*On this date, in 1875, three Black Seminoles received the Congressional Medal of Honor. America’s highest military decoration was given to Isaac Payne, John Ward, and Pompey Factor for their actions during the Indian Wars. All three Black Seminoles were known as Seminole Negro Indian Scouts. Payne served as a trumpeter, Factor was a private, […]
learn more*Samuel Joe Brown was born on this date in 1875. He was a Black lawyer and activist. Samuel “Joe” Brown was born in Keosauqua, Iowa, to Elizabeth (Henderson) Brown and Lewis Brown. Lewis, a teamster, traced the family lineage to the original 20 slaves brought to Jamestown, Virginia, in 1619. Moving north from Missouri, his […]
learn more*Edward Ceruti was born on this date in 1875. He was a Black attorney and racial justice activist. Edward Burton Ceruti was born in Nassau, the Bahamas. His parents were Eliza Jane Anderson, a mulatto, and Edward Burton Ceruti, Sr. The family moved to the United States when he was four years old. According to the 1880 census, […]
learn more*Dick Turpin was born on this date in 1876. He was an African American Navy Diver, inventor and officer.
learn more*The birth of Rufus Buck is affirmed on this date in 1876. He was a Black Indigenous Indian outlaw who terrorized Arkansas and Oklahoma in the summer of 1895. Born to a Black mother and Creek father in about 1875, Rufus was in trouble from a young age, and by the time he was 18, […]
learn more*On this date in 1876, the American national election resulted in the illegal use of the Poll Tax in the United States. Historically, Poll taxes have been a major source of government funding among the colonies that formed the United States. Poll taxes made up from one-third to one-half of the tax revenue of colonial Massachusetts. To encourage […]
learn more*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 their seven sons to college. Howard […]
learn moreThis 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.
learn moreMcCants Stewart was born on this date in 1877. He was an African American lawyer.
learn moreWilliam F. (Billy) Williams was born on this date in 1877. He was an African American executive political assistant.
learn more*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 […]
learn more*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 […]
learn more*Frederick Madison Roberts was born on this date in 1879. He was an African American mortician, news editor, school principal and politician.
learn more*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 […]
learn more*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 […]
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