People, Locations, Episodes

John Ware, Cowboy, and Rancher born

*The birth of John Ware is celebrated on this date in c. 1845. He was a Black Canadian cowboy who was influential in the early years of the burgeoning ranching industry in Southern Alberta. John Ware was born into slavery on a plantation near Georgetown, South Carolina. However, on his marriage certificate, Ware himself stated […]

Johanna July, Cowgirl born

*The birth of Johanna July is celebrated on this date in 1850.   She was a Black Seminole cowgirl.  From northern Mexico, July was the daughter of a Seminole Native American and a Black African slave.   Her family had left Florida and settled in northern Mexico after the Seminole War ended in 1842.  Around 1871, they […]

George Godfrey, Canadian Boxer born

*George Godfrey was born on this date in 1853. He was a Black Canadian boxer.

From the Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island (P.E.I.) neighborhood known as “The Bog” he left P.E.I. in his youth and worked as a porter in Boston, Massachusetts. It was there that he started training to box at Professor Bailey’s Hub City gym. At age 26, Godfrey began fighting competitively in the bare knuckles tour.

Phillip ‘Daddy’ Reid, Businessman born

*Phillip ‘Daddy’ Reid was born on this date in 1854.  He was a Black businessman, baseball administrator, and manager. Phillip Edward Reid was from Frankfort, Kentucky. Not much is known about his childhood other than he grew up in a slave-holding state and would have been very young at the end of the American Civil […]

Nat Love, Cowboy born

*The birth of Nat Love in 1854 is celebrated on this date. He was an African American Pullman porter, and cowboy.

Born on his master’s plantation in Davidson County in Tennessee, Love was raised out of an old log cabin. His master Robert Love, an extensive planter and the owner of many slaves owned his father and mother. Love’s father was a foreman of the slaves on the plantation, and his mother worked the kitchen at the master’s big house waiting tables, milking the cows, running the loom and weaving clothing for the other slaves.

Moses Fleetwood Walker, Baseball Player born

*Moses Walker was born on this date in 1856.  He was a Black professional baseball player and businessman.  Moses Fleetwood Walker was born in Mount Pleasant, Ohio.  Walker’s parents were Moses W. Walker and Caroline O’ Harra.    When Walker was three years old, the family moved 20 miles northeast to Steubenville, where his father became one of the first […]

Oliver Lewis, Horse Jockey born

*The birth of Oliver Lewis is celebrated on this date in 1856.  He was a Black horse jockey in thoroughbred racing. Lewis was born in Fayette County, Kentucky.  On May 17, 1875, at 19, Lewis won the very first Kentucky Derby aboard Aristides. The pair won by two reported lengths, setting a new American record […]

Tom Bass, Horse Trainer born

*Tom Bass was born on this date in 1859. He was a Black Saddlebred horse trainer and businessman. Tom Bass was born a slave on the Hayden plantation in Boone County, Missouri. His mother, Cornelia Gray, was also a slave, and his father, William Bass, was the son of the plantation owner, Eli Bass. He […]

William White, Baseball Player born

*The birth of William White is celebrated on this date, in 1860.  He was a 19th-century Black baseball player.   William Edward White was the son of a plantation owner from Milner, Georgia, Andrew Jackson White, and his black slave, Hannah. Brown University records give Milner as the student’s birthplace, and the only person of his name listed in the 1870 census […]

Isaac Burns Murphy, Horse Jockey born

This date marks the birth of Isaac Burns Murphy in 1861. He was a Black jockey and Horse Racing legend.

Murphy was part of the superabundance of Black jockeys in the history of horse racing. African American jockeys rode fourteen of the fifteen horses in the first Kentucky Derby. The horse racing sport was built with the talents of Black people whose jobs typically included trainer, jockey, and owner. One extraordinary jockey in this history was Issac Burns Murphy. Murphy was born in 1861 in Fayette County.

Peter Jackson, Boxer born

On this date in 1861, Peter Jackson was born. He was an African American boxer.

The Negro Baseball League is Founded

*This date marks the anniversary of the Negro Baseball League. In 1886, the Southern League of Colored Base Ballists became the first Negro league.

Matthew Henson, Explorer born

*Matthew Henson was born on this date in 1866. He was an African American explorer and member of the 1909 expedition with American explorer Robert Peary that is credited with discovering the North Pole.

Kenesaw Landis, Baseball Administrator born

*Kenesaw Landis was born on this date in 1866.  He was a white-American federal judge and the first Commissioner of Baseball.    Kenesaw Mountain Landis was born in Millville, Ohio. His name was a spelling variation on the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain in the American Civil War, where his father was wounded in 1864. Landis […]

Sol White, Baseball Player, and Author born

*”Sol” White was born on this date in 1868. He was a Black professional baseball infielder, manager, writer, and executive, and one of the pioneers of the American Negro Leagues. Born in Bellaire, Ohio, King Solomon White’s early life is not well-documented. According to the 1870 and 1880 U.S. Census, his family (parents and two […]