People, Locations, Episodes

James Farmer Jr., Educator, and Activist born

James Farmer, African American educator, administrator, activist was born on this date in 1920. He was also the founder of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE).

He was raised in an environment that valued education and religious faith. James Farmer was an outstanding student. After skipping several grades in elementary school, he entered Wiley College in Marshall, TX, at the age of 14, graduated in 1938, and then graduated from Howard University’s School of Religion in 1941.

The League of Women for Community Service is Formed

*On this date in 1920, the League of Women for Community Service was formed. The League was formed to undertake civic, social, educational, and charitable work to benefit Boston’s Black community. On that date, Florida Ruffin Ridley and her mother, Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin, purchased 558 Massachusetts Avenue from Eliza Farwell, widow of Nathaniel Farwell, and the […]

Odessa Brown, Cosmetologist born

*Odessa Brown was born on this date in 1920. She was an African American cosmetologist, and health activist.

She was born in Des Arc, Arkansas and received training as a licensed beautician at the C. J. Walker Beauty School in Chicago.  She moved to Seattle, WA in 1963. A mother of four, she supported her family by working as a Community Organizer for the Central Area Motivation Program beginning in 1965, and as a beautician.  Brown was a staunch supporter of a health care facility for children in the Central Area of Seattle. 

Marian Bruce Logan, Cabaret Singer, and Activist born

*Marian Bruce Logan’s birth is celebrated on this date in 1920. She was a Black cabaret singer, civil rights advocate, and former New York City Commissioner of Human Rights. During her career in show business, she sang using the stage name Marian Bruce. In the 1940s and 1950s, she starred in the first all-Black show […]

Janabelle Taylor, Social Worker born.

*Janabelle Taylor was born on December 3, 1920.  She was a Black administrator and social worker.  Born Janabelle Murphy in St. Paul, Minnesota, Murphy was the oldest of three children. She attended local schools, graduating from Central High School in 1939, and then moved on to the University of Minnesota, graduating in 1944 with a […]

Hughes Van Ellis, Soldier, and Activist born.

*Hughes Van Ellis was born on this date in 1921. He was a Black Soldier, mechanic, and survivor of one of the most extensive racial holocaust episodes in America.   Van Ellis was born in Holdenville, Okla., and was not yet five months old at the time of the Tulsa Massacre, after which his parents fled Tulsa with […]

Rosanell Eaton, Educator, and Public Policy Advocate born

*Rosanell Eaton was born on this date in 1921. She was a Black teacher and voting rights activist.  She was born on a farm outside Louisburg, North Carolina, a granddaughter of slaves and the youngest of seven children. After her father died when she was 2, Eaton’s mother became a sharecropper. In the early years of her life, Eaton […]

Yuri Kochiyama born

*Yuri Kochiyama was born on this date in 1921. She was an Japanese-American activist and journalist. Born Mary Yuriko Nakahara in San Pedro, Calif, she an outgoing student in high school, she played sports and wrote for the school newspaper. She was mostly unaware of political issues until her father, Seiichi, was taken into custody […]

Joseph Felmet, Activist, and Journalist born

*Joseph Felmet was born on this date in 1921. He was a white-American journalist, pacifist, and activist. Joseph Andrew Felmet was born in Asheville, North Carolina. He attended Lee H. Edwards High School and delivered newspapers for The Asheville Times. He graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1942 with a bachelor’s […]

Phyllis A. Wallace, Economist born.

*Phyllis A. Wallace was born on this date in 1921. She was a Black economist and activist. She was born Annie Rebecca Wallace in Calvert County, Maryland, the first of six children born to John Wallace, a craftsman, and Stevella Wallace. She attended a well-ranked yet segregated high school, Frederick Douglass High School, graduating first […]

Leeland Jones, Educator, and Activist born

*Leeland Jones was born on this date in 1921. He was a Black educator and civic leader. Leeland Jones, Jr., a Buffalo, New York native, spent the first six or seven years of his life sleeping in the bed of his grandfather, a former slave who had fled from the South through the Underground Railroad. He […]

Donald Smitty Smith, Community Activist born

*O Donald “Smitty” Smith was born on this date in 1921.  He was an African American businessman, musician and activist. 

Whitney Young Jr., Urban League, and NAACP Executive born

On this date, we mark the birth of Whitney M. Young, Jr. in 1921, an African American educator and activist.

Young was born in Lincoln Ridge, Kentucky, and received his B. S. degree at Kentucky State College in 1941. During World War II, he served in an anti-aircraft company of African American soldiers with white officers. This experience of racism increased Young’s interest in civil rights.

John Douglas, Civil Rights Lawyer born

*John W. Douglas was born on this date in 1921. He was a White American lawyer, political attorney, civil and human rights activist.

John Woolman Douglas was born in Philadelphia, PA. He graduated from Princeton University in 1943 and served in the Navy during World War II. He received a law degree from Yale University in 1948. During this time he married Mary St. John in 1(945). After law school, Douglas attended Oxford University as a Rhodes scholar and received a postgraduate degree in politics, philosophy and economics.

Matthew Little, Activist, and Businessman born

Matthew Little was born on this date in 1921. He was an African American businessman and one of Minnesota’s most prominent Civil Rights advocates for over 50 years.

William Matthew Little was born in Washington, N.C., the first city in America named after George Washington, and the son of Arthur and Bessie Little. His grandfather was a farmer, and his father was an engineer in a plant that made corn and wheat products.