Nathan McGill born on this date in 1888. He was an African American lawyer and businessman.
Born in Quincy, FL., Nathan Kellogg McGill was the son of Nathan and Agnes (Zeigler) McGill. He graduated from Cookman Institute in 1909, Boston University in 1912, and received his L.L.B. from Boston University in 1912. McGill began practicing law in 1912 and started his own law practice Jacksonville in 1913. McGill was publisher of the Florida Sentinel in Jacksonville from 1916 to 1920.
learn more*Hazel Mountain Walker was born on this date in 1889. She was an African American lawyer and educator.
From Warren, Ohio, she was the daughter of Charles and Alice (Bronson) Mountain. Walker attended Cleveland Normal Training School and in 1909 earned a Bachelor’s and Master’s in Education from Western Reserve University. During the summers, when she was not teaching, Walker worked towards a Law Degree at Baldwin-Wallace College.
learn moreLafayette A. Tillman’s birth in 1869 is celebrated on this date. He was an African American Barber and Policeman.
Lafayette Alonzo Tillman was born in Evansville, Indiana. After graduating from public schools, he entered Oberlin College and continued his studies as the Wayland Seminary in Washington, D.C. A proficient bass singer, Tillman traveled extensively with the New Orleans University singers and later with the Don Tennesseans, a group that performed in the White House. He performed in Kansas City in 1880 where he opened a restaurant in 1881.
learn more*John Morton-Finney was born on this date in 1889. He was a Black civil rights activist, lawyer, and educator. Morton Finney was born in Uniontown, Kentucky, to George and Maryatta “Mattie” (Gordon) Finney, a former slave father and a free mother. He was one of the family’s seven children. When his mother died in 1903, […]
learn more*On this date, in 1889, Wysinger v. Crookshank was filed. This was the first case that rendered school segregation of blacks in California contrary to the law. On October 1, 1888, 58-year-old Edmond Wysinger, a former black slave who bought his freedom working in the California mines, moved to Visalia, California. When he attempted to […]
learn moreOn this date in 1890, public schools allowed Blacks to enroll in Visalia, California.
On that date, the California Supreme Court, in Wysinger v. Crookshank, reversed a lower court decision and ordered that 12-year-old Arthur Wysinger be admitted to Visalia’s regular school system.
learn more*The birth of Charles P. Howard Sr. in 1890 is celebrated on this date. He was an African American soldier, attorney, and columnist.
He was born in Des Moines and graduated from the Fort Des Moines officer-candidate school in 1917. One year later he was a second lieutenant and serving with the 92nd Division, 366th Infantry in France during World War I. After the military, Howard received his law degree from Drake University in 1920. He was a gifted lawyer who never lost a capital trial.
learn more*Black History and American Fusion Politics is affirmed on this date in 1890. This is a national manifestation of business in a society centered on citizen and common populace uplift. After the American Civil War, fusion politics united political parties briefly and has ebbed and flowed with intended progressive, independent, self-governing results. In some western states, […]
learn moreHoward Drew was born on this date in 1890. He was an African American track and field athlete, and lawyer and judge.
He was born in Lexington, KY, the son of David Drew, a Baptist minister. Around the age of ten, he and his family moved and settled in Springfield, MA. Drew won his first track meet with home-made shorts, and non-spike shoes. From there he made his first pair of track shoes by driving six nails through his regular shoes and using leather pieces to protect his feet.
learn more*On this date in 1890, The Mississippi Constitutional Convention began systematic exclusion of Blacks from the politics of South.
The Mississippi Plan (Literacy and “understanding tests”) lasted until November 1st of that year and was later adopted with embellishments by other states: South Carolina (1895), Louisiana (1898), North Carolina (1900), Alabama (1901), Virginia (1901), Georgia (1908), and Oklahoma (1910). Southern states later used “White primaries” and other devices to exclude Black voters.
learn more*Marian Fleming Poe was born on this date in 1890. She was a Black lawyer and women’s advocate. Lavinia Marian Fleming was born in Warwick County, Virginia, to Archer R. Fleming, a blacksmith and formerly enslaved person, and Florence M. Carter. She grew up in Newport News, Virginia. In 1910 she married Abram James Poe […]
learn more*James B. Morris Sr. was born on this date in 1890. He was a Black lawyer and newspaper businessman. From Atlanta, Georgia, at the age of twelve, he began working in a little print shop in Covington, a suburb of Atlanta,”‘ “After completing his grammar school in Atlanta, Morris moved to Baltimore, where he attended […]
learn moreOn this date in 1891, Earl B. Dickerson was born. He was an African American attorney, teacher, and businessman.
learn more*William Lorenzo Patterson was born on this date in 1891. He was a Black activist. Born in San Francisco, California, his father, James Edward Patterson, was from St. Vincent in the British Virgin Islands. His mother, Mary Galt Patterson, was born a slave in Virginia. She was the daughter of the organizer of a volunteer regiment of black soldiers who fought with the Union […]
learn more*Carter Wesley was born on this date in 1892. He was a Black lawyer, newspaperman, and political activist. Carter Walker Wesley was born in Houston, Texas. He grew up in the city’s first and most successful Black neighborhood, Freedmen’s Town. Shortly after completing high school, Westley moved to Nashville, Tennessee, and graduated magna cum laude in […]
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