People, Locations, Episodes

Perry W. Howard Jr. Politician, Lawyer born

*Perry W. Howard II was born on this date in 1877. He was a Black attorney and politician. Perry Wilbon Howard II was born in Ebenezer, Mississippi. He was mulatto, the first son of Sallie and Perry Wilbon Howard, who were enslaved. His parents bought their farmland and sent all seven of their sons to college. […]

William ‘Billy’ Williams, Political Assistant born

William F. (Billy) Williams was born on this date in 1877. He was an African American executive political assistant.

Mary Montgomery Booze, Teacher, and Administrator born

*Mary Montgomery Booze’s birth is celebrated on this date in 1878. She was a Black teacher and public policy administrator. Mary Cordelia Montgomery was born in Mound Bayou, MS., to parents who had been enslaved when she was young. She grew up in the Mississippi Delta. Her father, Isaiah T. Montgomery, was a cotton producer politically allied […]

George Grant, Merchant and Politician born

*George Grant was born on this date in 1878. He was a Black African merchant and politician on the Gold Coast. George Alfred Grant was born into an influential merchant family in Beyin, Western Nzema, Ghana. He was the son of William Minneaux Grant and Madam Adjua (Dwowa) Biatwi of the Aboradze clan. Grant was educated […]

The Readjuster Party in America, a story

*The Readjuster Party was founded on this date in 1879. They were a bi-racial state-level political party formed in Virginia across party lines. Formed during the turbulent period following the Reconstruction era, they sought to reduce the state’s outstanding debt. Readjusters aspired “to break the power of wealth and established privilege” among the planter elite […]

Frederick Roberts, Educator, and Politician born

*Frederick Madison Roberts was born on this date in 1879. He was an African American mortician, news editor, school principal and politician.

Nellie Quander, Teacher, and Community Activist born

*Nellie Quander was born on this date in 1880. She was a Black teacher and community activist born in Washington, D.C. Nellie May Quander was the daughter of John Pierson Quander and Hannah Bruce Ford Quander. The Quander family can trace their lineage three hundred years in Maryland and Virginia. They are one of the […]

Bonifacio Pinedo, Bolivian Royal born

*Bonifacio Pinedo’s birth is celebrated on this date in 1880. He was an Afro Bolivian king. This monarchy was one of the few traditional African kingdoms that survived the changes of the Middle Ages and slavery. Born in the tropical regions of Yungas in Bolivia, he succeeded Uchicho, of Congo and Senegalese origin. He was brought as a slave to […]

United Links Party is founded

*On this date in 1881, the United Links Party held its first convention. In 1880, Benjamin Singleton was called to testify at Congressional hearings on the migration of Blacks from the South. By 1881, however, Singleton had begun a new phase in his campaign to aid his people, organizing a party called the ‘United Colored […]

The Minnesota Women’s Sufferage Association is Founded

*The Minnesota Woman Suffrage Association (MWSA) was founded on this date in 1881. MWSA was an organization devoted to women’s suffrage in Minnesota. After the American Civil War and the fall of Reconstruction, activism from Blacks and women found common ground against voter suppression. Created at the Presbyterian Church in Hastings, Minnesota, the MWSA members organized marches, wrote petitions […]

John Wesley Dobbs, Atlanta Civic Leader born

The birth of John Wesley Dobbs in 1882 is celebrated on this date. He was an African American postal clerk, civic leader, and activist.

Often called the Unofficial “Mayor” of Auburn Avenue,
Dobbs was born in Marietta, Georgia. In 1897, he went to Atlanta, worked at a drugstore, and attended Atlanta Baptist College (Morehouse College). In 1903, Dobbs passed the U.S. postal exam to become a postal clerk and assumed a highly respected position for a Black man at the turn of the century. Three years later he married Irene Ophelia Thompson, and together they would have six daughters.

Herbert Bright, Physician, and Activist born.

*Herbert Bright was born on this date in 1883. He was a Black African doctor and political activist. Herbert Christian Bankole-Bright was born in Okrika, Sierra Leone, the son of Jacob Galba Bright and his wife Letitia (née Williams), Creole descendants of Sierra Leone Liberated Africans. Bright’s paternal grandfather, John Bright, was an ex-slave who […]

Arthur W. Mitchell, Politician born

On this date, Arthur Wergs Mitchell was born in 1883. He was an African American teacher, administrator, and politician. He was the first Black representative elected as a Democrat in the United States.

Robert Ogle, Policy Administrator born.

*Robert Ogle was born on this date in 1886. He was a Black public policy administrator. Born to Jeremiah and Mary Ellen Ogle in Washington, D.C., Robert Harold Ogle attended M Street School, one of the top preparatory schools for African Americans. Ogle secured one of the spots available, and upon completion in 1905, he […]

William L. Dawson, Politician born

*William Levi Dawson was born on this date in 1886 in Albany, Georgia. He was the first African American to chair a regular House of Representatives committee.