People, Locations, Episodes

William T. Francis, Minnesota Lawyer born

On his date, we mark the birth of William T. Francis in 1869. He was an African American politician and lawyer.

Francis was born in Indiana and went to Minnesota at an early age. After completing his education, he served in the legal department of Northern Pacific Railroad. Francis opened his own law firm in St. Paul before World War II.

In 1920, he was president-elector at the Republican State Convention. Francis and his wife were instrumental in getting an anti-lynching law passed in the Minnesota State Senate in the 1920s.

The 15th Amendment is Ratified

*On this date in 1870, the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified. This guaranteed African American men the right to vote.

The 15th Amendment maintains “the right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by a State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” The text also gives Congress the power to enforce the amendment.

Louis B. Anderson, Lawyer born

*Louis B. Anderson was born on this date in 1870. He was a Black journalist and politician who served as alderman of Chicago’s 2nd ward from 1917 to 1933. Born in Petersburg, Virginia, Louis Bernard Anderson moved to Washington, D.C., in 1889 to work in journalism as an exchange reader and journalist. At some point, […]

The Enforcement Act of 1870 is Passed

*On this date, the Enforcement Act of 1870 was passed.   It is also known as the Civil Rights Act, the First Ku Klux Klan Act, or the Force Act. It was an American federal law written to empower the President with the legal authority to enforce the first section of the Fifteenth Amendment throughout the United States. The act was the first of three Enforcement Acts passed by the United States Congress from […]

The Enforcement Act of 1871 is Passed

*On this date in 1871, the 42nd United States Congress passed the Enforcement Act of 1871, and President Ulysses S. Grant signed it into law.   Also known as the Civil Rights Act of 1871, Force Act of 1871, Ku Klux Klan Act, Third Enforcement Act, or Third Ku Klux Klan Act, it empowered the President to suspend the writ of habeas corpus to combat the Ku Klux Klan and […]

The Supreme Court Rules On The Slaughterhouse Cases

On this date in 1873, the Slaughterhouse cases were decided by the Supreme Court. These had a profound affect on former Black slaves and the Fourteenth Amendment of the American Constitution.

The Civil Rights Act of 1875 Is Passed

*On this date, the Civil Rights Act of 1875 was passed. The Enforcement Act or the Force Act was a United States federal law enacted during Reconstruction in response to civil rights violations against Blacks. The bill was passed by the 43rd United States Congress and signed into law by United States President Ulysses S. Grant. The act was designed to “protect all citizens in their civil and […]

Lutie Lytle, Lawyer and Teacher born

*Lutie A. Lytle was born on this date in 1875. She was a Black lawyer and teacher. Lutie A. Lytle was born in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and was one of six surviving children of John R. and Mary Ann “Mollie” (Chesebro) Lytle, both formerly enslaved people. In 1882, the Lytle family moved to Topeka, Kansas. Lutie […]

James R. Johnston, Canadian Lawyer born

*James R. Johnston was born on this date in 1876. He was a Black Canadian lawyer and community leader. James Robinson Johnston was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and was the eldest of the five sons of William Johnston, a shoemaker, and Elizabeth Ann Thomas. His maternal grandparents were Reverend James Thomas, a white man from Wales who headed […]

The Compromise Of 1877, a story

*The Compromise of 1877 was enacted on this date in 1877. This unwritten arrangement, informally arranged among U.S. Congressmen, settled the intensely disputed 1876 presidential election.   This agreement, less than a week before the Presidential inauguration, resulted in the United States federal government pulling the last troops out of the South, ending the Reconstruction […]

Perry W. Howard Jr. Politician, Lawyer born

*Perry W. Howard II was born on this date in 1877. He was a Black attorney and politician. Perry Wilbon Howard II was born in Ebenezer, Mississippi. He was mulatto, the first son of Sallie and Perry Wilbon Howard, who were enslaved. His parents bought their farmland and sent all seven of their sons to college. […]

Arthur Spingarn, Historian, and Lawyer born

*On this date in 1878 Arthur Spingarn was born. He was an Jewish American historian, lawyer and activist.

From New York City, in 1897 he was the younger brother of Joel Spingarn and received his A.B. degree from Columbia University in New York. In 1899, he received a M.A. from Columbia University, in 1900 his LL.B., from Columbia University and practiced law until the 1960s in New York. From 1917-1919, he was a Captain in the Sanitation Corps, American Expeditionary Force, United States Army. In 1919, he married Marion Meyer.

Clara Washington Bruce, Lawyer born

*Clara Washington Bruce was born on this date in 1879. She was a Black lawyer and administrator. Clara Washington Burrill grew up in a Black middle-class family in Washington, DC. She graduated in 1897 from the city’s M Street High School, a segregated school known for its rigorous curriculum and exceptional faculty. After high school, […]

Bobby Marshall, Minnesota Lawyer, and Athlete born

*Bobby Marshall was born on this date in 1880. He was an African American athlete and lawyer.

Homer Phillips, Lawyer and Public Policy Advocate born

*Homer Phillips was born on this date in 1880. He was a Black lawyer and public policy advocate. Homer Gilliam Phillips was born in Sedalia, Missouri. The son of a Methodist minister, he was orphaned in infancy and raised by an aunt. Phillips’s interest in law led him to Washington, D.C., where he lived with […]