People, Locations, Episodes

Aaron Fisher, Soldier born.

*Aaron Fisher was born on this date in 1895. He was a Black WW I soldier. He served over thirty years in the U.S. Army and received several military awards. Aaron Richard Fisher was born in the Lyles Station community in Gibson County, Indiana. He was the son of Macy Octiva (Barnhill) and Benjamin F. […]

Freddie Stowers, Soldier born

*Freddie Stowers was born on this date in 1896. He was a Black corporal in the United States Army. Stowers was born in Sandy Springs, South Carolina, and was the grandson of slaves. As a young adult, he worked as a farmhand and married a woman named Pearl, with whom he had one daughter, Minnie […]

Ethiopia Wins The Battle Of Adwa

On this date in 1896, Ethiopia defeated the Italian colonial army in the Battle of Adwa. This victory signaled the decline of European colonialism in Black Africa.

When Black African Menelik II came to the Ethiopian throne in 1889, the Italians thought that he would surrender power to them because they had been supplying him with arms. In May of that year Menelik signed the Treaty of Wichale, giving the Italians some land in Tigre and the adjacent highlands.

The Spanish-American War is Declared

The Spanish-American War was declared on this date in 1898. In this conflict the Black men of the Ninth and Tenth Cavalries further proved their military abilities in battles and in guarding the Mexican border.

Members of both regiments fought in Cuba, participating in the battle at San Juan Hill in eastern Cuba, near the city of Santiago de Cuba. It was the scene (July, 1898) where Theodore Roosevelt and the Rough Riders took part. The Tenth also served under General John J. Pershing in the expedition against Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa.

The Sixth Regiment Volunteer Infantry is formed

*The Sixth Regiment, United States Volunteer Infantry, was formed on this date in 1898. Also known as the ‘Sixth Immunes,’ they were mustered into service that summer and served their term of service in the continental U.S. and Puerto Rico. The Sixth was one of ten volunteer infantry regiments authorized by President McKinley during the […]

The Herero And Namaqua Genocide Occurs

*On this date, in 1904, the Herero and Namaqua genocide began. This was a white atrocity against a Black community in Africa between 1904 and 1908. The conflict was one of the first colonial rebellions after the Berlin Conference. This was the high point of white European competition for African territory, a process commonly known as […]

Harriet Pickens, Naval Officer born

*Harriet Pickens was born on this date in 1909. She was a Black administrator and Naval officer.  Harriet Ida Pickens, the daughter of William Pickens, one of the founders of the NAACP, was from New York City. She graduated from Wadleigh High School in 1926 and Smith College in 1930. Returning to New York, she […]

Hamid Awate, Military Commander born.

*Hamid Awate was born on this date in 1910. He was a Black Eritrean guerrilla commander. Idris Hamid Awate was born in Gerset, in southwestern Italian Eritrea. His father, a peasant, trained him as early as childhood in the use of guns. Hamid was of Tigre and Nara descent. In 1935, Hamid was drafted and […]

Benjamin O. Davis Jr., American Military Pioneer born

Benjamin Oliver Davis, Jr., was born on this date in 1912. He was an African American army officer and military activist.

Olivia J. Hooker, Tulsa Professor born

*Olivia Hooker was born on this date in 1915. She was a Black psychologist and professor. Olivia J. Hooker was born in Muskogee, Oklahoma. At the age of six, during the Tulsa Race Riots of 1921, Ku Klux Klan members ransacked her home while she hid under a table with her three siblings. Hooker later was […]

Alfred Masters, Marine Tech Sgt. born

*Alfred Masters was born on this date in 1916. He was a Black soldier. He was born in Wewoka, Oklahoma, and earned a B.A. in education at Langston University. Masters was one of the first Black members of the American Marine Corps. At his swearing-in on June 1, 1942, in Oklahoma City, he had his […]

Lincoln Hudson, Military Officer born

*Lincoln Hudson was born on this date in 1916. He was a Black U.S. Army Air Force officer, fighter pilot, Prisoner of War in Nazi Germany, and corporate executive. Lincoln T. Hudson was born in Okmulgee, Oklahoma. He was the son of a Methodist minister who traveled to various congregations in the Southern United States. […]

Leonard Harmon, WW II Sailor born

*Leonard Harmon was born on this date in 1917. He was an African American sailor who died in action during World War II and was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross for his valor.

Ulric Cross, a British Soldier and Diplomat, was born.

*Ulric Cross was born on this date in 1917. He was a Black British jurist, diplomat, and Royal Air Force (RAF) navigator. Philip Louis Ulric Cross was born in Belmont, Port of Spain, Trinidad, to Reginald Rufus and Maud Iris Cross. He was the second child in a family of nine. At 11, he came […]

Charles Walter David Jr., Naval Sailor born.

*Charles Walter David Jr. was born on this date in 1917. He was a Black sailor. David served as a Steward’s Mate in the United States Coast Guard and died of pneumonia after rescuing other sailors from the frigid North Atlantic. He was assigned to the USCGC Comanche during World War II, where he was […]