*The Carnegie Colored Library, established by Houston’s African American community in the Fourth Ward, is celebrated on this date in 1913. Because of Jim Crow, Blacks were prohibited from accessing the Houston Lyceum and Carnegie Library, so Black leaders organized their public library in Houston’s Booker T. Washington High School in 1909. Native Houston resident Emmett […]
learn more*Beneta Edwards McHie was born on this date in 1913. She was a Black social worker and librarian. Beneta Amelia Edwards, born in Saint Paul, Minnesota, was the daughter of Benjamin Franklin Edwards and Lola Dodd Ford Edwards and had one sister, Leatrice Dodd. Her grandparents escaped from Kentucky (Annie Ford) and Texas (Benjamin Edwards) […]
learn moreOn this date in 1914, Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc., was founded.
Howard University’s Langston Taylor, Charles I. Brown, and Leonard F. Morse chartered the fraternity. Its motto is: Culture for Service and Service for Humanity.
Phi Beta Sigma is constitutionally bound to Zeta Phi Beta Sorority.
learn moreOn this date in 1914, Henry McBay was born. He was an African American scientist and educator.
Henry Ransom Cecil McBay was from Mexia, TX. He received a Bachelor of Science from Wiley College in 1934, a Master of Science from Atlanta University in 1936, and a Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Chicago in 1945. He was an instructor of chemistry at Wiley College from 1936 to 1938, then an instructor at Western University, Kansas City. In 1944 and 1945, he won the Elizabeth Norton prize at the University of Chicago for outstanding research in chemistry.
learn moreThis date marks the birthday of Kenneth Bancroft Clark in 1914. He was an African American psychologist, educator, and social activist. His research, in particular his famous “doll study,” was crucial to the desegregation of public schools.
learn more*Mary Fair Burks was born on this date in 1914. She was a Black educator, scholar, and activist. She was the daughter of Gustavus “Gus” Samuel and Ollie (née Williams) Fair. She attended Alabama State University and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in English literature in 1933, and Michigan State University, where she earned a Master […]
learn more*Jean Blackwell Hutson was born on September 7, 1914. She was an African American librarian and researcher.
learn moreOn this date in 1914, Marjorie Lee Browne was born. She was an African American mathematician and professor.
Born in Memphis, TN., her father was a railway postal clerk and her mother died before she was two years old. Because her father had taken two years of college, excelling in arithmetic, he passed on his love for math to mathematical concepts to her.
learn moreThe Moorland-Spingarn Research Collection is celebrated on this date. This is a vast collection of scholarly materials by and about people of African descent, located at Howard University.
The collection was first donated on this date in 1914. The holdings of the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center (MSRC) chronicle the experiences of people of African descent in Africa, the Americas, and other parts of the world from the sixteenth century through the present. It is composed of two divisions: Library and Manuscript.
learn moreJohn Henrik Clarke was born on New Years Day, 1915. He was an African American historian, writer, and educator.
He was born in Union Springs, Alabama, into a family that came from a long line of sharecroppers. The family moved to Columbus, Georgia, when he was four years old. As a young young man, Clarke taught the junior Bible class at a local Baptist church. He noticed that although many Bible stories “unfolded in Africa…I saw no African people in the printed and illustrated Sunday school lessons.”
learn moreOn this date in 1915, African American educator John Hope Franklin was born.
A native of Oklahoma and a graduate of Fisk University, he received M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in history from Harvard University. He has taught at a number of institutions, including Fisk University, St. Augustine’s College, North Carolina Central University, and Howard University. Professor Franklin’s has published numerous books and articles. His best-known book is From Slavery to Freedom: A History of African Americans, now in its seventh edition.
learn more*Sir William Arthur Lewis was born on this date in 1915. He was a Black Caribbean economist, educator and Nobel Prize winner.
From St. Lucia, he was the fourth son of George Ferdinand and Ida Lewis. He was educated in St. Lucia up to the secondary Level. He proved during this time to be quite a scholar. Later he entered the London School of Economics where he distinguished himself as a student of Economics. His excellence was rewarded, when at the age of twenty-three, he was made a lecturer. During this time he published numerous papers and pamphlets.
learn moreArchie Williams was born on this date in 1915. He was an African American athlete and teacher.
Born in Oakland, CA, Williams attended San Mateo Junior College (now College of San Mateo). His coach, Dr. Oliver Byrd, was instrumental in preparing him for future achievements. Soon Williams transferred to the University of California-Berkeley to become a mechanical engineer. He continued to run track.
learn moreJohn Youie Woodruff was born on this date in 1915. He was an African American athlete and winner of the 800 metre run at the 1936 Summer Olympics. He also was a teacher, and military officer.
learn more*The Virginia Industrial Home School for Wayward Colored Girls is celebrated on this date in 1915. Founded by Janie Porter Barrett, she was the school’s creator and visionary. The Industrial Home School for Wayward Colored Girls was established in Hanover County, VA, as a rehabilitation center for black girls in trouble with the law near Richmond, […]
learn more