People, Locations, Episodes

John Ware, Cowboy, and Rancher born

*John Ware’s birth is celebrated on this date in 1845. He was a Black Canadian cowboy who was influential in the early years of the burgeoning ranching industry in Southern Alberta. John Ware was born into slavery on a plantation near Georgetown, South Carolina. However, on his marriage certificate, Ware stated that he was born […]

George F. Grant, Dentist, and Inventor born

*George Grant was born on this date in 1847. He was a Black inventor, dentist, and the first Black professor at Harvard. George Franklin Grant was born in Oswego, New York, to Phillis Pitt and Tudor Elanor Grant.  Grant entered the Harvard School of Dental Medicine in 1868 and graduated in 1870. He then took […]

Johanna July, Cowgirl born

*The birth of Johanna July is celebrated on this date in 1850.   She was a Black Seminole cowgirl.  From northern Mexico, July was the daughter of a Seminole Native American and a Black African slave.   Her family had left Florida and settled in northern Mexico after the Seminole War ended in 1842.  Around 1871, they […]

George Godfrey, Canadian Boxer born

*George Godfrey was born on this date in 1853. He was a Black Canadian boxer.

From the Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island (P.E.I.) neighborhood known as “The Bog” he left P.E.I. in his youth and worked as a porter in Boston, Massachusetts. It was there that he started training to box at Professor Bailey’s Hub City gym. At age 26, Godfrey began fighting competitively in the bare knuckles tour.

Phillip ‘Daddy’ Reid, Businessman born

*Phillip ‘Daddy’ Reid was born on this date in 1854.  He was a Black businessman, baseball administrator, and manager. Phillip Edward Reid was from Frankfort, Kentucky. Not much is known about his childhood other than he grew up in a slave-holding state and would have been very young at the end of the American Civil […]

Nat Love, Cowboy born

*The birth of Nat Love in 1854 is celebrated on this date. He was an African American Pullman porter, and cowboy.

Born on his master’s plantation in Davidson County in Tennessee, Love was raised out of an old log cabin. His master Robert Love, an extensive planter and the owner of many slaves owned his father and mother. Love’s father was a foreman of the slaves on the plantation, and his mother worked the kitchen at the master’s big house waiting tables, milking the cows, running the loom and weaving clothing for the other slaves.

Moses Fleetwood Walker, Baseball Player born

*Moses Walker was born on this date in 1856.  He was a Black professional baseball player and businessman.  Moses Fleetwood Walker was born in Mount Pleasant, Ohio.  Walker’s parents were Moses W. Walker and Caroline O’Harra.    When Walker was three years old, the family moved 20 miles northeast to Steubenville, where his father became one of the first Black […]

Oliver Lewis, Horse Jockey born

*The birth of Oliver Lewis is celebrated on this date in 1856.  He was a Black horse jockey in thoroughbred racing. Lewis was born in Fayette County, Kentucky.  On May 17, 1875, at 19, Lewis won the very first Kentucky Derby aboard Aristides. The pair won by two reported lengths, setting a new American record […]

Bud Fowler, Baseball Player born.

*Bud Fowler was born on this date in 1858. He was a Black baseball player, manager, club organizer, and barber. From Fort Plain, New York, the son of a hop-picker and barber, Bud Fowler, was christened John W. Jackson. His father had escaped from slavery and migrated to New York. In 1859, his family moved […]

Tom Bass, Horse Trainer born

*Tom Bass was born on this date in 1859. He was a Black Saddlebred horse trainer and businessman. Tom Bass was born a slave on the Hayden plantation in Boone County, Missouri. His mother, Cornelia Gray, was also a slave, and his father, William Bass, was the son of the plantation owner, Eli Bass. He […]

William White, Baseball Player born

*This date, 1860, is celebrated as the birth date of William White, a 19th-century Black baseball player.   William Edward White was the son of a plantation owner from Milner, Georgia, Andrew Jackson White, and his black slave, Hannah. Brown University records give Milner as the student’s birthplace, and the only person of his name listed in the 1870 […]

Isaac Burns Murphy, Horse Jockey born

This date marks the birth of Isaac Burns Murphy in 1861. He was a Black jockey and Horse Racing legend.

Murphy was part of the superabundance of Black jockeys in the history of horse racing. African American jockeys rode fourteen of the fifteen horses in the first Kentucky Derby. The horse racing sport was built with the talents of Black people whose jobs typically included trainer, jockey, and owner. One extraordinary jockey in this history was Issac Burns Murphy. Murphy was born in 1861 in Fayette County.

Peter Jackson, Boxer born

On this date in 1861, Peter Jackson was born. He was an African American boxer.

Arthur Wharton, British Soccer Player born

*Arthur Wharton was born on this date in 1865. He was a Black British football player. Wharton was born in Jamestown, Gold Coast (now part of Accra, Ghana). His father, Henry Wharton, was a Grenadian missionary of Scottish and West African descent, while his mother, Annie Florence Egyriba, was a member of the Fante Ghanaian […]

The Negro Baseball League is Founded

*This date marks the anniversary of the Negro Baseball League. In 1886, the Southern League of Colored Base Ballists became the first Negro league.