*Jennie Belle Murphy Covington was born on this date in 1881. She was a Black feminist and activist. Jennie Belle Murphy was born in Clinton, Texas, to an unknown father and Rachel Thomas. She was raised in Dement, Texas, by her aunt and uncle, Jane and Will Jones. She attended Guadalupe College in Seguin, Texas, […]
learn more*Vera Pigee was born on this date in 1924. She was a Black businesswoman and civil rights worker. Vera Mae Berry was born to sharecropper Wilder Berry and his wife, Lucy Wright Berry, near Glendora in Leflore County, Mississippi. When she was fourteen, she married Paul Pigee Jr., who was four years older, and their […]
learn more*This date in 1791 is celebrated as the birth date of Edward Strutt Abdy, a white English legal academic and abolitionist. Edward Strutt Abdy was born in the U.K., the fifth and youngest son of Thomas Abdy, of Albyns, Essex, by Mary, daughter of James Hayes, of Holliport, a bencher of the Middle Temple. He […]
learn more*The National Civil Rights Museum is celebrated on April 23, 1991. The Institution is a complex of museums and historic buildings in Memphis, Tennessee; its exhibits trace the history of the American abolitionist and American civil rights movement from the 17th century to the present. The site opened as the 16-room Windsor Hotel in 1924 […]
learn more*Patricia Banks was born on this date in 1937. She is a retired Black flight attendant, administrator, and counselor. Patricia Noisette Banks was born to parents Sadie and Joseph Banks in New York City. She graduated from Aquinas High School in 1955. Banks Edmiston attended Queens College for a year to study psychology. While attending, […]
learn more*The birth of Peter Williams Jr. is celebrated on this date in 1786. He was a Black Episcopal priest and abolitionist. Williams was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey, the son of Peter Williams Sr., a Revolutionary War veteran, and his wife, Mary “Molly” Durham, an indentured servant from St. Kitts. After his family moved […]
learn more*David Lee Child was born on July 8, 1794. He was a white-American soldier, lawyer, abolitionist, and journalist. David Lee Child was born in West Boylston, Massachusetts, and graduated from Harvard in 1817. Child was the submaster of the Boston Latin School, followed as secretary of the legation in Lisbon about 1820, and enlisted and […]
learn more*The first issue of the National Anti-Slavery Standard was published on June 11, 1840. The Standard was a weekly newspaper published concurrently in New York City and Philadelphia. This was the official weekly newspaper of the American Anti-Slavery Society; its editors were Lydia Maria Child and David Lee Child. It published essays, debates, speeches, events, […]
learn more*Vic Rosenthal was born on this date in 1955. He was a white Jewish-American community organizer, educator, and social, racial, and economic justice activist. Victor Rosenthal was born in the Bronx in New York City after his grandparents fled the Russian Pogroms. He was raised in Yonkers and received his B.A. in history from SUNY […]
learn more*Rev. William Henry Jernagin was born on this date in 1869. He was a Black Baptist pastor, American civil rights, and Pan-African activist. William Henry Jernagin was born in Mashulaville, Mississippi, to Allen Fletcher Jernagin and Julia Ruth Walker. While his parents were mostly illiterate, they obtained a 40-acre farm to grow fruits and vegetables. […]
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