People, Locations, Episodes

I. M. Terrell High School (Texas) Opens

*The opening of I.M Terrell High School is celebrated on this date in 1882. This was a Fort Worth, Texas, secondary school during the Jim Crow era. It was the city’s first Black school. Its original name was the East Ninth Street Colored School. Isaiah Milligan Terrell became its Principal and Superintendent of Fort Worth […]

Scottie Primus Davis, Educator born

*Scottie Primus Davis was born on this date in 1882.  She was a Black teacher.  Davis was born in Lebanon, Kentucky, the daughter of Addison Davis and Hattie Smith Primus Davis. When she was five, she relocated to Chicago with her parents. She enrolled at St. James Catholic School and later entered public school. The […]

Laurence C. Jones, Administrator born

*Laurence Jones was born on this date in 1882. He was a Black educator, administrator, and activist. His father worked as a porter at the Pacific House Hotel in St. Joseph, Missouri. Laurence Clifton Jones came from a family of educators with an uncle who founded the Woodstock Manual Labor Institute in Michigan in 1846.   When he was 15, […]

The Norfolk Mission College Begins Classes

*The first class taught at the Norfolk Mission College (NMC) was on this date in 1883. This was a privately funded public school for African American students in Norfolk, Virginia. The United Presbyterians established the school. NMC taught thousands of students at various levels of education and provided for students who could not afford the […]

Hazel Harrison, Pianist and Educator born

Hazel Harrison was an African American pianist and teacher and was born on this date in 1883.

Portia Washington Pittman, Teacher born

Portia Washington Pittman was born on this date in 1883, in Tuskegee, AL. She was an African American musician and teacher, and the only daughter of Booker T. and Fanny (Smith) Washington.

Her father was the founder of Tuskegee Institute. After her mother’s death in 1884, Portia was cared for by nursemaids and two stepmothers. An accomplished pianist by the age of ten, she attended New England’s finest boarding schools, including Framingham State Normal School in Massachusetts in 1895, Tuskegee Institute, and, in 1901, Wellesley College in Massachusetts.

Charlotte H. Brown, Educator born

On this date in 1883, Charlotte Eugenia Hawkins Brown was born. She was an African American civic leader and educator who founded the Palmer Institute (a prep school for African Americans), argued against lynchings, and was in favor of interracial cooperation.

Ernest Just, Biologist, and Collegiate Mentor born

*This date marks the birth of Ernest Everett Just in 1883. He was an African American biologist and educator who taught at Howard University for more than 30 years.

Joel Augustus Rogers, Anthropologist born

Joel Augustus Rogers was born on this date in 1883. He was an African American writer, lecturer, anthropologist, historian, journalist, and publisher.

The Haines Normal and Industrial Institute, a story

*On this date in 1883, we celebrate the opening of the Haines Normal and Industrial Institute, a school created during the Reconstruction era in America. Also known as Haines Institute, it was a school for Blacks in Augusta, Georgia. It was established by Lucy Craft Laney and named in honor of a benefactor who funded […]

Hartshorn Memorial College Opens

*The opening of Hartshorn Memorial College opened on this date in 1883.  One of over 100 Historical Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) in America, this school started classes in Richmond, Virginia, until 1932, when it merged into Virginia Union University.   Hartshorn Memorial College was created as a college for African American women’s education.  The college’s namesake, Joseph C. Hartshorn, donated the school […]

Edward B. Henderson, Administrator born

*Edwin Henderson was born on this date in 1883.  He was a Black educator, coach, and pioneer of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).   Edwin Bancroft Henderson was born in southwest Washington, D.C. His father, William Henderson, was a day laborer, and his mother, Louisa, taught him to read at an early age. He […]

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.

Elder W. Diggs, Educator, and Officer born

*Elder Diggs was born on this date in 1883. He was a Black writer, soldier, and scholar. Elder Watson Diggs was born in Hopkinsville, Christian County, Kentucky, and is the eldest son of three children. His mother, Cornelia, raised Diggs and his brother (William Ellis) and sister (Effie). He received a one-room school education in […]

Cecelia Cabaniss-Saunders, Administrator born

*This date in 1883 is celebrated as the birth date of Cecelia Cabaniss-Saunders, a Black educator and administrator. From Charleston, South Carolina, Cecelia Hayne Holloway’s father, James H. Holloway, was a school principal during American Reconstruction. Cecelia Holloway graduated from Fisk University in 1909. She then attended Tuskegee Institute, receiving her Master of Social Science. Cecelia continued her studies […]