People, Locations, Episodes

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 […]

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

*The birth of Lucretia Newman Coleman in 1854 is remembered on this date.  She was a Black Canadian writer. 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.  Born Charlotte Louise Van der Veer Quick, she was from Franklin Park, New Jersey. She was 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 Osgood Mason on […]

John Edward Bruce, Journalist born

*John Edward Bruce was born on this date in 1856.  He was a Black journalist, historian, writer, orator, civil rights activist, and Pan-African nationalist.    Also known as Bruce Grit or J. E. Bruce-Grit, he was born a slave in Piscataway, Maryland, to enslaved parents Robert and Martha Allen (Clark) Bruce. When he was three years old, his father was sold to a slaveholder in Georgia, and Bruce […]

Amelia E. Johnson, Canadian Writer born

*The birth of Amelia E. Johnson is celebrated on this date in 1858.  She was a Black Canadian writer, novelist, and poet. Amelia Etta Hall was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Her parents were natives of Maryland; Amelia Etta Hall Johnson was educated in Montreal. In 1874 she moved to Boston. She was married to […]

Annie Burton, Author, and Publisher born

Annie L. Burton’s birth in 1858 is celebrated on this date. She was a Black homemaker and publisher.

From Clayton, Alabama, her mother was a house slave who ran away from the plantation after being whipped, but returned after the Civil War when all slaves had been freed. Burton moved to Boston where she became a domestic servant. In 1888 she married a man who worked as a valet in Braintree.

In 1909 Burton published her book, Memories of Childhood’s Slavery Days and a short biography of Abraham Lincoln.

Charles W. Chesnutt, Writer born

This date is the birthday of Charles Waddell Chesnutt, born in 1858. He was an African American novelist and short-story writer.

Chesnutt was born in Cleveland, OH, but had little formal education. He taught himself and he was tutored. After the Civil War, Chesnutt became a teacher. In the 1870s, he began to write for magazines and newspapers, eventually concentrating on fiction. His story “The Goophered Grapevine,” became the first work written by a Black author to be published in “The Atlantic Monthly.”

Pauline Hopkins, Writer, and Editor born

*The birth of Pauline Hopkins in 1859 is celebrated on this date. She was a Black playwright, journalist, novelist, short story writer, biographer, and editor.

Pauline Elizabeth Hopkins was the daughter of Northrup Hopkins and Sarah Allen. From Portland, Maine, she was raised in Boston, Massachusetts. Her skill as a writer gained recognition in 1874, when, at the age of fifteen, she received first prize in a contest for her essay titled “Evils of Intemperance and Their Remedy.”

The First Novel by a Black Author is Published in America

On this date in 1859, the first novel by an African American was published in the United States.

“Our Nig; or Sketches from the Life of a Free Black, In a Two Story White House North, Showing that Slavery’s Shadow Falls Even There,” by Harriet E. Adams Wilson, was published in Boston. She was living alone at the time of the writing, having been abandoned by her husband.

The novel was lost for over 100 years until reprinted with a critical essay by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., in 1983.