*Edward N. Harleston was born on this date in 1869. He was a Black poet and journalist. Born in Charleston, South Carolina, Edward Nathaniel Harleston worked as a carpenter machinist and owned a funeral home early in his life. After his first wife, Mattie Gadsen, died in 1895, he moved to Atlantic City and became superintendent of […]
learn more*Theresa Venable was born on this date in 1948. She is a Black educator, historian, and retired librarian. From Knoxville, TN, Theresa Evans Venable earned a B.S. in Elementary Education and an M.S. in Information Sciences from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN. For thirty years, she was an elementary and middle school reading and […]
learn more*Marguerite DeMond was born on this date in 1907. She was a Black archivist and curator. Born in Buxton, Iowa, her father was Abraham Lincoln DeMond, and her mother was Lula Irene Watkins. She lived in Macon, Bibb, Georgia, in 1910 and Charleston, Charleston, South Carolina, in 1920. Marguerite Lula DeMond attended Avery Normal Institute. She also […]
learn more*Michael DeMond Davis was born on this date in 1939. He was a Black journalist and a pioneer in African American journalism, opening the doors for many African American writers. Michael Davis was born in Washington, D.C., the son of John P. Davis and Marguerite DeMond Davis, and grew up in a black middle class […]
learn more*John P. Davis was born on this date in 1905. He was a Black journalist, lawyer, and activist administrator. John Preston Davis was born in Washington, D.C., the son of Dr. William Henry Davis and Julia Davis. In the 1920s, his father was Secretary to the Presidential Commission investigating the economic conditions in the Virgin […]
learn more*The first publication of Our World magazine was on this date in 1946. Our World was a magazine for African American readers founded by John P. Davis. Our World Magazine was a full-size, nationally distributed magazine. Their first issue, which featured singer-actress Lena Horne on the cover, arrived on the nation’s newsstands in the spring. Our World […]
learn more*Marion Jones was born on this date in 1931. She was a Black Trinidadian librarian and novelist. Marion Patrick Jones was born in Woodbrook, Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. Her father, Patrick Jones, was of African/Chinese heritage and was a leading Trinidadian trade unionist and socio-political activist at the turn of the 20th century. She […]
learn more*This date in 1922 celebrates the ’S Street Salon.’ This home was a gathering of writers and one of the most understudied communities of the 20th-century ‘New Negro’ authors. The house at 1461 S Street NW became known as a satellite for writers in the nation’s segregated capital. It was considered one of the great […]
learn more*The Organization of Black American Culture (OBAC) was formed on this date in 1967. Hoyt W. Fuller conceived OBAC as a collective of African American writers, artists, historians, educators, intellectuals, community activists, and others. The group was initially called Committee for the Arts (CFA), formed in Southside Chicago, Illinois. By May 1967, the group became […]
learn more*Abdul Alkalimat was born on this date in 1942. He is a Black author and professor of African American studies and library and information science. Born Gerald Arthur McWorter in Chicago’s Cook County Hospital, he lived with his family in the Frances Cabrini Houses until 1953, when they moved to the city’s West Side. Alkalimat is the […]
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