People, Locations, Episodes

Paul Robeson, Athlete, Actor, Singer, and Activist born

On this date in 1898, Paul Robeson was born. He was a Black dramatic actor, singer, civil rights activist, political radical and one of the most gifted men of the 20th century.

Septima P. Clark, Educator, and Activist born

On this date in 1898, Septima P. Clark was born. She was an African American educator and civil rights activist in Charleston, S.C.

Septima Poinsette’s mother Victoria was raised in Haiti and her father Peter was a former slave. They shaped and influenced her basic values. Among the most important were a willingness to share one’s gifts, and another to not forget there was something redeeming in everyone. Her education came from those who insisted on performance and hard work with pride.

Joseph DeLaine, Minister born

*Joseph DeLaine was born on this date in 1898. He was a Black Methodist minister and civil rights leader.   Joseph Armstrong DeLaine was from Clarendon County, South Carolina. He received a B.A. from Allen University in 1931, working as a laborer and running a dry-cleaning business to pay for his education. DeLaine worked with Modjeska Simkins and the South Carolina NAACP on Briggs v. Elliott, which challenged […]

Queen Mother, Black Liberation Activist born.

On this date in 1898, Queen Mother, an African American activist and civil right leader, was born.

Frances Albrier, Welder, Nurse, and Union Activist born

*Frances Albrier was born on this date in 1898. She was a welder, nurse, and union activist. Frances Mary Albrier was born in Mount Vernon, New York, and raised by her grandparents in Tuskegee, Alabama. She attended the Tuskegee Institute through high school. She received a B.A. from Howard University in 1920 and moved to Berkeley, California, […]

Ethel Ray Nance, Writer born

*Ethel Ray Nance was born on this date in 1899.  She was a Black writer, activist, and administrator.   Ethel Ray was born in Duluth, Minnesota. She was the youngest of four children born to William H. Ray, a Black man from North Carolina, and a white-American Swedish mother. She was raised in Iowa by a German […]

Anna Hedgeman, Activist, and Politician born

On this date in 1899, Anna Arnold Hedgeman was born. She was an African American politician and activist.

Edgar Daniel Nixon, Alabama Union Activist born

*Edgar D. Nixon was born on this date in 1899. He was an African American civil rights leader and union organizer.

Ruth Ellis, Lesbian Printer and Activist born

*Ruth Ellis was born on this date in 1899. She was a Black lesbian printer, photographer, and LGBT rights activist. Ruth Charlotte Ellis was born in Springfield, Illinois, the youngest of four children and the only daughter. Her parents were from Tennessee. Ellis’ mother, Carrie Farro Ellis, died when she was a teen, while her father, Charles […]

Modjeska Simkins, Social Reformer born

*On this date in 1899, Mary Modjeska Monteith Simkins, an important leader of African American public health reform, social reform, and the civil rights movement in South Carolina, was born in Columbia.

She was the first of eight children. Her parents, Henry and Rachel Monteith, named her after a favorite Polish actress Helena Modjeska. The Monteiths were a prosperous couple who encouraged their children in academic studies.

C. L. Dellums, Union Activist born

*C. L. Dellums was born on this date in 1900. He was a Black labor activist. Born in Corsicana, Texas, Cottrell Laurence Dellums “had chosen San Francisco as the most ideal place for a Negro to live in 1923.” Dellums also stated that: “I wanted to be a lawyer and the University of California had […]

Black Nationalism in America, a story

*Black Nationalism in America was affirmed on this date in 1900. It is a category of racial nationalism or pan-nationalism that embraces the belief that black people are a race and seeks to develop and maintain a black racial and national identity. Black nationalist activism revolves around the social, political, and economic empowerment of black […]

Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, Woman’s Rights Activist born

*Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti was born on this date in 1900. Frances Abigail Olufunmilayo Thomas, also known as Funmilayo Anikulapo-Kuti, was a Nigerian educator, political campaigner, suffragist, and women’s rights activist. Frances Abigail Olufunmilayo Olufela Folorunso Thomas was born in Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria, to Chief Daniel Olumeyuwa Thomas, a member of the aristocratic Jibolu-Taiwo family, and Lucretia […]

Mohammad Helmy, Physician, and Activist born

*Mohammed Helmy was born on this date in 1901. He was a North African Egyptian doctor and WW II, activist. Helmy was born to an Egyptian army major and a Sudanese mother in Khartoum, Sudan. He went to Berlin in 1922 to study medicine. He would work as head of the urology department at the […]

Artishia Wilkerson Jordan, Educator born

*Artishia Wilkerson Jordan was born on this date in 1901. She was a Black educator and club woman. Artishia Garcia Wilkerson was born in Louisville, Kentucky, the daughter of Bernard Orange Wilkerson and Artishia Garcia Gilbert Wilkerson. Her father was an attorney; her mother was a medical doctor who died soon after childbirth in 1904. […]