People, Locations, Episodes

Fanny Ellison, Writer and Editor born

*Fanny Ellison was born on this date in 1911. She was a Black editor, writer, and literary activist. Born Fannie Mae McConnell in Louisville, Kentucky, she was the daughter of Ulysses McConnell and Willie Mae Brock. Her parents divorced when she was a year old, and her mother took her to Pueblo and Denver, Colorado. […]

Carlos Marighella, Writer, and Activist born

*Carlos Marighella was born on this date in 1911. He was an Afro Brazilian politician and writer. Marighella was born in Salvador, Bahia, to Italian immigrant Augusto Marighella and Afro Brazilian Maria Rita do Nascimento. His father was a blue-collar worker originally from Emilia, while his mother was a descendant of African slaves from Sudan (Hausa blacks). He spent […]

Clara Stanton Jones, Librarian born

*Clara Stanton Jones was born on this date in 1913. She was a Black librarian and administrator. Clara Stanton was born to a close-knit Catholic family in St. Louis, Missouri. Her mother, Etta J. Stanton, worked as a schoolteacher. Her father, Ralph Herbert Stanton, was a Standard Life Insurance and the Atlanta Life Insurance Company […]

Beneta Edwards McHie, Librarian and Social Worker born

*Beneta Edwards McHie was born on this date in 1913. She was a Black social worker and librarian. Beneta Amelia Edwards, born in Saint Paul, Minnesota, was the daughter of Benjamin Franklin Edwards and Lola Dodd Ford Edwards and had one sister, Leatrice Dodd. Her grandparents escaped from Kentucky (Annie Ford) and Texas (Benjamin Edwards) […]

Aimé Césaire, Writer, and Politican born

*Aime Cesaire was born on this date in 1913.  He was an Afro Caribbean, Martinican poet, playwright, and politician.    His mother was a dressmaker in the small town of Basse-Pointe, and his father was the local tax inspector. Cesaire was raised in Martinique with his five siblings. Although their father was well-educated, and they […]

Robert Hayden, Poet Laureate born

*Robert Hayden was born on this date in 1913. He was an African American poet.

Born Asa Bundy Sheffey, Hayden was raised in the poor Paradise Valley neighborhood in Detroit, Michigan. He had an emotionally turbulent youth and was shuttled between the home of his parents and that of a foster family, who lived next door. Childhood events would result in times of depression he would call ‘my dark nights of the soul’. A nearsighted boy, he was often ostracized by his peers and was excluded from many physical Hobbies. Reading on the other hand occupied a great deal of his time.

Ben Burns, Journalist, and Editor born

*Ben Burns was born on this date in 1913. He was a white Jewish-American newspaper and magazine editor. He was born Benjamin Bernstein in Chicago to Polish Jewish parents Alexander and Frieda Bernstein. The family lived on Chicago’s Near West Side at his birth at Michael Reese Hospital. He grew up in the slums of […]

Carrie Allen McCray, Virginia Writer born

Carrie Allen McCray, an African American writer, was born on this date in 1913.

Born in Lynchburg, VA, she attended the Virginia Seminary Primary School. Her father, William Patterson Allen, was a lawyer; her mother, Mary Rice Hayes Allen, was a college teacher. As the ninth of ten children, McCray’s Virginia childhood had the warmth of a beloved family with close ties to the community.

Albert Camus, Algerian Writer born

On this date in 1913, Albert Camus was born. He was a French North African writer.

Camus (pronounced Kam-oo) was born into a poor working class family which only got poorer once his father was killed in WWI. From Mondovi, Algeria, Camus’ family was French Algerian (pied noir) settlers. His mother was of Spanish descent. His father, Lucien, died in the Battle of the Marne in 1914 while serving as a member of the Zouave infantry regiment.

Dorothy Sterling, Writer, and Historian born

Dorothy Sterling was born on this date in 1913. She was a Jewish American writer, journalist, and historian.

She was born in New York City and grew up in Manhattan. She started Wellesley College at the age of 16 and received her bachelor’s degree from Barnard College in 1934. After graduating, she worked as an editor and author of the weekly column, “Paris Notes,” for Art News and for the Federal Writers Project as a writer in New York.

Dudley Randall, Poet, and Publisher born

On this date in 1914, Dudley Randall was born. He was an African American poet, publisher, editor, and founder of Broadside Press.

He was born in Washington, D.C. and moved with his family to Detroit in 1920. His first published poem appeared in the Detroit Free Press when he was thirteen. His early readings included English poets from whom he learned form. He was later influenced by the work of Jean Toomer and Countee Cullen.

Ray Durem, Poet, and Activist born

*Ray Durem was born on this date in 1914. He was an African American activist and poet.

Ramón Durem was born in Seattle, Washington of mixed heritage.  Leaving home at fourteen, he briefly served in the U.S. Navy before suffering a leg injury that forced his discharge.  He then worked as a laborer until enrolling at the University of California in Berkeley where he joined the Communist Party in 1931 and volunteered to join the Loyalist cause in Spain.

Ralph Ellison, Author, and Educator born

Ralph Ellison was born on this date in 1914. He was an African American author, educator, and one of the most influential writers of the 20th century.

Mary Fair Burks, Scholar, and Activist born

*Mary Fair Burks was born on this date in 1914. She was a Black educator, scholar, and activist. She was the daughter of Gustavus “Gus” Samuel and Ollie (née Williams) Fair. She attended Alabama State University and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in English literature in 1933, and Michigan State University, where she earned a Master […]

Owen Dodson, Poet, and Playwright born

*Owen Dodson was born on this date in 1914. He was an African American writer, teacher, director and playwright.