*Frances Dana Barker Gage was born on this date in 1808. She was a white-American reformer, feminist and abolitionist. Frances Dana Barker was born near Marietta, Ohio, the daughter of farmers Elizabeth Dana and Col. Joseph Barker, she was the tenth of eleven children. Baker wrote that her woman suffrage work began when she was ten years old, in 1818. She helped […]
learn more*Solomon Northup was born on this date in 1807. He was a Black musician, abolitionist and author. His father Mintus was a freedman who had been a slave in his early life in service to the Northup family. Born in Rhode Island, he was taken with the Northup’s when they moved to Hoosick, New York, […]
learn more*Beriah Green was born on this date 1795. He was a white-American reformer, abolitionist, temperance advocate, college professor, minister, He was “consumed totally by his abolitionist views”. He was described as “cantankerous”. Beriah Green Jr. was born in Preston, Connecticut, son of Beriah Green and Elizabeth Smith. His father was a cabinet and chair maker. The family moved to Pawlet, Vermont in 1810, where he attended the Pawlet […]
learn more*Theodore Weld was born on this date in 1803. He was a white-American writer, editor, speaker, organizer. He was an early architect of the American abolitionist movement during its formative years from 1830 through 1844. Born in Hampton, Connecticut, Theodore Dwight Weld was the son of Congregational minister Ludovicus Weld and Elizabeth Clark Weld. His brother Ezra Greenleaf Weld was a daguerreotype photographer, […]
learn moreCharmaine Jefferson, attorney, retired ballerina and former director of the California African American Museum shares the meaning of her interaction with Nelson Mandela
learn more*On this date in 1911, the first “Universal Races Congress” assembled. This four-day conference at the University of London was a 20th century global effort against racism. Speakers from a number of countries discussed race relations and how to improve them. The congress, with 2,100 attendees, was organized by prominent humanists of that era; it was conceived of a result of comments in 1906 […]
learn more*Felix Adler was born on this date in 1851. He was a white Jewish American professor, rationalist, lecturer and social reformer. Felix Adler was born in Alzey, Rhenish Hesse, Grand Duchy of Hesse, Germany, the son of a rabbi, Samuel Adler, a leading figure in European Reform Judaism. The family immigrated to the United States from Germany when Felix was six years old so that his father could accept the appointment […]
learn more*John Edward Bruce was born on this date in 1856. He was an African American 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 Bruce […]
learn more*George T. Downing was born on this date in 1819. He was a black abolitionist and businessman. George Thomas Downing was born in New York City to Thomas Downing and Rebecca (West). His father Thomas was born in Chincoteague, Virginia, to parents who had been freed from slavery when their master, John Downing, a prominent planter, converted to […]
learn more*William Lorenzo Patterson was born on this date in 1891. He was an African American Communists activist. Born in San Francisco, California, his father, James Edward Patterson was from St. Vincent in the British Virgin Islands. His mother, Mary Galt Patterson was born a slave in the state of Virginia. She was the daughter of the organizer of a volunteer regiment of black soldiers who […]
learn more
