*Cecil Peterson was born on this date in 1919. He was a Black Military officer. From Buffalo, New York, his father was Sneedy Rodney Little from California, and his mother was Zoe Louise Tolliver. Cecil’s half-siblings were Josephine, Oscar, and Hazel. His mother passed when he was a year old, leaving him orphaned. Peterson’s childhood […]
learn more*The birth of Dr. Juanita Kidd Stout in 1919 is marked on this date. She was an African American educator, lawyer, and in 1959 was one of the first Black women in America to be elected to the Bench.
learn more*Isaac Woodard Jr. was born on this date in 1919. He was a decorated Black World War II veteran and hate crime victim. Woodard was born in Fairfield County, South Carolina, and grew up in Goldsboro, North Carolina. He attended local segregated schools, often underfunded for Blacks during the Jim Crow years. On October 14, 1942, the 23-year-old Woodard enlisted in the U.S. Army at Fort Jackson in Columbia, […]
learn more*On this date, in 1919, the American Communist Party was formed. Officially called the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA), they are a communist party in the United States established after a split in the Socialist Party of America following the Russian Revolution. The CPUSA has a long, complex history of intersectionality that ties with the American labor movement and communist parties worldwide. Initially operating underground […]
learn moreMary Eugenia Charles, was Black politician, was born on this date in Pointe Michel, Dominica, in 1919.
Sse is a granddaughter of former slaves and one of five children of John Baptiste and Josephine Delauney. Her father was the founder of the Penney Bank. Her three brothers are doctors and her sister is a nun. Charles attended Catholic schools in Dominica and Grenada, then, from 1942 to 1946, she went to the University College of the University of Toronto and received a B.A. in law. She continued her studies of law at the London School of Economics and Political Science.
learn more*Erwin Lawrence was born on this date in 1919. He was a Black soldier. Erwin B. Lawrence, Jr., was from Cleveland, Ohio. After enlisting in the army, he graduated from flight training at Tuskegee Army Airfield in Alabama. During this time, he married chemist Blanche Lawrence. After flight training, Lawrence joined the 99th Fighter Squadron, declared combat-ready […]
learn moreOn this date in 1919, we celebrate the birth of Elizabeth Koontz, an African American educator and politician.
Elizabeth Duncan Koontz was born in Salisbury, N.C., and attended that city’s public school system. She graduated from Livingstone College in 1938. Koontz attained her Masters Degree from Atlanta University in 1941, and did further study at Columbia University. A classroom teacher who devoted her entire life to education, Koontz also served as the first Black woman president of the National Education Association (NEA) in 1968.
learn more*Aurabelle Caggins was born on this date in 1919. She was a Black educator, community activist, and politician. From Kiln, Mississippi, Aurabelle Denise Mondy moved to Bay St. Louis, MS, at the age of three with her family. She was educated in the Gulfport school system and graduated from 33rd Avenue High School in 1937. […]
learn more*George Wallace Jr. was born on this date in 1919. He was a white-American politician and segregationist. Born in Clio, Alabama, George Corley Wallace Jr. attended the University of Alabama School of Law and served in the United States Army Air Corps during World War II. After the war, he won the Alabama House of Representatives election and served as a state […]
learn more*Charles Jackson French was born on this date in 1919. He was a Black World War II hero. Charles French was an orphan from Foreman, Arkansas, who learned to swim in the Red River at the age of eight. He had first enlisted in the United States Navy in 1937 and had completed his enlistment, […]
learn moreDoris “Dorie” Miller was born on this date in 1919. He was an African American sailor and World War II hero.
He was born in Waco, Texas, the son of Henrietta and Conery Miller. He had three brothers, one of which served in the Army during World War II. Miller attended Moore High School in Waco, played fullback on the football team, and worked on his father’s farm.
learn moreOn this date in 1919, Edward Brooke, an African American politician and author, was born in Washington, D.C.
His father, Edward W. Brooke Jr., was a lawyer with the Veterans Administration. His mother was the former Helen Seldon. The Brookes were comfortably middle class. Brooke graduated from Howard University in 1941. During World War II, he served in the Army infantry. He rose to the rank of captain, saw combat in Italy, and was awarded a Bronze Star. While in Italy, he met Remigia Ferrari-Scacco. They married in 1947.
learn more*Charles Bailey was born on this date in 1919. He was a Black army pilot, educator, businessman, and WW II hero. From DeLand, Florida, he was the son of Archie, and Josephine Bailey raised these children in a small town on the southwest coast of Florida; their hometown offered no schooling for Blacks. He and […]
learn more*Johnnie Jones, Sr., was born on this date in 1919. He was a Black soldier, lawyer, and Louisiana state legislator. Johnnie A. Jones was born in West Feliciana Parish near Woodville, Mississippi, in Laurel Hill, Louisiana. One of eight children, he was the son of lease sharecropping farmers Henry E. Jones and Sarah Ann Coats and the […]
learn more*Theodore Lumpkin was born on this date in 1919. He was a Black mathematician, social worker, and military officer. Theodore “Ted” Lumpkin Jr. was born in Los Angeles and was educated at Jefferson High School. He attended Los Angeles City College from 1938 to 1940, graduating with an associate degree in mathematics, and continued his studies […]
learn more