People, Locations, Episodes

Theodore Gaffney, Photographer born

*Theodore Gaffney was born on this date in 1927.  He was a Black photographer and journalist.   From Washington, D.C., his great-grandparents were enslaved on a plantation in South Carolina and were sharecroppers after the American Civil War.  In the 1920s, Gaffney’s parents migrated from South Carolina to Washington, D.C., for better opportunities.  In 1945, Gaffney enlisted in the Army.   […]

Chicago’s Regal Theater Opens

*On this date, in 1928, the Regal Theater opened. This was a 20th-century nightclub and music venue popular among Blacks.   The Regal was a major complex that featured films, dance, music, and comedy. It was a prominent entertainment venue for over four decades in Chicago, Illinois. This theater was designed by Levy and Klein, influenced […]

Alvin Hollingsworth, Comic Artist born

*Alvin Hollingsworth was born on this date in 1928. He was a Black painting artist and one of the first Black artists published in comic books. Alvin Carl Hollingsworth was born in Harlem, New York, to West Indian parents and began drawing at age 4. By 12, he was an art assistant on Holyoke Publishing’s Cat-Man Comics. He […]

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 […]

Norma Sklarek, Architect born

Norma Merrick Sklarek was born on this date in 1928. She is an African American architect and businesswoman.

A Black Woman Receives a Patent for a Hair Wave Machine

*On this date in 1928 Marjorie Joyner received a patent for her Permanent Wave Machine.  The patent number was 1693515.   It was described as a simple and efficient machine to wave and color the hair of both white and Black people.

The International Trade Union Committee of Negro Workers is formed

*On this date in 1928, The International Trade Union Committee of Negro Workers (ITUCNW) was formed. ITUCNW was a section of the Profintern that existed during the late 1920s and 1930s, serving as a radical transnational platform for Black workers in Africa and the Atlantic World. It was launched at the “International Conference of Negro […]

The Atlanta Daily World Newspaper is Founded

*This date marks the founding of the Atlanta Daily World.

William Alexander Scott II, age 26, founded the company, the first successful African American daily newspaper in the United States.

The Saturday Evening Quill is Published

*The publication of the Saturday Evening Quill is celebrated on this date in 1928. It was a short-lived Black literary magazine of the Harlem Renaissance. It was founded by the journalist Eugene Gordon. In 1925, Boston-based journalist Eugene Gordon organized a Black literary group, the Saturday Evening Quill Club (also known as the Boston Quill Club). Its […]

The Dunbar Hotel, (Los Angeles) Opens

*The opening of the Dunbar Hotel of Los Angeles in 1928 is celebrated on this date. Built by African American John Sommerville it stands today at 4225 S. Central Avenue in Los Angeles.

Originally called the Hotel Sommerville, it opened with an attendance of over 5,000 people. Because of the stock market crash of 1929 it was sold and renamed the Dunbar Hotel after the Poet, Paul L. Dunbar. At one time it was a very fashionable hotel and was the site of the first NAACP national convention to be held in the western region of the United States.

A Black Woman Patents a Hair Wave Machine

On this date in 1928, Marjorie Joyner received a patent for a hair wave machine. Her permanent hair wave machine, U.S. Patent # 1,693,515, could wave the hair of both white and black people.

Joyner was employed by the Madame C.J. Walker Cosmetic Company and assigned her patent rights to that company. She also developed lotions and creams for which she acquired trademarks.

Wilson Roosevelt Jerman, White House Butler born

*Wilson Jerman was born on this date in 1929. He was a Black Caterer and Butler.   Wilson Roosevelt Jerman was from Seaboard, N.C., the son of Theodore Roosevelt Jerman, a farmworker, and Alice Plum.   His granddaughter Jamila Garrett said, “As a child, he had no shoes and walked six miles to school at 12; he dropped out of school […]

James Barnor, Ghanaian Photographer born.

*James Barnor was born on this date in 1929. He is a Black African photographer. Frederick Seton James Barnor was born in Accra, Ghana, West Africa. At 17, Barnor was teaching basket weaving at a missionary school, and the headmaster gave him a camera “to play around with–it was a Kodak Brownie 127, made of plastic”. […]

Black Radio in America, a story

On this date in 1929, “The All-Negro Hour” premiered on American broadcast radio. This was the first radio program to feature Black performers exclusively.

Berry Gordy Jr., Music Producer born

Berry Gordy, Jr., was born on this date in 1929. He is an African American record producer, and the founder of the Motown record label and its subsidiaries.