People, Locations, Episodes

Inez Beverly Prosser, Educator and Psychologist born.

*Inez Beverly Prosser was born on this date in 1895. She was a Black teacher and school administrator and one of the first Black women to receive a Ph.D. in psychology in America. She was born to Samuel Andrew and Veola Hamilton Beverly in Yoakum or San Marcos, Texas, a small town between Austin and […]

The Flint Medical College (Louisiana) Opens

*The Flint-Goodridge Hospital is celebrated on this date in 1896. For almost a century, this hospital served predominantly Black patients and was owned and operated by Dillard University for most of these years. The hospital’s history can be traced to the Phyllis Wheatley Sanitarium and Training School for Negro Nurses, run by the Phyllis Wheatley Club. […]

May Chinn, Physician born

On this date in 1896, May Chinn was born. She was an African American physician.

Alfred Waddell, Physician born

*Alfred Waddell was born on this date in 1896.  He was a Black physician and activist.  From Trinidad and Tobago, Alfred Ernest Waddell was the son of Son of Joseph Waddell, a headmaster, and Claudine Angus Waddell.  He had five brothers and sisters: Aucher Vere Waddell, Jessie Ethel Victoria Young, Charlotte Henrietta Habib, Josephine Editha […]

Ida Mae Hiram, Dentist, and Activist born

*This date in 1896 is celebrated as the birth date of Dr. Ida Mae Hiram, a Black dentist, activist, and administrator. Ida Mae Johnson was born to Fayette and Short Johnson in Athens, Georgia. Her father was a former slave who fled his bondage at a young age and established himself in Athens. At age […]

St. Agnes Hospital, North Carolina Opens

On this date in 1896, the St. Agnes Hospital in Raleigh, NC, opened its doors, one of the first hospitals for Blacks in America.

Its beginnings were primitive, with a single cold water faucet in the kitchen and a wood stove to heat water and sterilize equipment. During its first six months of operation, the hospital cared for 17 inpatients and 35 outpatients. An additional 223 people received St. Agnes’s medical and nursing care in their homes. The first head nurse was Marie Louise Burgess, a black graduate of the New England Hospital for Women and Children.

Harlem Hospital (NYC) Opens

*Harlem Hospital opened on this date in 1897 in Harlem, NYC. Now called Harlem Hospital Center and branded as NYC Health + Hospitals/Harlem, it originated in a three-story building with 54 beds. The hospital originally served as a center for patients waiting to be transferred to Bellevue Hospital. Harlem Hospital was founded under the control of the […]

Jessie G. Garnett, Dentist born

*Jessie G. Garnett was born on this date in 1897. She was a Black Canadian dentist and activist. She was born in Liverpool, Nova Scotia. Her mother was a seamstress, and her father died when she was a child. At eleven, she moved to the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston with her mother, two older sisters, […]

Rudolph Fisher, Writer, and Gastroenterology Specialist born

Rudolph Fisher was born in Washington, DC on this date in 1897. He was an African American physician, roentgen logy specialist, novelist, short story writer, dramatist, musician, and orator.

The Cleveland Home for Aged Colored People Opens

*The Cleveland Home for Aged Colored People opened on this date in 1897. This facility was one of the earliest examples of a social welfare institution sponsored by Blacks for nonreligious purposes.

A Black Inventor Patents a Railroad Coupler

On this date in 1897, Andrew Beard received a patent for a device he called the Jenny Coupler.

The Jenny Coupler automatically joined cars by simply allowing them to bump into each other, or as Beard described it, the “horizontal jaws engage each other to connect the cars.”

This African American inventor sold the rights to his design for $50,000.00 and revolutionized the railroad industry.

Maude E. Callen, Nurse, and Midwife born

*On Maude Callen was born on this date in 1898. She was an African American nurse and midwife.

Maude E. Callen was born in Quincy, Florida. She was one of thirteen sisters. She was orphaned by the age of six and then was raised in the home of her uncle, Dr. William J. Gunn, a physician, in Tallahassee, Florida. She graduated from Florida A & M University in 1922 and then completed her nursing course at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama.

Earnest Mae McCarroll, Physician born

*Earnest McCarroll was born on this date in 1898.  She was a Black physician.  Earnest Mae McCarroll was born to Mary and Ernest McCarroll in Birmingham, Alabama. Her father was a mail carrier. She was the fourth of their six children.  She attended public school in the city until receiving her high school education and […]

Virginia Alexander, Physician born

*Virginia Alexander was born on this date in 1899. She was a Black physician, public health researcher, and administrator.   Virginia Margaret Alexander was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Hilliard Alexander and Virginia Pace. She had four siblings, including attorney Raymond Pace Alexander. Alexander’s mother died when she was four years old, and at age […]

Robert W. Johnson, Doctor, and Tennis Mentor born

*Robert W. Johnson was born on this date in 1899. He was a Black physician and community activist.   Robert Walter Johnson was born in Norfolk, VA. He graduated in 1924 from Lincoln University, Pennsylvania; he was a classmate of Melvin B. Tolson. Following a college career playing football at Pennsylvania’s Lincoln University as a […]