […]

John Mitchell, Jr., Journalist born

John Mitchell Jr. was born on this date in 1863. He was an African American journalist, activist, and politician.

He was born in Richmond, VA, and as a child, he helped support his parents by selling newspapers. He graduated first in his class from Richmond Normal High School. He became the editor of The Richmond Planet, (later the Richmond Afro-American). Mitchell was a brilliant man of many talents. In 1890, he was elected to the Richmond City Council, but around the turn of the century, he became cynical of politics.