People, Locations, Episodes

Opal Lee, Teacher, and Juneteenth Activist born

*Opal Lee was born on this date in 1926. She is a Black retired teacher, counselor, and activist in the movement to make Juneteenth a federally recognized holiday. She was born in Marshall, Texas, and was the oldest of three children of Mattie (Broadous) and Otis Flake. When she was ten, she and her family moved to […]

The Credjafawn Club is Formed

*On this date, in 1927, the Credjafawn Club was formed. This social Black activist woman’s group was formed in St. Paul, Minnesota. An offspring of the city’s Rondo community, ten young adults who sensed the lack of social activities for persons in their age bracket were its beginnings. “The name was devised from a letter out […]

Charles Tisdale, News Publisher born

*Charles Tisdale was born on this date in 1926. He was a Black Newspaper publisher and civil rights activist. Charles Wesley Tisdale was the sixth of fifteen children born in Athens, Alabama. At age seven, he ran away from home and began working at a newspaper, pouring lead into molds in linotype machines. At fourteen, […]

James Reeb, Minister, and Activist born

*James Reeb was born on this date in 1927. He was a white-American minister, pastor, and activist.   James Reeb was born to Mae (Fox) and Harry Reeb in Wichita, Kansas. He was raised in Kansas and Casper, Wyoming. He attended Natrona County High School and graduated in 1945, after which he joined the Army even though his commitment to the ministry […]

Harry Belafonte, Entertainer, and Activist born

Harry Belafonte was born on this date in 1927. He is an African American entertainer and activist.

Although Harold George Belafonte, Jr., was born in New York City, his parents were from the Caribbean. His father, Harold George Belafonte, Sr., was from Martinique and was a cook in the British Navy. His mother, Malvine Belafonte, was from Jamaica. She worked as a housekeeper and dressmaker. When Belafonte was eight years old, his mother sent his brother Dennis and him to boarding school in Jamaica. He stayed there until high school, when the family moved back to New York City.

Gloria Blackwell, Activist, and Educator born

*Gloria Blackwell was born on this date in 1927. She was a Black activist and educator. Gloria Thomasina Blackwell was born in Little Rock in Dillon County, South Carolina, the second of three children to Harrison Benjamin Blackwell and Lurline Olivia Thomas Blackwell. She had two brothers. Her father was a businessman and barber, and […]

Coretta Scott King, Human Rights Activist born.

*Coretta Scott King was born on this date in 1927. She was an African American civil rights activist and author.

From Heiberger, Alabama, Coretta Scott was the daughter of Bernice McMurry Scott, a housewife, and Obadiah Scott, a lumber carrier. Scott grew up walking three miles each day to school while school buses carrying white children drove by her. Such occurrences, while difficult, led her to strive for equality and the best for herself. Scott went on to graduate from high school and in 1945 entered Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio on a scholarship.

Michael E. Haynes, Minister and Activist born

*Michael E. Haynes was born on this date in 1927. He was a Black minister, politician, and activist from Boston, MA. Taught daily by a praying mother, he surrendered his life to Christ as a teenager. In the following decades, Haynes passionately represented his Savior to the city of Boston as a youth director, teacher, […]

Clyde Kennard, Activist born

*Clyde Kennard was born on this date in 1927. He was an African American civil rights pioneer and martyr.

Kennard was born in Hattiesburg, Mississippi in 1927; he moved to Chicago at the age of 12 to aid his injured sister, Sarah. He stayed and graduated from Wendell Phillips High School, then entered the U.S. Army. After serving as a paratrooper during the Korean War, he returned to Chicago and started college at the University of Chicago.

John Seigenthaler, Journalist, and Author born

*John Seigenthaler was born on this date in 1927. He was a White American journalist and civil rights activist.

The Girl Friends, Inc. is Formed.

*The Girl Friends, Inc., is celebrated on this date in 1927. It is one of the oldest social organizations for African American women in the United States. It was founded in New York City by Eunice Shreeves, a Cheyney Normal School for Teachers student. It was her idea to “stay in touch” with her close friends while […]

C. DeLores Tucker, Activist born

*C. DeLores Tucker was born on this date in 1927. She was an African American politician and civil rights activist. Born in Philadelphia to a minister and a “Christian feminist mother, Cynthia DeLores Nottage was the tenth of eleven children.

Sally Motlana, South African Activist born.

*The birth of Sally Motlana is celebrated on this date in 1927. She was a Black African activist. Born in Pilgrim’s Rest in the then Eastern Transvaal, South Africa, Sally Maunye came to Johannesburg in 1931. She stayed in Vrededorp initially and moved to Sophiatown in 1933. After gaining her junior certificate, she was unable […]

The Negro Worker Newspaper is Published

*The Negro Worker is celebrated on this date in 1928. This was the newspaper of the International Trade Union Committee of Negro Workers. The International Negro Workers’ Review was launched in 1928, but the name was changed in March 1931. It ceased publication in 1937. It was edited first by George Padmore until 1931 and then by […]

Robert Graetz, Pastor, and Activist born

*Robert Graetz was born on this date in 1928. He was a white-American Lutheran clergyman and activist.  Robert S. Graetz, of German descent, was born in Clarksburg, West Virginia, and educated in Columbus, Ohio. He graduated from Capital University in Bexley, Ohio, in 1950 and received a B.D. in 1955 from Evangelical Lutheran Theological Seminary […]