*Celes King III was born on this date in 1923. He was a Black administrator, pilot, and activist. As a child in Chicago, Illinois, he developed a love of flying while playing with wooden airplanes. He would ride his bike to the runway of the Chicago Municipal Airport to watch the planes take off and […]
learn moreOn this date in 1923, one of the first traffic signals in the United States was patented by an African American.
Garrett Morgan applied for and acquired a U.S. patent for this invention. The patent number was 1,475,024. Morgan’s technology was later patented in Great Britain and Canada.
General Electric bought Morgan’s patent for $40,000, and his traffic management device was used throughout North America until it was replaced by the red, yellow and green traffic signals currently used around the world.
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learn more*The Cotton Club opened on this date in 1923. From 1923 to 1940, this popular segregated New York City nightclub exemplified how American racial intersectionality and inequity lived together. It was located on 142nd Street and Lenox Avenue (1923 to 1935) and briefly in the midtown Theater District (1935 to 1940). In 1920, heavyweight boxing champion Jack Johnson rented the upper floor […]
learn more*Morrie Turner was born on this date in 1923. He was a syndicated African American cartoonist and artist.
From Oakland, California, his father was a Pullman porter and his mother a nurse, he began drawing seriously in elementary school. Morris “Morrie” Turner attended McClymonds High School; in his senior year, he moved to Berkeley to finish his high school years at Berkeley High School. During this time he began questioning why there were no minorities in cartoons, his mentor, Charles Schulz who created Peanuts, suggested he create one.
learn more*William Darity Sr. was born on January 15, 1924. He was a Black public health advocate, academic administrator, and activist. William Alexander (Bill) Darity Sr. was born in East Flat Rock, N.C. Neither of his parents, Aden Randall and Elizabeth Smith Darity, had been educated beyond the sixth grade. Still, they managed to provide a […]
learn more*This date celebrates the founding of The Douglass Hotel of San Diego in 1924. This was an entertainment business and place to stay for African Americans in the West.
learn more*This date, in 1924, marks the opening of the Earle Theatre. This venue was a 2768-seat theatre in Philadelphia, PA. It was located at 1046 Market Street, southeast of South 11th Street. In the 1930s and 1940s, it was a thriving venue for big-band jazz music. When it was constructed in 1923, it was the […]
learn moreDavid Jonathon Lee Sr. was born on this date in 1924. He was an African American lawyer and entrepreneur.
From Lincoln, NE., He was the youngest son of Robert and Blanche Lee. He was orphaned at the age of ten due to the early death of his parents and raised by his Uncle George and Aunt Elnora Evans. Lee attended Whittier Junior high school and graduated from Lincoln Senior high school in 1942. During that time he excelled in many areas, most notably were mathematics and debate. Drafted into the army, he served in the European Theater and was discharged as a Master Sergeant.
learn moreChuck Stone was born on this date in 1924. He is an African American newspaper editor, columnist, and professor of journalism and an activist.
Charles Sumner Stone is from St. Louis, Missouri. His father was business manager for Annie Malone’s Poro College, and his mother, Madeline M. Chafin Stone, was the payroll officer for the Hartford Board of Education. Raised in Hartford, Connecticut, Stone attended Arsenal Elementary School and Bernard Junior High School, and he graduated with honors from Hartford Public High School as “class prophet” in 1942.
learn more*On this date in 1924, the Afro-American Sons and Daughters Hospital opened. In Yazoo City, Mississippi, the Afro-American Hospital “offering death and hospitalization benefits to its members.” After being organized, it had 35,000 members by the 1930s. The Afro Americans Sons and Daughters members used the hospital on a fee basis for non-members. There were […]
learn more*Bruce’s Beach is celebrated on this date in 1924. This was a beach resort in Manhattan Beach (in Los Angeles County, California) owned by and operated by African Americans. Willa and Charles Bruce bought a property in the strand area for $1,225 that was set aside from Henry Willard in 1912 and added on three […]
learn more*Theodor Michael was born on this date in1925. He is an Afro-German economist, editor, lecturer and actor.
learn more*Cressworth C. Lander was born on this date in 1925. He was a Black government administrator and community activist. From Tucson, AZ., he was the second of five children, the son of Julia Belle Watson Lander and James Franklin Lander, who served with the Army’s 24th Buffalo Soldier infantry. He attended Dunbar School, graduating as valedictorian of his […]
learn more*On this date, in 1925, the International Labor Defense (ILD) was formed. IDL was a diverse legal advocacy organization supporting American labor. Economic disputes have been legally contested since America’s 19th-century organized labor movement began. Sometimes, an employer or government has gone to court to terminate strike actions or to seek prosecution for alleged malefactors for physical […]
learn more*The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP) was founded on this date in 1925. This was the first labor organization led by Blacks to receive a charter in the American Federation of Labor (AFL). The BSCP gathered a membership of 18,000 passenger railway workers across Canada, Mexico, and the United States. After the American Civil War, Pullman Porter became an important means […]
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