People, Locations, Episodes

Ben Burns, Journalist, and Editor born

*Ben Burns was born on this date in 1913. He was a white Jewish-American newspaper and magazine editor. Benjamin Bernstein was born in Chicago to Polish Jewish parents, Alexander and Frieda Bernstein. The family lived on Chicago’s Near West Side at his birth at Michael Reese Hospital. He grew up in the slums of Chicago. […]

Willie Adams, Businessman born

*William Lloyd Adams was born on this date in 1914. He was an African American businessman.

Bill Veeck Jr. born

*Bill Veeck Jr. was born on this date in 1914. He was a white-American businessman and advocate for racial equity in baseball. From Chicago, Illinois his parents were William L. Veeck Sr. and Grace Greenwood DeForest Veeck. His father was a sportswriter under the pen name Bill Bailey. After his father criticized the Cubs in his […]

Richard Mann, Businessman born

*Richard Mann was born on this date in 1914.  He was a retired Black businessman and community activist.  Richard Morris Mann was born in the Rondo Community of St. Paul, Minnesota.  He was the second child of Richard Matison Mann and Grace Starks Mann.  His other siblings included an older sister, Laura Mae, a younger […]

Wendell Smith, Sportswriter born

On this date, we celebrate African American sportswriter Wendell Smith, who was born in 1914.

Oscar Howard, Entrepreneur, and Activist born

On this date in 1914, Oscar Howard was born. He was an African American businessman, activist, and minister.

The Hippodrome Theater in Richmond, VA. Opens

*The Hippodrome Theater, a black entertainment venue in Richmond, Virginia’s Jackson Ward neighborhood, was celebrated on this date in 1914. Charles A. Somma opened the Hippodrome Theater as a vaudeville and movie theater. The theater played a major role in the entertainment of Richmond’s Black community during the early 20th century. It is located on Second Street […]

Carl Braden, Trade Unionist, and Activist

*Carl Braden was born on this date in 1914. He was a white-American trade unionist, journalist, and activist. He was born in New Albany, Indiana. He worked for several newspapers in Kentucky, Ohio, Missouri, Indiana, and Illinois. His parents were Catholics, but his father had lost his faith and became an agnostic socialist. Carl’s father was […]

Viola Desmond, Businesswoman born

*Viola Desmond was born on this date in 1914.  She was a Black Canadian businesswoman and activist. Viola Desmond (née Davis) was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, the tenth child of James Albert and Gwendoline Irene (née Johnson) Davis. Her parents were active in the black community in Halifax. As a teenager, Desmond noted the absence […]

Carlton Goodlett, Physician, and Publisher born

*Carlton Goodlett was born on this date in 1914.  He was a Black physician, newspaper publisher, and political activist.    Carlton Benjamin Goodlett was born in Chipley, Florida, to Fannie T. Russ and Arthur Goodlett and later migrated to Omaha, Nebraska. He was the youngest of two children. His sister’s name is unknown, but when she was five and Carlton […]

Chester Commodore, Cartoonist born

*Chester Commodore was born on this date in 1914. He was an African American Cartoonist.

From in Racine, Wisconsin, Chesterfield Commodore was the son of Pascal and Elizabeth (Bessie Fite) Commodore, along with five siblings; Althea (a half-sister), Blanche, Josephine, Louis, and Ruth.  His parents and sisters moved to Chicago in 1923, but Chester and his older brother, Louis stayed with his maternal grandmother, Della Fite, in her Racine boarding house. 

The Gas Mask is Patented by a Black Man

*On this date in 1914, one of the first breathing devices in the United States was patented by a Black man.   Garrett Morgan applied for and acquired a U.S. patent for this invention. The Patent number was #1113, 675.  Morgan’s technology was a forerunner to the Gas Mask.

Cleveland Robinson, Union Activist born

*Cleveland Robinson was born on this date in 1914. He was a Black labor organizer and civil rights activist. Cleveland Lowellyn “Cleve” Robinson was born in Swabys Hope in Manchester, Jamaica. After serving as a local constable and an elementary school teacher, he emigrated to the U.S. in 1944. Robinson worked in a Manhattan dry goods […]

William A. Hudnall, Historian born

*William A. Hudnall was born on this date in 1914. He was a Black businessman and historian. He was the oldest of four sons born to Walter and Lelia Smith Hudnall in Reedville, Virginia. He graduated from the historic Julius Rosenwald High School in Reedville, Virginia, and began working in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1932. On […]

Hallie Almena Lomax, Journalist and Activist born.

*Hallie Almena Lomax was born on July 23, 1915. She was a Black journalist and activist. Hallie Almena Davis was born in Galveston, Texas. Her parents, Clifford and Geneva Davis, moved the family to Chicago and Los Angeles, where she graduated from Jordan High School in the Watts neighborhood. She briefly studied journalism at Los […]