*November 3rd is National Journalism Day, so on this date we celebrate the first publication of the California Eagle from 1879, it was one of the oldest Black owned newspapers in America. John James Neimore founded the newspaper as The Owl that year to serve new arrivals to Los Angeles during the Great Migration, when millions of African Americans left the Deep […]
learn more*On this date in 1905, the Moon Illustrated published its first issue. The Moon Illustrated Weekly magazine was founded and edited by W.E.B. Du Bois. The magazine was the first nationally illustrated weekly produced by and for African Americans. The experience was short lived, however, with only thirty-four issues produced in total from the end of 1905 through July […]
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*On this date in 1951, Jet Magazine was published. This is a weekly magazine marketed to African American readers. It was founded by John H. Johnson of the Johnson Publishing Company in Chicago, Illinois. Johnson called his magazine Jet because, as he said in the first issue, “In the world today everything is moving along at a faster clip. There is more news and far less time to read it.” (The […]
learn more*”Bumpy” Johnson was born on this date in 1905. He was an African American mob boss and bookmaker in Harlem, New York City. Ellsworth Raymond “Bumpy” Johnson was born in Charleston, South Carolina. Johnson got his nickname “Bumpy” from a bump on the back of his head. When he was 10, his older brother, Willie, was accused of killing a white man. Afraid of […]
learn more*Stephanie Saint-Clair was born on this date in 1897. She was an African American gambler and businesswoman who ran numerous criminal enterprises in Harlem, New York in the early part of the 20th century. Stephanie Saint-Clair was born of mixed French and African descent in the West Indies to a single mother, Félicienne, who worked to send her daughter to school. She gave Moule Grandterre, French West Indies (present-day Guadeloupe, West […]
learn more*Leonard Harper was born on this date in 1899, he was an African American producer, stager, and choreographer in New York City during the Harlem Renaissance. He was born in Birmingham, Alabama, to William Harper, a performer, and his wife. Harper started dancing as a child to attract a crowd on a medicine show wagon, traveling throughout the South. In […]
learn more*In August 1917, the first issue of the Messenger magazine is celebrated. This was an early 20th-century political and literary magazine by and for African American people. It was important to the growth of the Harlem Renaissance and initially promoted a socialist political view. The Messenger was co-founded in New York City by Chandler Owen and A. Philip Randolph. Toward the end of 1916, Randolph and Owen dropped out […]
learn more*On this date in 1925, the first meeting of the American Negro Labor Congress took place. It was established by the Communist Party as a vehicle for advancing the rights of African Americans, propagandizing for communism within the black community and recruiting black members for the party. The organization opened in Chicago, they attacked the segregationist practices of many of the unions affiliated […]
learn more*Jesse Russell was born on this date in 1948. He is an African American inventor and IT entrepreneur. Jesse Eugene Russell was born in Nashville, Tennessee in the United States of America into a large African American family with eight brothers and two sisters. He is the son of Charles Albert Russell and Mary Louise Russell. His early childhood […]
learn more
