People, Locations, Episodes

Ariel Williams Holloway, Poet, and Teacher born

*Ariel Williams Holloway was born on this date in 1905.  She was a Black music teacher and poet. Holloway was born Lucy Ariel Williams in Mobile, Alabama. Her mother was Fannie Brandon, a teacher and choir singer; her father was Dr. H. Roger Williams, a physician, and pharmacist. She studied at Emerson Institute, Mobile, and […]

Rosey Pool, Author and Activist born

*Rosey Pool was born on this date in 1905. She was a white Jewish-Dutch poet and anthologist of African American poetry. Rosa Eva Pool was born and raised in a secular Jewish family in Amsterdam, Sweden. In the 1920s, she participated in Dutch Popular Front youth movements, such as the socialist Arbeiders Jeugd Centrale (AJC) and […]

Dorothy Porter Wesley, Librarian, and Writer born

On this date in 1905, Dorothy Porter Wesley was born. She was an African American writer and librarian.

Era Thompson, Journalist born

*This date in 1905 marks the birth of Era Bell Thompson. She was an African American writer and journalist.

From Des Moines, Iowa, she grew up a child of the only black family in Driscoll, N.D in 1917. After attending secondary schools in the Driscoll-Steele area and graduating from Bismarck High School in 1924, she was a track star for two years at the University of North Dakota. Then she attended Morningside College in Iowa where earned a journalism degree. After graduation she began her career in Chicago in 1933, first finding work as a housekeeper then with The Chicago Defender.

‘Moon Illustrated’ Magazine is Published

*On this date in 1905, 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 Blacks. The experience was short-lived, however, with only thirty-four issues produced from the end of 1905 through July or early August of 1906. […]

Frank M. Davis, Writer born

*Frank Marshall Davis was born on this date in 1905. He was an African American poet.

Elmer S. Campbell, Cartoonist born

Elmer Simms Campbell was born on this date in 1906. He was the first African American cartoonist to publish his work in general-circulation magazines.

Campbell was born in St. Louis, and while still attending high school, he won a nationwide contest in cartooning. He later studied at the University of Chicago and the Art Institute of Chicago. He then worked as a railroad dining-car waiter, amusing himself by drawing caricatures of the passenger. One of them was so impressed with his work, hed gave him a job in a commercial-art studio in St. Louis.

Waring Cuney, Poet, and Composer born

*Waring Cuney was born on this date in 1906. He was an African American poet and composer.

Richard B. Nugent, Writer born

On this date, Richard Bruce Nugent was born in 1906. He was an African American writer.

Helen Johnson, Poet born

Helen (Helene) Johnson was born on this date in 1906. She was an African American poet during the Harlem Renaissance.

Roi Ottley, Writer, and Journalist born

*Roi Ottley was born on this date in 1906. He was an African American writer, and journalist.

Born in New York City, Vincent Lushington “Roi” Ottley was the second of three children of Jerome Peter and Beatrice Brisbane Ottley immigrated to New York from the island of Grenada. Young Ottley was educated at St. Bonaventure College (1926-1928), University of Michigan (1929), and St. John’s Law School (Brooklyn, New York).

Ellen Tarry, Writer, and Journalist born

*Ellen Tarry was born on this date in 1906.  She was a Black journalist and author.   Ellen Tarry was born in Birmingham, Alabama. Although raised in the Congregational Church, she converted to Roman Catholicism in 1922, after years of attending the St Francis de Sales school for girls on the former Belmead plantation property […]

Earl Conrad, Author, and Journalist born

*Earl Conrad was born on this date in 1906. He was a white Jewish-American author. He penned at least twenty works of biography, history, and criticism, including book collaborations. Earl Cohen (his birth name) was born to Eli and Minnie Cohen in Auburn, New York, into a Jewish family with nine siblings. He wished to […]

Mollie Huston Lee, Librarian, and Administrator born

*Mollie Huston Lee was born on this date in 1907. She was a Black librarian and administrator. Mollie Huston was born in Columbus, Ohio, to Corrina Smith Huston and Rolla Solomon Huston, a private business owner and politician. As the only child of “learned parents,” there were always books around the family home, and growing […]

Dorothy West, Writer born

This date recalls the birth of Dorothy West in 1907. She was an African American writer, social activist, and prominent member of the Harlem Renaissance.