People, Locations, Episodes

Charles T. Russell, Architect born

*Charles Russell was born on this date in 1873. He was a Black architect.  A Richmond native, Charles Thaddeus Russell graduated from the Hampton Institute in Hampton, Virginia, in 1899 with a certificate from the carpentry department and a diploma from the academic department. Two years later, he served as a carpentry supervisor at the […]

Tom Turpin, Ragtime Musician born

Tom Turpin’s birth in 1873 is celebrated on this date. He was an African American musician and businessman from Savannah, Georgia.

Cornelius Battey, Photographer born

*Cornelius Battey was born on this date in 1873.  He was a Black photographer who shot photographic portraits of African America in a Pictorialist style. Cornelius Marion Battey was born in Augusta, Georgia, but was raised in the North. His first job in photography was in a studio in Cleveland, Ohio. He moved to Manhattan, […]

Mary Dunlop Maclean, Journalist born

*Mary Dunlop Maclean was born on this date in 1873.  She was a white-American writer, journalist, and first managing editor of The Crisis from 1909 until her death.   Mary Dunlop Johnson was born to Harriet Darling Johnson and Samuel Otis Johnson in Nassau, Bahamas. Her mother, a descendant of Revolutionary War hero Paul Dudley Sargent and Governor John Winthrop, […]

Water Closets for Railroad Cars are Patented by a Black Man

*On this date 1874, a Black Man co-patented improvement for water closets in railroad cars.   Lewis Latimer and Charles W. Brown received credit for their work.  The patent number is #147363.

Charlotta Bass, Newspaper Publisher, and Politician born

*This date in 1874 marks the birthday of Charlotta Amanda Bass. She was an African American newspaper publisher, editor, and civil rights activist.

Hans Jonatan, Icelandic Slave born

*Hans Jonatan was born on this date in 1784. He was a Black slave, soldier, farmer, and trader. Also known as Hans Jónatan and Hans Jonathan) he was born on the plantation of Constitution Hill on the island of St Croix in the Danish West Indies, a Danish colony in 1733 when purchased by the […]

Wallace Rayfield, Architect born

*Wallace Rayfield was born on this date in 1874.  He was a Black architect.  Wallace Augustus Rayfield was born in Macon, Georgia, and attended local schools there. After his mother’s death, he moved to Washington, DC. While attending Howard University, he apprenticed at an architectural firm. He then completed a graduate certificate from Pratt Institute before earning his bachelor’s degree in […]

Charles Spaulding, Businessman born

On this date, Charles Clinton Spaulding, an African American business leader, was born in 1874. He built the North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company into the nation’s largest black-owned business by the time of his death in 1952, when it was worth about $40 million.

John Lankford, Architect born

*John Anderson Lankford was born on this date in1874. He was an African American architect, attorney, blacksmith, real estate broker, professor, and author.

He was born and raised on his parents’ farm in Potosi, Missouri, one of eleven children of former slaves Philip Anderson Lankford and Nancy Ella Johnson Lankford. His paternal grandfather was Rev. Philip Andrew Lankford; his paternal line can be traced back to the 1600s in France and to 1645 in Albemarle County, Virginia.

William S. Pittman, Architect born

*William S. Pittman was born on this date in 1875. He was a Black architect. William Sidney Pittman was born in Montgomery, Alabama, to an ex-slave laundress and a prominent white man. At 17, Pittman attended Tuskegee Institute, where he completed woodwork and architectural-mechanical drawing in 1897. He was awarded a scholarship to attend the all-white […]

Phillip Payton Jr., Harlem Realtor born

*Philip A. Payton Jr., a black real estate entrepreneur, was born on this date in 1876.  Philip A. Payton Jr. was born in Westfield, Massachusetts. He was the second of four children, one girl and three boys. His father was a barber, and his mother a hairdresser. His father insisted that the children learn a […]

The Peoples Advocate Newspaper is Published

*On this date in 1876, The People’s Advocate published its first edition. This was among the first weekly African American-owned and operated newspapers in Virginia. It was the first African American newspaper in Alexandria, Virginia.    The People’s Advocate was a newspaper founded by Traverse B. Pinn Sr., its first publisher and business manager, and John Wesley Cromwell […]

T. J. Huddleston Sr., Entrepreneur born

*T. J. Huddleston Sr. was born on this date in 1876. He was a prominent Black entrepreneur and community leader. Thomas Jefferson Huddleston Sr. was from Mississippi and owned dozens of funeral homes in the state. In 1924, Huddleston founded the Afro-American Sons and Daughters, a fraternal organization in Yazoo City, Mississippi. Four years later, […]

Casper Holstein, Mobster born

*Casper Holstein was born on this date in 1876. He was a Black mobster involved in the Harlem “numbers rackets.”   Born of mixed African and Danish descent in St. Croix, Danish West Indies, Casper Holstein moved to New York City with his mother in 1894. His father was a landed Mulatto owner of a large farm who was, in turn, the son of a Danish officer in […]