People, Locations, Episodes

James Corrothers, Writer born

*James Corrothers was born on this date in 1869.  He was a Black poet, journalist, and minister.  James David Corrothers was born in Michigan and grew up in a small town of anti-slavery activists who settled before the American Civil War.  His parents were James Richard Carruthers (spelling later changed by Corrothers), a black soldier […]

Thomas Blue, Librarian, and Minister born

The 1870 birth of Reverend Thomas F. Blue is celebrated on this date. He was an African American minister, educator, administrator, and librarian.

The son of former slaves, Blue was born in Farmville, Virginia. He graduated from Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute in 1888. He taught in Virginia, and earned a Bachelor of Divinity degree in 1898 from Richmond Theological Seminary. Around the turn of the last century, he was a secretary of the YMCA, serving Spanish-American War soldiers, moving to Louisville in the same capacity from 1899 to 1905.

John Langalibalele Dube, Essayist, and Politician born

*John Langalibalele Dube was born on this date in 1871. He was a Black South African activist, essayist, philosopher, educator, politician, publisher, editor, novelist, and poet. John Langalibalele was born in Natal at the Inanda mission station of the American Zulu Mission (AZM), South Africa. This was a branch of the American Board of Commissioners […]

James Weldon Johnson, Lyricist, and Composer born

James Weldon Johnson was born on this date in 1871. He was an African American composer, lyricist, publisher, lawyer, and educator.

Ruth G. Sheldon, Playwright born

*Ruth Shelton was born on this date in 1872. She was a Black writer and playwright.  Ruth Gaines-Shelton was from Glasgow, Missouri, the daughter of AME Church minister the Reverend George W. Gaines and his wife, Elizabeth Gaines. Her mother died when she was young, and she helped her father with church work at Old […]

Paul Laurence Dunbar, Poet, and Lyricist born

*Paul Laurence Dunbar was born in Dayton, Ohio on this date in 1872. He was an African American poet.

Dunbar was one of the first black writers to gain national prominence. He published his first volume of verse “Oak and Ivy,” at his own expense. His second book of poetry was “Majors and Minors.” In 1896 the best of his poems appeared in a single volume, “Lyrics of Lowly Life,” with an introduction by American writer William Dean Howell’s who noted that Dunbar was the first Black poet to express the lyrical qualities of Black life and the Black dialect.

Geraldine Trotter, Publisher, and Activist born

*Geraldine Trotter was born on this date in 1872.  She was a Black publisher, editor, writer, and activist.  From Everett, MA., Geraldine Pindell was the daughter of Charles Edward Pindell and Mary Francis Pindell.  Pindell received her initial education at the Everett Grammar School, then enrolled in a local business college. For ten years after […]

Florence Curtis, Librarian born.

*Florence Curtis was born on September 30, 1873. She was a white-American library educator and teacher. Florence Rising Curtis was born in Ogdensburg, New York. Her father was General Newton Martin Curtis, and her mother was Emeline Clark Curtis. She attended Wells College from 1891 to 1894 and, in 1898, received a diploma from the […]

Maud Hare, Writer, and Musician born

*Maud Cuney-Hare was born on this date in 1874. She was an African American musician and writer.

From Galveston, TX, her parents were Adelina (Dowdy) and Norris Wright Cuney. After graduating from Central High School in Galveston in 1890, she studied piano at the New England Conservatory of Music. While there she successfully resisted the pressure that white students exerted on the school’s administrators to have her barred from living in the dormitory.

Alice Dunbar Nelson, Writer, and Critic born

On this date, Alice Nelson Dunbar was born in 1875. She was an African American novelist, poet, essayist, and critic associated with the early period of the Harlem Renaissance during the 1920s and ’30s.

Ulrich Phillips, Historian born

*Ulrich Phillips was born on this date in 1877. He was a white-American historian who outlined the social and economic history of the Antebellum South and American chattel slavery.   From Atlanta, Georgia, Ulrich Bonnell Phillips concentrated on the large plantations that dominated the Southern economy, and he did not investigate the numerous small farmers who held slaves. He concluded that […]

William Braithwaite, Author, and Publisher born

This date marks the birth of William S. Beaumont Braithwaite in 1878. He was an African American author.

He was born in Boston to an immigrant from British Guiana and the daughter of a former slave. He was educated at home until 1884, when his father’s death left the family impoverished. Braithwaite attended public school but left at 12 to work and help his family. He worked for several people before settling into an errand boy job with the publishing firm of Ginn & Co., where he soon became an apprentice and compositor.

Kathryn Johnson, Writer, and Activist born

On this date in 1878, Kathryn Magnolia Johnson was born. She was an African American civil rights activist.

She was born in Drake County (a Colored Settlement) near Greenville, Ohio. She attended public schools in New Paris, Ohio, and studied at Wilberforce University from 1897-98 and 1901-02. She also studied at the University of North Dakota in 1908. Johnson began teaching in 1898 in the Indiana and Ohio school systems. In 1910, after moving to Kansas City, she shifted her career to “race work.” Johnson is credited by many as the first field worker for the NAACP.

Effie Smith, Educator, and Poet born

*Effie Waller Smith was born on this date in 1879. She was an African American educator and poet.

Belle da Costa Greene, Librarian born

*Belle da Costa Greene was born on this date in 1879. She was a Black librarian. Belle da Costa Greene, born Belle Marion Greener, was born in Washington, D.C., as Belle Marion Greener. Her mother was Genevieve Ida Fleet, a music teacher and member of a well-known Black family in Washington, D.C. Her father, Richard Theodore […]