People, Locations, Episodes

Beulah Webb, Community Activist born

*Beulah Webb of Sioux City was born on this date in 1895.  She was a Black community service leader. In 1927, she organized the Sioux City Association of Colored Women to promote culture, education, literature, and art and to alleviate racial problems. She was selected to attend the National Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs Convention in 1938. […]

Flossie Bailey, Activist born

*The birth of Flossie Bailey is celebrated on this date in 1895. She was a Black anti-lynching and civil rights activist. Katherine Harvey (her birth name), the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Harvey, was born in Kokomo, Indiana, in 1895. Known as “Flossie,” she grew up in Kokomo and attended Kokomo High School. She married […]

The First National Conference of the ‘Colored Women of America’ is Held

*On this date in 1895, the First National Conference of the Colored Women of America was held. Representatives of 42 Black women’s clubs from 14 states—including the Colored Women’s League of Washington, the Women’s Loyal Union of New York, and the Ida B. Wells Club of Chicago gathered in Berkeley Hall with Josephine Ruffin presiding. […]

William Stuart Nelson, Activist born

*William Stuart Nelson was born on this date in 1895.  He was a Black theologian and human rights activist. William Nelson was born in Paris, Kentucky, and graduated from Lincoln High School in Paducah, KY. He served in World War I and received his BA from Howard University in 1920. After attending schools in France and Germany, […]

The Northeastern Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs Begins

*On this date in 1896, the Northeastern Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs (NFCWC) was founded. This umbrella organization represented black women’s clubs in the northeastern United States. The organization was affiliated with the National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs (NACWC). It was one of the first umbrella organizations for Black women’s clubs in the United States, predating […]

Melnea Cass, Educator, and Activist born

Melnea Cass was born on this date in 1896. She was an African American educator and activist.

She was the oldest of three daughters of Mary Drew Jones and Albert Jones. She grew up in Richmond, Virginia, where her father was a janitor and her mother a domestic worker. They moved to the South End of Boston, MA, when Cass was five years old. Three years later her mother died. Her father and their Aunt Ella raised her and her sisters. After a few years, their aunt moved the girls to Newburyport, MA, and placed them in the care of Amy Smith.

Lester Granger, Urban League Administrator born

*Lester Granger was born on this date in 1896. He was an African American civic leader.

Paulette Nardal, Author, and Activist born

*Paulette Nardal was born on this date in 1896. She was an Afro-Caribbean activist, author, and journalist. Born into the upper-middle class in Martinique, West Indies, Nardal became a teacher and completed her education in Paris. She was the first black person to study at the Sorbonne in 1920 and, with her sister Jeanne Nadal, established an influential […]

Eslanda Robeson, Colonialism Activist, born.

Eslanda Goode Robeson was born on this date in 1896. She was an African American writer and activist.

From a middle-class family in Washington D.C., her maternal grandfather was Francis L. Cardozo, a noted Black congressman from South Carolina. During the early 1900s, the family moved to New York City where Goode finished high school and attended Columbia University, where she received a degree in chemistry in 1923. Soon after she attended the London School of Economics, and earned a doctorate in anthropology from Hartford Seminary.

Amy J. Garvey, Journalist, and Pan-Africanist born

Amy E.J. Garvey was born on this date in 1896. She was an African American historian, journalist, and Pan-Africanist.

A key figure in the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), she was the second wife of Marcus Garvey. Born in Kingston, Jamaica, Amy Jacques was educated at Wolmers Girls’ School. Her family was middle class with valued real estate. She had to move to a cooler climate because of attacks of malaria as a young girl.

Rayford Logan, Educator, and Pan-Africanist born

*Rayford Logan was born on this date in 1897.  He was a Black historian and Pan-African activist.   Rayford Whittingham Logan was born and raised in Washington, DC. He won a scholarship to Williams College, graduating in 1917. During the First World War, he joined the U.S. Army and served as a first lieutenant in […]

The White Rose Home For Colored Working Girls Opens

*On this date, in 1897, the White Rose Home for Colored Working Girls was founded.   Also known as the White Rose Mission and the White Rose Industrial Association, it was created as a “Christian, nonsectarian Home for Colored Girls and Women” by black civic leaders Victoria Earle Matthews and Maritcha Remond Lyons. The settlement house, located in Manhattan’s Upper Westside neighborhood […]

Louise Little, Activist born

*Louise Little was born on this date in 1897. She was a Black activist. Louise Helen Langdon was born in La Digue, St. Andrew, Grenada, to Edith Langdon, the daughter of Jupiter and Mary Jane Langdon, “liberated Africans” who were captured from Nigeria. They were freed from the slave ship by the Royal Navy and […]

Harry Haywood, Activist born

*Harry Haywood was born on this date in 1898.  He was a Black labor activist, author, and communist sympathizer.   He was born Haywood Hall, Jr.in, in South Omaha, Nebraska, to former slaves Harriet and Haywood Hall, from Missouri and West Tennessee, respectively.  They had migrated to Omaha because of jobs with the railroads and meatpacking industry, as did numerous […]

The National Afro American Council is Formed

*On this date in 1898, we celebrate the National Afro-American Council. This was the first nationwide American Civil Rights organization in the United States. Founded in Rochester, New York, it dissolved a decade later. The Council provided the first post-Reconstruction national arena for discussing issues for emancipated Blacks. They were also a training ground for some […]