*Roscoe Bruce was born on this date in 1879. He was a Black educator known for stressing the value of practical industrial and business skills instead of academic disciplines. Roscoe Conkling Bruce was born in Washington, D.C., the only son of U.S. Senator Blanche Bruce and his wife Josephine Beall Willson Bruce. His father was […]
learn more*Marion Thompson Wright was born on September 12, 1902. She was a Black scholar, educator, and activist. Marion Manola Thompson was born in East Orange, New Jersey, to Minnie Thompson and Moses R. Thompson. Wright was the youngest of four children and had two older twin sisters and a brother. She attended Barringer High School […]
learn more*Friendship Armstrong Academy was dedicated on this date in 1902. This public charter school is in the Truxton Circle neighborhood of Washington, D.C. With the passage of an act of the 55th Congress, approved March 3, 1899, the school first bore the name Manual Training School No. 2, later changed to Armstrong Manual Training School. […]
learn more*Mary Hayes Allen was born on this date in 1875. She was a Black educator, administrator, and activist. Mary Magdalene Rice was born in Harrisonburg, Virginia. She was the illegitimate daughter of former slave Malinda Rice and a white former Confederate general, John R. Jones. She attended Hartshorn Memorial College. In 1895, she married educator […]
learn more*Gregory W. Hayes was born on this date in 1865. He was a Black education administrator and activist. Gregory Willis Hayes was born in Alameda County, Virginia, and graduated from Oberlin College. In 1891, he became the second president of the Virginia Seminary, which he led until he died. His wife, Mary Rice Hayes Allen, […]
learn more*Wenonah Bond Logan was born on December 18, 1906. She was a Black scholar and sociologist. From Atlanta, GA., she and her brother John were two children born to Georgia Faigan and John Bond, an interracial couple. Her family moved to Washington, DC, when she was a teenager. As a young girl, she was an […]
learn more*Middle Tennessee State University opened on September 11, 1911. MTSU is an HBCU public research university in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. One of the earliest calls for a normal school in America was in 1855 when a politician from Wilson County, Tennessee, sought to build a normal school in Lebanon, Tennessee. Education efforts collapsed shortly after the […]
learn more*Black history and the American normal school or normal college is celebrated on this date in 1685. A normal school is an institution created to train teachers in the norms of pedagogy and curriculum. The term “normal school” originated in the early 17th century from the French école normale. The French concept of an “école […]
learn more*Reavis Mitchell was born on this date in 1947. He was a Black historian and academic administrator. Reavis Lee Mitchell Jr. was born in Nashville, Tennessee. He attended St. Vincent de Paul Catholic School and Pearl High School. He earned a Bachelor of Arts from Fisk University, a Master of Science from Tennessee State University, and a PhD […]
learn more*Robert S. Wilkinson was born on this date in 1865. He was a Black educator and administrator. Robert Shaw Wilkinson was born to Charles and Lavinia A. Wilkinson in Charleston, South Carolina. He attended the Avery Normal Institute in Charleston. 1884, Wilkinson was appointed to West Point Military Academy but failed to pass the physical […]
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