People, Locations, Episodes

A Black Man Receives a Valve Patent

*On this date in 1892, a Black man received a Valve patent.  Machinist and union activist Frank J. Ferrell was the inventor; his patent number was 467,796.

The World’s Fair Colored Opera Company Debuts

*On this date in 1892 the first African American performers appeared at Carnegie Hall.

The World’s Fair Colored Opera Company, with featured singer, soprano Matilda Sissieretta Jones, performed less than one year after the hall’s opening.

A Lynching in Memphis, Tennessee Occurs

*On this date in 1892, three Black businessmen were lynched in Memphis.

Following this incident, Black journalist Ida Wells wrote an article condemning the lynchers. As a result, a white mob destroyed her office and printing press. The mob had intended to lynch her but she was visiting Philadelphia at the time.

A Fifteen Year Old Black Rider Wins The Kentucky Derby

On this date in 1892, an African American became the youngest rider ever to win the Kentucky Derby.

Alonzo “Lonnie” Clayton, 15 years old at the time, rallied Azra to an impressive nose victory in a three-horse field to become the youngest jockey to win the Derby.

A Black Man is Lynched in Upstate New York

*On this date in 1892, a young Black man was lynched in upstate (Orange County), New York. Robert Lewis was a 28-year-old Black man lynched in Port Jervis, New York. The mob accused Lewis of assaulting a white woman, Lena McMahon, in an incident by the Neversink River after she had possibly been meeting with her estranged […]

Plessy v. Ferguson Begins

*On this date in 1892, a 30-year-old African American shoemaker named Homer Plessy was jailed for sitting in the “White” car of the East Louisiana Railroad.

Brown’s Chapel (Minnesota) Begins Services

*Brown’s Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church, a black church located in Hastings, Minnesota, held its first service on this date in 1892. Brown’s Chapel was the center of religious and social activities for Blacks in the area, with many weddings and funerals. Former Hastings residents visited the church after moving away, demonstrating their lasting ties […]

The New Orleans General Strike Occurs

*On this date in 1892, the New Orleans general strike occurred. This was a general strike that began despite appeals to racial hatred and Black and White workers remained united. The general strike ended on November 12, with unions gaining most of their original demands. Early that year, streetcar conductors in New Orleans won a shorter workday and the preferential closed shop. This victory drove many New Orleans workers to seek assistance from the American Federation of Labor (AFL).

A Black Surgeon Performs The First Successful Open-Heart Surgery In America

On this date in 1893, the first successful American open-heart surgery was performed by a Black surgeon, Dr. Daniel Hale Williams.

Dr. Daniel Williams completed the operation on a young man named James Cornish. He had been rushed to Provident Hospital in Chicago–a hospital which Dr. Williams had founded and one of the few hospitals that welcomed African Americans–with a stab wound. Williams repaired the wound with the use of sutures.

Sometimes open-heart surgery is referred to as an invasive procedure

Free Blacks Leave America for Liberia

*On this date in 1895, 200 former African slaves left Savannah, Georgia for Liberia. Much of the aid for this came through the American Colonization Society (ACS).

The society also committed itself to fostering a public-school system in Liberia, promoting more frequent ships between the U.S. and Liberia, collecting and circulating more reliable information about Liberia, and enabling Liberia to depend more on itself. Future colonists were to be selected with a view to the needs of Liberia and not to their own situations.

Lynching Attempted in St. Paul, Minnesota

*On this date in 1895, a Black man was nearly lynched in St. Paul, MN.   Houston Osborne, a young Black man, broke into Frieda Kachel’s bedroom in her St. Paul home.  Born in Tennessee in 1867, Osborne traveled around the country, working sometimes as a waiter, arriving in the Twin Cities in the spring of […]

The First National Conference of the ‘Colored Women of America’ is Held

*On this date in 1895, the First National Conference of the Colored Women of America was held. Representatives of 42 Black women’s clubs from 14 states—including the Colored Women’s League of Washington, the Women’s Loyal Union of New York, and the Ida B. Wells Club of Chicago gathered in Berkeley Hall with Josephine Ruffin presiding. […]

The Atlanta Compromise is Heard

The Atlanta Compromise occurred on this date in 1895. This was a public address from a national Black leader of activism in post reconstruction America.

This landmark statement of the views on race relations came from Booker T. Washington, a leading Black educator in the U. S. in the late 19th century, in a speech at the Atlanta Exposition.

Ethiopia Wins The Battle Of Adwa

On this date in 1896, Ethiopia defeated the Italian colonial army in the Battle of Adwa. This victory signaled the decline of European colonialism in Black Africa.

When Black African Menelik II came to the Ethiopian throne in 1889, the Italians thought that he would surrender power to them because they had been supplying him with arms. In May of that year Menelik signed the Treaty of Wichale, giving the Italians some land in Tigre and the adjacent highlands.

The Flint Medical College (Louisiana) Opens

*The Flint-Goodridge Hospital is celebrated on this date in 1896. For almost a century, this hospital served predominantly Black patients and was owned and operated by Dillard University for most of these years. The hospital’s history can be traced to the Phyllis Wheatley Sanitarium and Training School for Negro Nurses, run by the Phyllis Wheatley Club. […]