People, Locations, Episodes

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 […]

Amelia E. Johnson, Canadian Writer born

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

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.

Joseph Seamon Cotter, Poet born

*Joseph Seamon Cotter, Sr., was born on this date in 1861. He was a Black poet, educator, and playwright.

Bonifacio Byrne, Afro Cuban poet born.

*Bonifacio Byrne was born on this date in 1861. He was an Afro Cuban poet. He was born in Pueblo Nuevo, in Matanzas. He did his studies in Matanzas. Since adolescence, he had a fondness for literature. In 1890, he founded the newspapers La Mañana y La Juventud Liberal. He published his first verse book […]

Josephine Henderson Heard, Poet, and Teacher born

*On this date in 1861, we mark the birth of Josephine Henderson Heard, a Black teacher and poet.   Josephine Delphine Henderson was born the daughter of two enslaved parents in Salisbury, North Carolina. After her Emancipation, she set a goal to become a teacher. At age 21, she married William Henry Heard in 1882. She held […]

Carrie Williams Clifford, Writer born

*The birth of Carrie Williams Clifford in 1862 is celebrated on this date. She was an Black writer, editor and activist.

Journal of Resistance on a Georgia Plantation in 1838-1839 is Published

*On this date in 1863, the book Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation in 1838–1839 was published. This is an account by Fanny Kemble of the time spent on her husband’s plantation in Butler Island, Georgia. The account was not published until 1863 after her marriage had ended and the American Civil War had begun. According to PBS, she […]

Emma Durham Kelley-Hawkins, Writer born

*Emma Dunham Kelley-Hawkins was born on this date in 1863. She was a Black writer and author. Emma Dunham Kelley was born in Dennis, Massachusetts, and raised by her widowed mother in Rhode Island. Kelley married Benjamin Hawkins, an inventor, in 1893. The couple had two children, Gala and Magda. Royalties from Emma’s two novels, […]

Thomas Dixon Jr., Segregationist, and Author born

*The birth of Thomas Dixon is marked on this date in 1864. He was a White American novelist, segregationist and minister.

Lena Mason, Minister, and Poet born

Lena Mason, a Black minister and poet, was born on this date in 1864.

She was born in Quincy, Illinois of parents, Reida and Vaughn, who were stanch Christians. Young Mason became a Christian at a very early age, attending the Douglass High School of Hannibal, MO. She also attended Professor Knott’s School in Chicago. She married George Mason in 1883, had six children with only one daughter surviving to adulthood. Mason entered the ministry at the age of 23. During her first three years of ministry she preached to whites exclusively.

Robert Kerlin, Minister, and Soldier born

*Robert Kerlin was born on this date in 1866.  He was a white-American minister, author, soldier, and activist.  From Harrison County, MO., Robert Thomas Kerlin’s parents were from Kentucky and were owners of several small farms.  They raised and sold Berkshire Hog and Southdown Sheep.  Confederate properties were seized due to the American Civil War, […]