People, Locations, Episodes

The Robert Charles Race Riot Occurs

*The Robert Charles Riots began on this date in 1900. It occurred for three days in New Orleans, Louisiana, after a Black laborer, Robert Charles, fatally shot a white police officer during an altercation and escaped arrest. Charles had come to New Orleans from Mississippi. He was a self-educated activist for civil rights. He believed […]

An Integrated Baseball Team Wins a Minnesota Amateur Title

*On this date in 1900 the Waseca, Minnesota amateur baseball team won the Minnesota title with a 9-2 win over Saint Paul. Sponsored by Waseca’s EACO Mill, this was the first non-professional integrated baseball team in Minnesota and perhaps America.

The ‘American Negroes Exhibit’ is Shown at the Worlds Fair Paris Exhibition

*On this date in 1900, The Exhibit of American Negroes was shown at the Paris Exposition. This was a sociological display at the Paris Palace of Social Economy at the 1900 World’s Fair. The exhibition’s goal was to demonstrate progress and commemorate the lives of African Americans at the turn of the century. The exhibit […]

Parchman Farm (State Prison), a story

*Parchman Farm State Prison is briefly written about on this date.  It was opened in 1901 as a maximum-security prison farm located in unincorporated Sunflower County, Mississippi, in the Mississippi Delta region.   Since its construction, Parchman Farm has been part of many American Civil Rights movement episodes. Officially known as the Mississippi State Penitentiary (MSP), it is the only maximum-security prison for men […]

Whitesboro, New Jersey is Founded

*Whitesboro, New Jersey, was founded on this date in 1901. It is one of many Black towns in America established after the American Civil War.  The Colored Equitable Industrial Association founded it. This financial group had Black investors, including Paul Laurence Dunbar, Booker T. Washington, and George Henry White, the leading investor and namesake. White was a Black attorney […]

The Fort Des Moines Provisional Army Officer Training School Opens

*This date in 1901 celebrates the establishment of Fort Des Moines Provisional Army Officer Training School, a military base and training facility on the south side of Des Moines, Iowa. There have been three forts called Fort Des Moines. Fort Des Moines No. 1 (1834–1837), a U.S. Army post that grew into Montrose, Iowa, and […]

Rose Ingram, Sharecropper Farmer born

*Rose Lee Ingram was born on this date in 1902.  She was a Black farmer (sharecropper) and widowed mother of 12 children, who was at the center of one of the most explosive capital punishment cases in United States history.   Ingram farmed adjoining lots in Georgia with white sharecropper John Ed Stratford. Ingram bred Stratford’s livestock. On […]

The Herero And Namaqua Genocide Occurs

*On this date, in 1904, the Herero and Namaqua genocide began. This was a white atrocity against a Black community in Africa between 1904 and 1908. The conflict was one of the first colonial rebellions after the Berlin Conference. This was the high point of white European competition for African territory, a process commonly known as […]

Kappa Boule’ Fraternity is Founded

*On this date in 1904, Sigma Pi Phi Boule’ Fraternity was founded. Kappa Boule’ is one of the most impacting black fraternal organizations in America.

The Inkwell, a Los Angeles Landmark

*The Inkwell, a public Los Angeles beach is affirmed on this first day of summer in 1905. The Inkwell is a beach where black Californian’s and black visitors to Santa Monica, CA enjoyed the Pacific Ocean.  In the early 20th century a two-block area of Pacific oceanfront in Santa Monica, stretching from the western end […]

The Harlem YWCA is Founded

*The Harlem YWCA in New York City was founded on July 7, 1905.  The community’s founders were well connected to the networks of religious and practical organizations developed in Harlem, significantly as the number of Black citizens increased. During the Great Migration, this YWCA was essential in developing training and careers for young Black women […]

The Niagara Movement is Founded

This date marks the founding of the Niagara Movement, the first significant Black organized protest movement of the 20th century in America.

It also represented the attempt of a small yet articulate group of radicals to challenge the then dominant ideals of Booker T. Washington. At the turn of the century there were divisions in African American political life: those who believed in accommodation, led by Booker T. Washington; and the more militant group, led by W.E.B. Du Bois and William M. Trotter.

The First American Blues Song is Published

On this date in 1905, the first published blues composition became available to the American public.

W. C. Handy’s “Memphis Blues” went on sale in Memphis, TN.

The ‘Brownsville Affair’ Occurs

*The “Brownsville Affair” of 1906 is remembered on this date. This was a racial incident from tensions between whites in Brownsville, Texas and Black infantrymen in the U.S. Army stationed at nearby Fort Brown.

The Atlanta Race Riot Occurs

*On this date in 1906, The Atlanta race riot occurred. This tragedy was the result of bitter white hostility toward blacks after vague reports of African Americans harassing White women.

Over five days at least ten Black people were killed while Atlanta’s police did nothing to protect black citizens, going so far as to confiscate guns from Atlanta’s Black community while allowing whites to remain armed. It was this and other events of hatred based incidents during what was called the “Red Summers” in the early twentieth century.