People, Locations, Episodes

L. Alex Wilson, Teacher, News Journalist, and Activist

*L. Alex Wilson’s birth is celebrated on this date in 1909. He was a Black teacher, school principal, journalist, activist, and editor. Lucious Alexander Wilson was born in Florida. After being confronted by members of the Ku Klux Klan when he was younger and fleeing, he decided he would never run from racism again. As a child, […]

Willa B. Player, Teacher born.

*Willa B. Player was born on this date in 1909. She was an African American educator and civil rights activist.

Frances Baard, South African Teacher and Union Activist born

*Frances Baard was born on this date in 1909. She was a South African activist, trade unionist, and organizer. Frances Goitsemang Maswabi was born Frances Maswabi in Green Point, Beaconsfield, Kimberley, South Africa. Her father was Herman Maswabi from Ramotswa in Botswana, and her mother, Sarah Voss, was a Tswana person from Kimberley. She attended the […]

William Fontaine, Philosopher born

The birth of William T.V. Fontaine in 1909 is celebrated on this date. He was an African American educator and philosopher.

Lawrence Reddick, Professor and Activist born

*Lawrence Reddick was born on this date in 1910. He was a Black historian, activist, and professor. Born in Jacksonville, Florida, Lawrence Dunbar Reddick earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in history from Fisk University in 1933. In 1939, he married Ella Ruth Thomas and received his Ph.D. in history from the University of Chicago, where he […]

Oran Eagleson, Psychologist, and Professor born

*Oran Eagleson was born on this date in 1910. He was a Black professor and psychologist. Oran Wendle Eagleson was born in Unionville, Indiana. He worked shining shoes and shoe repair finisher from high school through his graduate years. He earned a bachelor’s degree in 1931 and a master’s in 1932, both in Indiana. In […]

Alberta Grimes, Educator born

*The birth of Alberta Tucker Grimes in 1910 is celebrated on this date. She was a Black educator, who was a native of Elyria, Ohio, and received her early education in Kentucky and Ohio.

North Carolina Central University Opens

*On this date in 1910, we celebrate to opening of North Carolina Central University. This is one of the many Historical Black Colleges and Universities in America.

The Holmes Avenue Elementary School, (Los Angeles) Opens

On this date, we celebrate the opening of Holmes Avenue Elementary School in Los Angeles in 1910. It was the first school in that city where Black teachers who had teaching experience could secure a job.

Originally called Fifty First Street School, it was built next to the Furlong Tract, a Black settlement established in a subdivided area. Holmes was also the first school in Los Angeles specifically built for a Black area. Holmes Avenue Elementary School was rebuilt in 1922 after a fire and was remodeled in 1933 after the earthquake.

St. Clair Drake, Anthropologist born

On this date we mark the birth of St. Clair Drake, African American anthropologist and educator, born in 1911.

He was from Suffolk, Virginia. After graduating from Hampton Institute, he worked for the Society of Friends at a number of schools and in movements in the South. St. Clair Drake then got involved in an anthropological study and later published his findings as “Deep South.”

Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity is Founded

Kappa Alpha Psi was founded on the campus of Indiana University on this date in 1911. The fraternity’s fundamental purpose was (and is) achievement.

Augusta Baker, Librarian, and Educator born

Augusta Braxton Baker, an African American librarian and storyteller, was born on this date in 1911.

Born in Baltimore, Maryland, Braxton was the only child of parents who introduced her to the joys of reading at an early age. In 1917, she enrolled at the University of Pittsburgh. She married at the end of her sophomore year, transferring to the New York College for Teachers in Albany, New York. Baker received a B.A. (1933) in education and a B.S. (1934) in library science from that college, moving to New York City soon after.

The National Training School for Girls Graduates Its First Class

*On this date in 1911 the first Commencement Exercise for the National Training School for Women and Girls occurred.

This was one of the earliest vocational educational institutions for Black women. Taking place in Lincoln Heights, Washington, D.C., the school was started by Nannie Helen Burroughs. She was an educator, public speaker, and churchwoman, was an ardent follower of Booker T. Washington’s philosophy. She established a school for girls in the District of Columbia in 1909 to provide women with vocational and missionary training.

Mark O. Fax, Composer and Professor of Music born.

*Mark Oakland Fax, a child prodigy born in Baltimore, Maryland, was born on this date in 1911. He was a Black composer and a professor of music. By age fourteen, Fax worked as a theater organist, playing scores for silent films in Baltimore’s Regent Theater on Saturdays and gospel music at a Black church on […]

Black History, and the American Boy Scout Movement, a story

The Scout Oath: “On my honor, I will do my best to do my duty to God and my country and to obey the Scout Law; To help other people at all times; To keep myself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight.”