People, Locations, Episodes

The Zeta Phi Beta Sorority is Founded

On this date in 1920, Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc., was founded on the campus of Howard University in Washington, D.C., by five phenomenal women as the sister organization to Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc.

Leola Havard, Educator, and Administrator born

*Leola Havard was born on this date in 1920. She was a Black teacher and school principal. Born in Ethel, Louisiana, she wanted to be a teacher since she was a child and graduated from Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. She followed her father and brother and moved to San Francisco, where she would spend her […]

Arnita Boswell, Educator born

Arnita Young Boswell was born on this date in 1920. She was an African American activist and educator.

From Detroit and she and her sister & brother were raised in Lincoln Ridge, Ky. Her father, Whitney M. Young Sr., was president of the Lincoln Institute. Her mother, Laura Ray Young, was the first African American postmaster in Kentucky and the second in the United States. She nurtured her vocation for community service along with her brother, Whitney, and her sister, Eleanor.

Cozelle Breedlove, Activist and Youth Mentor born

*Cozelle Breedlove was born on this date in 1920. He was an African American community program director, teacher, and mentor. Born and raised on the North side of Minneapolis Cozy Breedlove always considered himself a product of the Phyllis Wheatley House, which was a community center for Black children to participate in sports, cultural and educational events.

Eileen Jackson Southern, Music Educator born

This date celebrates the birth of Eileen Jackson Southern, an African American musicologist born in 1920, the first Black woman to be appointed as a tenured full professor at Harvard University.

Rosanell Eaton, Educator, and Public Policy Advocate born

*Rosanell Eaton was born on this date in 1921.  She was a Black teacher and voting rights activist.  She was born on a farm outside Louisburg, North Carolina, a granddaughter of slaves and the youngest of seven children. After her father died when she was 2, Eaton’s mother became a sharecropper.  In the early years of her life, Eaton farmed for […]

The Nova Scotia Home For Colored Children Opens

*On this date in 1921, the Nova Scotia Home for Colored Children was formed. This facility is part of Black history in Canada. The home opened in Halifax, Nova Scotia, to accept Black children in need of care who were not permitted in white institutions at the time. A crowd of 3000 spectators, the largest gathering […]

Leeland Jones, Educator, and Activist born

*Leeland Jones was born on this date in 1921. He was a Black educator and civic leader. Leeland Jones, Jr., a Buffalo, New York native, spent the first six or seven years of his life sleeping in the bed of his grandfather, a former slave who had fled from the South through the Underground Railroad. He […]

James Condell, Psychologist and Musician born

*James Condell was born on this date in 1921. He was a Black psychologist, educator, and musician. His piano skill from Louisville, Kentucky, got him a scholarship to Kentucky State College.  Since the college band already had a piano player, he took up a new instrument: the guitar. He also began studying psychology and sociology. He […]

Camilla P. Thompson, Educator, and Historian born

*Camilla Thompson was born on this date in 1922. She is an African American educator and community activist and historian.

Born in Jacksonville, Florida, her mother, Camilla (Bolton) Perkins, was a Jacksonville elementary school teacher and her father, Daniel W. Perkins, was a prominent lawyer. Thompson and her two sisters grew up in the LaVilla neighborhood of Jacksonville, which was a segregated town of its own, where she attended a wooden two-story schoolhouse.

Prezell Robinson, Educator born

*Prezell Robinson was born on this date in 1922.  He was a Black Administrator & Educator.  From Batesburg, South Carolina, Prezell Russell Robinson graduated from Voorhees School and Junior College in Denmark, S.C., before earning a bachelor’s degree in economics and social science from Saint Augustine College. He earned master’s and doctoral degrees in rural […]

Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority is Founded

The founding of Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc., occurred on this date in 1922. It was the first African American sorority founded at a predominantly white college.

Sigma Gamma Rho was organized at Butler University in Indianapolis, IN, by seven school teachers: Mary Lou Allison Little, Dorothy Hanley Whiteside, Vivian White Marbury, Nannie Mae Gahn Johnson, Hattie Mae Dulin Redford, Bessie M. Downey Martin, and Cubena McClure. The group became an incorporated national collegiate sorority on December 30, 1929, when a charter was granted to Alpha chapter at Butler.

Concordia College of Alabama is Founded

*The founding of Concordia College is celebrated on this date in 1922.  It was among over 100 Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) in America.  Its original name was Alabama Lutheran Academy, resulting from the pioneer Lutheran missionaries in Alabama.    That year, Miss Rosa Young was concerned about the spiritual and direct educational welfare of the African […]

Muriel Burrell Smith, Singer born

*Muriel Burrell Smith was born on this date in 1923. She was a Black singer. Smith was born in New York City. Her early life remains obscure. She appeared on the popular radio series Major Bowes’ Amateur Hour in 1937. After singing at a cocktail party in 1939, one of the guests, Elizabeth Westmoreland, arranged […]

Marcus Foster, School Principal born

*Marcus Foster was born on this date in 1923.  He was a Black educator.  Marcus Albert Foster was born in Athens, Georgia, later graduating from South Philadelphia High School.  His mother, Alice, fostered Marcus’s mastery of Standard English by highlighting its importance as the dominant syntax.  Subsequently, as a young man, he was both scholastic […]