People, Locations, Episodes

Antônio Frederico de Castro Alves, Poet born

*On this date in 1847, Antônio Frederico de Castro Alves was born. He was an Afro Brazilian poet and playwright. Castro Alves was born in the town of Curralinho, in the Brazilian state of Bahia, to Antônio José Alves, a doctor, and Clélia Brasília da Silva Castro, one of the daughters of José Antônio da Silva […]

Susan King Taylor, Writer born

*Susan King Taylor was born on this date in 1848. She was a Black writer.

Lewis Latimer, Poet, and Inventor born

*Lewis Howard Latimer was born on this date in 1848. He was an African American inventor and innovator in the electric lighting industry.

Joel Chandler Harris, Writer born

On this date in 1848, Joel Chandler Harris was born. He was a White American writer, the creator of the “Uncle Remus” tales.

Born in Eatonton, GA, Harris worked from 1862 to 1866 on The Countryman, a paper published by a Southern plantation owner. For the next ten years, Harris worked on various newspapers in Georgia and Louisiana; in 1876 he began working at the Atlanta Constitution, where he stayed until 1900. Over time Harris became familiar with the legends and dialects of local Blacks.

Henrietta Ray, Poet and Biographer born

The birth of Henrietta Ray in 1849 is celebrated on this date. She was a Black poet, teacher, and activist.

Henrietta Cordelia Ray was born in New York City, one of seven children of Charlotte Augusta Burrough and Charles B. Ray, a blacksmith, a Congregational minister, and a leading abolitionist. Young Ray was named after her father’s first wife, Henrietta Green Regulus Ray, co-founder of the African Dorcas Association, a support group for the Free African Schools, and first president of the New York Female Literary Society (also known as the Colored Ladies Literary Society).

George W. Williams, Writer, and Global Activist

George Washington Williams, a Black historian, officer, and writer, was born on this date in 1849.

Williams was born in Bedford Springs, PA, and enlisted in the Union Army at the age of 14. He served and went on to become a lieutenant-colonel in the Mexican Army, and after the fall of Maximilian he moved west. Later Williams attended Howard University and Newton Theological Seminary, eventually becoming a minister. His career reached into journalism, and Williams wrote for two newspapers, and practiced law and politics. He served in the Ohio State Legislature and was minister to Haiti.

Rodolphe Desdunes, Author, and Scholar born

*Rodolphe Desdunes was born on this date in 1849. He was an African American civic leader, author and scholar.

Rodolphe Lucien Desdunes spent much of his professional life as a clerk with the U.S. Customs Service, but his contribution to history lies in his efforts to promote the achievements of his Blacks and to challenge the legality of Jim Crow laws. On September 5, 1891, he helped to organize the Comite des Citoyens, which backed Homer Plessy’s unsuccessful attempt to challenge segregation in public transportation.

Albery Whitman, Poet, and Orator born

*Albery Whitman was born on this date in 1851.  He was a Black poet, minister, and orator.   Albery Allison Whitman was born into slavery at a farm near Munfordville, Kentucky. After years as a manual laborer, working at a plow shop, on railroad construction, and as a teacher, Whitman attended Wilberforce University in 1870. […]

Felix Adler, Social Activist born

*Felix Adler was born on this date in 1851.  He was a white Jewish-American professor, rationalist, lecturer, and social reformer.   Felix Adler was born in Alzey, Rhenish Hesse, Grand Duchy of Hesse, Germany, the son of a rabbi, Samuel Adler, a leading figure in European Reform Judaism. The family immigrated to the United States from Germany when Felix was six so his father could accept the appointment as head rabbi at Temple Emanu-El in New […]

Uncle Tom’s Cabin, a story

Uncle Toms Cabin, an antislavery novel written in 1852 is celebrated on this date. The story was written about a faithful Black slave killed by a cruel white enslaver.

The book was popular, selling over 300,000 copies within a year; it was written by Harriet Beecher Stowe. By delivering a passionate indictment of slavery, the story intensified antagonism between the North and the South in the pre-Civil War era. While meeting Stowe at the White House in 1863, President Lincoln greeted her as the “little woman who wrote the book that made this Great War.”

Daniel P. Murray, Author, and Historian

*On this date the birth of Daniel Alexander Payne Murray in 1852 is celebrated. He was a Black author, politician, and historian.

José Martí, Cuban Nationalist and Journalist born

*José Martí was born on this date in 1853. He was an Afro Cuban nationalist, poet, philosopher, essayist, journalist, translator, professor, and publisher. Born in Havana, Spanish Empire, José Julián Martí Pérez began his political activism at an early age. In 1865, he enrolled in the Escuela de Instruction Primaria Superior Municipal de Varones, headed by Rafael […]

Octavia Rogers Albert, Writer, and Teacher born

The birth of Octavia V. Rogers Albert in 1853 is celebrated on this date. She was a Black teacher and writer.

Lucretia Newman Coleman, Writer born

*This date commemorates the birth of Lucretia Newman Coleman, a Black Canadian writer, in 1854. Lucretia H. Newman was born in Dresden, Southwestern Ontario, Canada, to Nancy D. Brown and William P. Newman. Her father was a runaway slave from Virginia who was ordained as a Baptist minister after attending Oberlin College in 1842 and 1843. He pastored for a […]

Charlotte Osgood Mason, Philanthropist born

*Charlotte Osgood Mason was born on this date in 1854. She was a white-American socialite and philanthropist.  Charlotte Louise Van der Veer Quick was born in Franklin Park, New Jersey, the daughter of Peter Quick and Phoebe Van der Veer. She was raised by her maternal grandfather, Schenck Van der Veer, whose last name she took. She married Rufus […]