People, Locations, Episodes

Benjamin O. Davis Sr., Military Officer born

This date marks the birth of Benjamin O. Davis Sr. in 1877. He was the first African American general in the modern era of the United States.

McCants Stewart, Lawyer born

McCants Stewart was born on this date in 1877. He was an African American lawyer.

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 […]

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 […]

Willis Tyler, Lawyer born

*Willis O. Tyler was born on this date in 1880.  He was a Black lawyer.   From Bloomington, Indiana, he was the son of Isaac and Mary Tyler, Monroe County’s Black community members.  The family lived on East 10th Street in what was then known as the “Buck Town” neighborhood.  His father died the year after Willis was […]

Julius W. Waring, Judge born

*Julius Waring was born on this date in 1880.  He was a white-American lawyer and judge who played an important role in the early legal battles of the American Civil Rights Movement.    Julius Waties Waring was born to Edward Perry Waring and Anna Thomasine Waties in Charleston, South Carolina. He graduated second in class […]

Gertrude Rush, Iowa Lawyer born

The birth of Gertrude E. Rush, an African American attorney and activist, in 1880 is celebrated on this date.

She was born in Texas, the daughter of a Baptist minister. Her family also lived in Kansas before landing in Oskaloosa, Iowa. Gertrude attended Des Moines University and studied the law under her attorney-husband James B. Rush. She further studied at Drake and LaSalle universities. Rush was admitted to the Iowa Bar in 1918 as the state’s first Black female lawyer.

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 […]

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.

Violette Neatley Anderson, Lawyer and Judge born

On this date, Violette Anderson was born in 1882. She was an African American attorney and judge/magistrate.

She was born in London, England, the daughter of Richard E. and Marie (Jordi) Neatley. When Anderson was young, the family moved to the United States, where she attended North Division High School in Chicago, graduating in 1899. She then attended Chicago Athenaeum in 1903, and soon after, she married Albert E. Johnson. Anderson was a Republican and an active Episcopalian. She worked as a court reporter from 1905 to 1920, which sparked her interest in law.

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.