People, Locations, Episodes

Joseph C. Corbin, Scholar, Educator born

On this date we celebrate the birth of Joseph Corbin, born in 1833. He was a Black teacher, editor, and the highest-ranking Black official in Arkansas Reconstruction.

Oberlin College is Founded

*Oberlin College was founded on this date in 1833. It is a private, coeducational institution in Oberlin, Ohio southwest of Cleveland.

Ellen Murray, Teacher and Administrator born

*Ellen Murray was born on this date in 1834. She was a white-American teacher and education administrator. Murray was one of three girls born in St. Johns, New Brunswick, Canada. Her father died when she was two years old, leaving behind enough wealth for his three daughters to receive education in Europe. Murray was fluent […]

The Noyes Academy Begins Classes

*On this date in 1835, we celebrate the Noyes Academy in New Hampshire. In March of that year, twenty-eight Whites and fourteen Blacks commenced classes at newly established Noyes Academy.

Abiel Smith School (Boston) Opens

*This date in 1835 celebrates the opening of Abiel Smith School, a school for Black children in Boston, Massachusetts. Black parents in early America organized a school for their children in 1798; the school’s forerunner was first held in the home of Primus Hall. The school moved to the African Meeting House was built, and […]

The New York Colored Orphan Asylum Opens

*The New York Colored Orphan Asylum is celebrated on this date in 1836. This was a healthcare facility in New York City that existed until 1946. The Colored Orphan Asylum was founded in Manhattan by three Quakers: Anna, Hanna Shotwell, and Mary Lindley Murray. It was one of the first of its kind in the […]

Frances Jackson Coppin, Educator born

Frances (Fanny) Jackson Coppin was born on this date in 1837. She was a Black school principal, church and civic leader, and one of the leading Black women educators of the nineteenth century.

Cheyney University is Founded

Cheyney University of Pennsylvania was founded in 1837 on this date. Though not issuing degrees when founded, it is the oldest American institution of higher education founded for African American students. It is one the more than 100 Historically Black Colleges and Universities in the United States.

The Institute Catholique is Formed

*On this date in 1837, the Institute Catholique was envisioned by Bequeath.  Also known as Ecole Des Orphelins Indigents (Catholic School for Indigent Orphans) and the Couvent School, it was a school founded in the Faubourg Marigny district of New Orleans.   It was dedicated to providing free education to Black orphans, the first school in […]

Historic Black Colleges, and Universities (HBCUs) in America, a story

On this date, the Registry looks at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) in America.

At their beginning in the 1830s, the main duty of these institutions was to teach freed slaves to read and write. Today, there are more than 100 Historically Black Colleges and Universities in the United States, which have evolved and grown over the last 75 years. HBCUs offer African American students graduate and post-graduate degrees and a setting to nurture their soul, get a sense of identity, learn their heritage, and find a place in their community.

Martha Bailey Briggs, Educator born

*Martha Bailey Briggs was born on this date in 1838.  She was a Black educator. Martha Bailey Briggs was the daughter of John Briggs and Fannie Bassett Briggs, a Black abolitionist family in New Bedford, Massachusetts. After his emancipation, Frederick Douglass worked with her father in New Bedford. She was the first Black to graduate […]

Helen Pitts Douglass, Suffragist born

*Helen Pitts Douglass’s birth is celebrated on August 16, 1838. She was a white-American teacher and suffragist known as Frederick Douglass’s second wife. Helen Pitts was born in Honeoye, New York; her parents were activists in the abolitionist and suffragist movements. She was also a descendant of John Alden and Priscilla Alden, who sailed to America on […]

Diana Fletcher, Black Seminole Teacher born

*Diana Fletcher’s birth is celebrated on this date in 1838. She was a Black Native American Seminole historian and teacher. Born in Oklahoma (Indian Territory), her Black father was born in Virginia as a slave. While still a young child, he was sold to a man who lived in Florida. He ran away and lived […]

Samuel C. Armstrong, Soldier, and Educator born

*Samuel Armstrong was born on this date in 1839. He was a white-American soldier, educator, abolitionist, and administrator. The third son of Christian missionary Richard Armstrong, Samuel Chapman Armstrong was born in Wailuku, Maui, Hawaii, the sixth of ten children. His mother, Clarissa Chapman Armstrong, grew up in a Congregational family in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. His father […]

Octavius Catto, Educator born

*Octavius Catto was born on this date in 1839. He was a Black educator, Baseball player, author, and abolitionist. Octavius Valentine Catto was born free in Charleston, South Carolina. His mother, Sarah Isabella Cain, was free and a member of the city’s prominent mixed-race DeReef family, which had been free for decades and belonged to […]