*Albertina Sisulu was born on this date in 1918. She was a Black South African activist and nurse.
learn more*This date in 1918 celebrates the founding of the African Progress Union (APU), which was founded in London as “an Association of Africans from various parts of Africa, the West Indies, British Guiana, Honduras, and America, representing advanced African ideas in liberal education.” The first president was John Archer. He was succeeded in 1921 by […]
learn more*Jamye Coleman Williams was born on this date in 1918. She was a Black educator, administrator, and community (church) activist. Jamie Coleman was from Louisville, KY; her father was an A.M.E. preacher, and her mother was a poet and musician. In 1938, Williams graduated with honors in English from Wilberforce University. She received her M.A. in […]
learn more*This date in 1919 marks the start of the Pan-African Congresses, a series of eight meetings from 1919 to 2014 that addressed the issues facing Africa after the Berlin Conference. The Pan-African Congress was a peacemaker. One of the group’s significant demands was to end colonial rule and racial discrimination. It stood against imperialism, and it […]
learn more*On this date, in 1919, the American Communist Party was formed. Officially called the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA), they are a communist party in the United States established after a split in the Socialist Party of America following the Russian Revolution. The CPUSA has a long, complex history of intersectionality that ties with the American labor movement and communist parties worldwide. Initially operating underground […]
learn more*On this date in 1919, the National Conference on Lynching took place in Carnegie Hall, New York City. The goal of the two-day conference was to pressure Congress to pass the Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill. It was a project of the new NAACP, which released a report, Thirty Years of Lynching in the United States, 1889-1918. […]
learn more*This date in 1919 celebrates the founding of the Women’s Service Club, which was formed to support soldiers of color fighting in World War I. Founded in Boston, MA., hundreds of women joined the group, donating their talents to produce scarves and gloves for Black servicemen. Their building was purchased in 1919 and operated as […]
learn moreOn this date in 1918, M. Carl Holman was born. He was an African American civil rights leader and president of the National Urban Coalition (1971-88) who promoted the need for a mutual partnership between industry and government to foster inner-city development.
learn more*Viola Duvall was born on this date in 1919. She was a Black teacher and education activist. Born in Charleston, South Carolina, Viola Louise Duvall was the only child of Vincent and Pearl Duvall. She was named for two of her mother’s sisters who died in the Spanish flu pandemic of that era. After her […]
learn more*Mineo Katagiri was born on this date in 1919. He was a Japanese American activist, minister and strong advocate for civil rights for African and Asians in America.
learn more*The African Blood Brotherhood (ABB) is celebrated on this date in 1919. Sometimes referred to as the African Liberation and Redemption, this was a U.S. Black liberation organization established in 1919 in New York City by journalist Cyril Briggs. The summer of 1919 in America was a time of racial rioting and violence, remembered retrospectively by […]
learn more*Kathleen “Kay” Livingstone was born on this date in 1919. She was a Black Canadian social activist, actress, and broadcaster. Kathleen Jenkins was born in London, Ontario, and was the daughter of James and Christina Jenkins. Her father was an assistant judge in the local juvenile court, and her parents founded a newspaper, Dawn […]
learn more*Adelaide Cromwell was born on this date in 1919. She was a Black sociologist, activist, and professor emeritus. Adelaide McGuinn Cromwell was born in Washington, D.C. Her grandfather, John Wesley Cromwell, was a well-known activist and educator, and her father, John Wesley Cromwell Jr., was the city’s first Black certified public accountant. Her aunt, Otelia […]
learn more*Johnnie Jones, Sr., was born on this date in 1919. He was a Black soldier, lawyer, and Louisiana state legislator. Johnnie A. Jones was born in West Feliciana Parish near Woodville, Mississippi, in Laurel Hill, Louisiana. One of eight children, he was the son of lease sharecropping farmers Henry E. Jones and Sarah Ann Coats and the […]
learn more*Recy Taylor was born on this date in 1919. She was a Black activist for racial justice and women’s rights and a defendant in a high-profile rape case. From Abbeville in Henry County, Alabama, Taylor was one of four siblings, a brother and two sisters. On September 3, 1944, Taylor was walking home from Rock Hill Holiness Church in Abbeville […]
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