*The founding of Centralia Washington happened on this date in 1886. This is a city in Lewis County, Washington, United States. It was founded by a former black slave named George Washington. In 1850, Washington led J. G. Cochran and his wife Anna were led to the area via the Oregon Trail. Cochran filed […]
learn more*Laurence Jones was born on this date in 1882. He was a Black educator, administrator and activist. From St. Joseph, Missouri, his father worked as a porter at the Pacific House hotel. Laurence Clifton Jones came from a family of educators, with an uncle who founded the Woodstock Manual Labor Institute in Michigan in 1846. When he was 15 […]
learn more*LeRoy T. Walker was born on this date in 1918. He was a Black educator, coach, administrator and the first Black president of the United States Olympic Committee. Born in Atlanta, Georgia, the grandson of slaves and the youngest of 13 children in a close-knit family. His mother, Mary, always told him not to worry about the […]
learn more*On this date in 1980, Radio One, Inc.is celebrated. Formerly Radio One, is a Silver Spring, Maryland-based American media conglomerate. It is the largest Black owned broadcasting company and as of 2014, it was the ninth highest-earning Black owned business in the United States. It is operating 55 radio stations and majority-owning the syndicator Reach […]
learn more*Cathy Hughes was born on this date in 1947. She is a Black entrepreneur, radio and television personality and business executive. Born Catherine Elizabeth Woods to Helen Jones Woods and William Alfred Woods. Her mother Helen Woods, was a trombonist with the International Sweethearts of Rhythm and her father was the first Black to earn an accounting degree from […]
learn more*Robert Johnson was born on this date in 1946. He is a Black entrepreneur, media magnate, executive, philanthropist, and investor. Robert Louis Johnson was born in Hickory, Mississippi, the ninth out of ten children to Edna and Archie Johnson. His mother was a schoolteacher and his father a farmer. His parents moved the family […]
learn more*The birth of Sherman Dudley is celebrated on this date c1872. He was a Black vaudeville performer and theatre entrepreneur. Sherman Houston Dudley was born in Dallas, Texas of humble parentage. A jockey early in his youth, he turned to theater and gained a reputation by singing in a medicine show on a Dallas street corner. By 1897 he had his […]
learn moreThe California Voice began publishing in this date in 1919. They are a weekly newspaper serving the African American community. It was first published with E. Marshall, editor; Lawrence Sledge, associate editor; T. Marshall, business manager; and L. A. Brown, assistant manager. It was run for many years by Lillian and E. A. Daly, who purchased the newspaper […]
learn more*On this date in 1942, The Negro Digest was published. This was a magazine for the African American market. Founded by publisher John H. Johnson of the Johnson Publishing Company, it was first published locally in Chicago, Illinois. The Negro Digest was similar to the Reader’s Digest but aimed to cover positive stories about […]
learn more*The birth of Wilson Ruffin Abbott is celebrated on this date in c 1801. He was Black Canadian businessman. From Richmond, VA he was the son of a Scotch-Irish father and a free Negro mother. Abbott was apprenticed as a carpenter as teenager but left home at 15 to work on a Mississippi River steamer […]
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