People, Locations, Episodes

George R. Smith College is Founded

*The opening of George is celebrated on this date in 1882.  This was a Historically Black College (HBCU) in Sedalia, Missouri.   African American ragtime-music piano composer Scott Joplin attended it.  The institution was associated with the Freedmen’s Bureau and Southern Education Society of the Methodist Church and played an important role in the lives of young people for several decades.  According to the Encyclopedia of the […]

St. Paul’s Normal and Industrial School of Virginia Opens

*Saint Paul’s Normal and Industrial School opened its doors on this date in 1888. It was a private Historically Black College and University (HBCU). Archdeacon James S. Russell of the Episcopal Church founded St. Paul Normal and Industrial School. It was located in Lawrenceville, Virginia, for training students as agricultural and industrial work teachers. In […]

Hazel M. Walker, Ohio Educator, and Lawyer born

*Hazel Mountain Walker was born on this date in 1889. She was an African American lawyer and educator.

From Warren, Ohio, she was the daughter of Charles and Alice (Bronson) Mountain. Walker attended Cleveland Normal Training School and in 1909 earned a Bachelor’s and Master’s in Education from Western Reserve University. During the summers, when she was not teaching, Walker worked towards a Law Degree at Baldwin-Wallace College.

The Hungerford School, (Florida) Opens

*The Hungerford School’s establishment in 1889 is celebrated on this date. Modeled after Alabama’s Tuskegee Institute, the Eatonville, Florida school was named after Dr. Robert Hungerford, a white physician living in Maitland who had been teaching reading and writing to local black men.

John Morton-Finney, Lawyer, and Educator born

*John Morton-Finney was born on this date in 1889. He was a Black civil rights activist, lawyer, and educator. Morton Finney was born in Uniontown, Kentucky, to George and Maryatta “Mattie” (Gordon) Finney, a former slave father and a free mother. He was one of the family’s seven children. When his mother died in 1903, […]

Sarah Delany, Educator, and Activist born

*Sarah Delany was born on this date in 1889.  She was a Black educator and activist.  Sarah Louise “Sadie” Delany was born in what was then known as Lynch Station, Virginia, at the home of her mother’s sister, Eliza Logan.  She was the second eldest of ten children born to the Rev. Henry Beard Delany, the first Black Bishop of the […]

Vivian E. J. Cook, Educator born

*Vivian E. J. Cook was born on this date in 1889. She was a Black educator and activist. Vivian Cook, née Johnson, was born in Collierville, Tennessee. Her parents, Caroline Alley and Spencer Johnson were both born into slavery. Caroline Alley became the first African American school teacher in Fayette County, Tennessee, and her four […]

Mordecai Johnson, Educator born

On this date in 1890, Mordecai Johnson was born. He was an African American educator, clergyman, administrator, and public speaker.

Wyatt Mordecai Johnson was born in Paris, TN, the son of a former slave. Johnson learned through his parent’s example the muscle of self-determination, discipline, scholarship, and integrity. His father, a minister and laborer, was a stern man who worked at a mill six days a week, twelve hours a day, for forty years. His mother, Carolyn, offset his father’s firmness with patience and nurturing for her only child.

Blanche Armwood, Educator born

*Blanche Armwood was born on this date in 1890. She was an African American teacher, lawyer and activist.

Court Rules to Desegregate Education in California

On this date in 1890, public schools allowed Blacks to enroll in Visalia, California.

On that date, the California Supreme Court, in Wysinger v. Crookshank, reversed a lower court decision and ordered that 12-year-old Arthur Wysinger be admitted to Visalia’s regular school system.

Harris-Stowe St. College is Founded

The founding of Harris-Stowe State College (HSSC) in 1890 is celebrated on this date. It is one of over 100 historical Black Colleges and Universities in America.

HSSC traces its origin before the Civil War when it was created by the St. Louis Public Schools as a normal school and thus became the first public teacher education institution west of the Mississippi River and the twelfth such institution in the United States. The earliest predecessor of Harris-Stowe State College was a normal school established for white students only by the Public School System of the City of St. Louis.

L. Viola Kinney, Pianist, and Educator born

*The birth of L. Viola Kinney is celebrated on this date, c.1890. She was a Black composer, pianist, and teacher active during the first half of the twentieth century.   Born Lady Viola Kinney in Sedalia, Missouri, she was one of the five children of Patrick and Lillian Kinney. Her father was a cook, and […]

Nellie Pratt Russell, Teacher, and Administrator born

*Nellie Pratt Russell was born on this date in 1890.  She was a Black teacher and an incorporator of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority. Nellie Pratt was born in Macon, Georgia. in 1907; Pratt entered Howard University’s College of Arts and Sciences. She attended when only .33% of African Americans and 5% of whites of eligible age participated at any […]

Vivian G. Harsh, Librarian, and Historian born

Vivian Harsh was born on this date in 1890. She was an African American librarian, historian, and administrator, who made an important contribution to saving African American history.

Savannah State University is Founded

*Savannah State University was founded on August 30, 1890. It is a public Historically Black University (HBCU) in Savannah, Georgia, and the oldest public HBCU in the state. The university is a member school of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund.  Savannah State operates three colleges (College of Business Administration, College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, and College of […]