People, Locations, Episodes

Mary McLeod Bethune, Educator, and Activist born

Mary McLeod Bethune, African American civil rights administrator and educator was born on this date in 1875.

James Shepard, Educator born

*James Shepard was born on this date in 1875. He was a Black pharmacist, community activist, and educator. James Edward Shepard was born in Raleigh, North Carolina. He was the son of Rev. Augustus and Harriet Whitted Shepard. Shepard received undergraduate and professional training at Shaw University, graduating in 1894. The following year, he married Annie […]

Knoxville College (Tennessee) Opens

*On this date, in 1875, Knoxville College opened.  They are a Historically Black liberal arts college (HBCU).    Founded by the United Presbyterian Church, it is also a United Negro College Fund member school.  Knoxville College is rooted in a mission school established in Knoxville in 1864 to educate the city’s freedmen.  In 1875, the […]

Carter G. Woodson, Educator and Historian born

Carter Godwin Woodson was born on this date in 1875. He was an African American writer, educator and historian.

Born to a poor family in Buckingham County, Virginia, Woodson supported himself by working in the coal mines of Kentucky as a teenager and was, as a consequence, unable to enroll in high school until he was 20. After graduating in less than two years, he taught high school, wrote articles, studied at home and abroad, and received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1912. Woodson also studied at Berea College and the University of Chicago.

Grace Morris Allen Jones, Educator born.

*Grace Morris Allen Jones was born on this date in 1876. She was a Black educator, school administrator, clubwoman, and writer. Grace Morris Allen was born in Keokuk, Iowa, to James Addison Morris and Mary Ellen Morris, née Pyles. The family was educated and well-off financially. Grace’s grandmother was abolitionist Charlotta Gordon Pyles, and she […]

Charles Chapman, Educator born

*Charles Chapman was born on this date in 1876. Chapman was a Black educator and agribusiness advocate. Born in Cayuga County, New York, he studied at Howard and Cornell University.  Chapman was one of the seven founders (commonly referred to as Jewels) of the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity at Cornell University in 1906. During the organization stages of the […]

Meharry Medical College is Founded

This date celebrates the founding of Meharry Medical College in Nashville, TN. It is one of over 100 Historically Black Colleges and Universities in America.

Meharry Medical College was founded in 1876 as the Medical Department of Central Tennessee College of Nashville , under the auspices of the Freedman’s Aid Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church. In 1900, Central Tennessee College became Walden University, and by 1915, the college gained a separate corporate existence from the university.

Eartha White, Educator, and Humanitarian born

Eartha Mary Magdalene White was born on this date in 1876. She was an African American vocalist, educator, administrator, and humanitarian.

Blanche Wilkins, Teacher, and Disability Advocate born

*Blanche Wilkins Williams was born on this date in 1876.  She was a Black teacher and disability advocate specializing in educating the deaf through the intersectionality of self. From Lacrosse, WI., she was the daughter of Charles Wilkins and Estelle Griffin Wilkins, both from North Carolina.  Wilkins was the first deaf Black woman to graduate […]

Jackson State University is Founded

*On this date in 1877, Jackson State University (JSU) was founded. They are a public Historically Black College and University (HBCU).   Located in Jackson, Mississippi. The university is one of the largest HBCUs in the United States and the fourth-largest in Mississippi.  The university is a member of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund. It is classified as a research university with high research activity.   Jackson State […]

Ulrich Phillips, Historian born

*On this date, in 1877, Ulrich Phillips was born.  He was a white-American historian who outlined the field of the social and economic history of the Antebellum South and American chattel slavery.   From Atlanta, Georgia, Ulrich Bonnell Phillips concentrated on the large plantations that dominated the Southern economy, and he did not investigate the numerous small farmers who held slaves. He concluded […]

Philander Smith College is Founded

*On this date in 1877, We salute Philander Smith College.  Philander Smith College is a private historically black college (HBCU) in Little Rock, Arkansas. They are affiliated with the United Methodist Church, are a founding member of the United Negro College Fund (UNCF), and are accredited by the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools.   Philander Smith College was officially founded under Walden Seminary […]

Prairie View A&M University is Founded

*Prairie View A&M University was founded on this date in 1878. They are a comprehensive public institution of higher education.

Its doors opened, enrolling eight young men, on this date. Prairie View A&M is one of the over 100 historically Black college and universities in America. Part of the Texas A&M University System, Prairie View A&M was founded in 1876, the first year of the Texas constitution. It is a land-grant university authorized under the Morrill Acts of 1862 and 1890.

Mary Montgomery Booze, Teacher, and Administrator born

*The birth of Mary Montgomery Booze is celebrated on this date in 1878. She was a Black teacher and public policy administrator. Born Mary Cordelia Montgomery in Mound Bayou, MS. to parents who had been enslaved when young, she grew up in the Mississippi Delta. Her father, Isaiah T. Montgomery, was a cotton producer politically allied with […]

Selma University is Founded

*Selma University’s founding is celebrated on this date in 1878. It is a private, historically Black Baptist Bible college (HBCU).    It is located in Selma, Alabama, and is affiliated with the Alabama State Missionary Baptist Convention. The institution was founded as the Alabama Baptist Normal and Theological School to train Blacks as ministers and teachers. Mansfield Tyler was its first administrator. The school purchased […]