People, Locations, Episodes

Monroe N. Work, Sociologist born

*On this date in 1866, Monroe N. Work was born.  He was a Black sociologist.   Monroe Nathan Work was born to former slaves in Iredell County, North Carolina, and moved in 1867 to Cairo, Illinois, where his father pursued farming. At 23, Work entered Arkansas City High School (Kansas), an integrated high school in Arkansas City, Kansas. He graduated 3rd in his class, and after undergoing […]

Mary Burnett Talbert, Educator, and Activist born

*Mary B. Talbert was born on this date in 1866. She was an African American teacher, clubwoman and civil rights activist.

Dock J. Jordan, Educator, and Author born

*D. J. Jordan was born on this date in 1866. He was a Black lawyer, author, politician, educator, historian, and activist.    Dock Jackson Jordan was born to Giles and Julia Jordan in Cuthbert, Georgia. Giles Dolphus Jordan was born a slave in 1840 in South Carolina and died in 1898 in Early County, Georgia. […]

James Diggs, Activist, College President, and Pastor born

*James Diggs was born on this date in 1866. He was a Black activist, college president, and pastor. From Upper Marlboro, Maryland, James Robert Lincoln Diggs was the son of John Henry Diggs and Mary Virginia Clark Diggs. Little is known about his childhood or youth. Diggs lived in Washington, D.C., in 1885 when he […]

Duse Ali, Journalist, and Pan-Africanist born

*Duse Mohamed Ali was born on this date in 1866. He was an African actor, journalist, businessman and pan Africanist.

Mary Evans Wilson, Journalist and Teacher born

*The birth of Mary Evans Wilson is celebrated on this date in 1866.  She was a Black teacher, journalist, and civil rights advocate. Mary Evans came from a family of activists. In 1858, her father was one of a group of men arrested for the Oberlin–Wellington Rescue. Her uncle, Lewis Sheridan Leary, was killed in John Brown’s […]

Lillian Wald, Activist, and Educator

*Lillian Wald was born on this date in 1867. She was a White Jewish American civil rights activist, health worker, and educator.

From Cincinnati, Ohio, Wald became a nurse, and inspired by the work of Jane Adams and Ellen Starr at Hull House in Chicago, she joined Mary Brewster to establish the Henry Street Settlement in New York City in 1893. The Settlement expanded its range of services to meet the needs of the local community. This included nursing, the establishment of clubs, a savings bank, a library, and vocational training for young people.

Ida Cummings, Civic Organizer born

*Ida Rebecca Cummings was born on this date in 1867. She was an African American educator, organization leader, and clubwoman.

Abraham Lincoln DeMond, Minister and Activist born.

*Abraham Lincoln DeMond was born on this date in 1867. He was a Black minister and civil rights advocate in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Born in Seneca, New York, DeMond was the son of Quam and Phebe (Darrow) DeMond. He was the first black graduate of the State Normal School at Cortland, […]

W.E.B. Du Bois, Sociologist born

*This date marks the birth of W.E.B. Du Bois in 1868. He was an African American sociologist, one of the most important Black protest leaders in the United States during the first half of the 20th century.

John Hope, Activist, and Educator born

On this date, we mark the birth of John Hope in 1868. Born in Augusta, Georgia, he was an African American civil rights activist and educator.

Sylvester Williams, Pan-African Politician born

*Sylvester Williams was born on this date in 1869. He was a Black activist, lawyer, and politician.

One of five children, he was born in Trinidad. His father was a wheelwright who had originally come from Barbados. A talented student young Williams qualified as a schoolteacher in 1886 and became a principal two years later. He was interested in politics and in 1890 helped establish the Trinidad Elementary Teachers Union. One year later, Williams moved to New York where he worked as shoe-shiner. Later he studied law at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia but left before graduating.

The Friends’ Asylum for Colored Orphans is Formed

*On this date, in 1869, the Friends’ Asylum for Colored Orphans was formed. It was a Black orphanage in Richmond, Virginia. Later it was called the Friends Association for Colored Children and is currently the Friends’ Association for Children. It began as a program to provide care and education to Black children. It later evolved […]

Mohandas Gandhi, Humanitarian born

*Mohandas Gandhi was born on this date in 1869. He was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist, and political ethicist. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born and raised in a Hindu family in coastal Gujarat, western India. He was trained in law at the Inner Temple, London, and called to the bar at age 22 in 1891. […]

The Knights of Labor (Union) is Founded

*The Knights of Labor (KOL) began on this date in 1869. Founded in Philadelphia, the Knights of Labor was America’s largest labor union in the 19th century. Uriah Stephens founded it, and James L. Wright and a small group of Philadelphia tailors founded a secret organization, the Noble Order of the Knights of Labor. Created […]