People, Locations, Episodes

Julia Peterkin, Novelist born

*Julia Peterkin was born on this date in 1880. She was a white-American teacher and author from Laurens County, South Carolina. She was born Julia Mood. Her father was a physician, and she was the third of his four children. Her mother died soon after her birth, and her father married Janie Brogdon. Janie Brogdon […]

Mary Burrill, Teacher, and Playwright born

*Mary P. Burrill was born on this date in 1881.  She was a Black teacher and playwright.  Born in Washington, D.C., her father was John H. Burrill, and her mother was Clara E. Burrill.    She graduated in 1901 from Washington’s M Street School (later Dunbar High School), entered Emerson College in the fall of […]

Anne Spencer, Poet born

*Anne Spencer was born on this date in 1882. She was an African American poet.

From Henry County, Virginia, Annie Bethel Bannister was the only child of Joel Cephus Bannister and Sarah Louise Scales. After a turbulent marriage ended, young Anne was taken to Bramwell, West Virginia. Money problems then forced Anne’s mother to place her in the home of William T. Dixie, a prominent member of the Black community. Reading dime-store novels and newspapers taught the gifted youngster about the power of language.

Jessie Fauset, Novelist, and Editor born

*On this date, Jessie Redmon Fauset, was born in 1882. She was an African American novelist, critic, poet, and editor known for her discovery and encouragement of several writers of the Harlem Renaissance.

Effie Newsome, Children’s Poet born

*Effie Lee Newsome was born on this date in 1885. She was a African American writer and poet.

DuBose Heyward, Playwrite born

Eugene Dubose Heyward, a White American writer and playwright, was born on this date in 1885.

Although his parents were descended from Charleston, SC, aristocracy, the young Heyward did not know the wealth of his grandparents. The city and its citizens were proud, dignified, mannerly, vain, courageous, and poor. The Heyward family knew poverty and lived modestly.

Ray Sprigle, Journalist born

*Ray Sprigle was born on this date in 1886. He was a white-American journalist and author. Ray Sprigle was born in Akron, Ohio, to parents of colonial Pennsylvanian German ancestry. He attended local schools. After his freshman year, he left Ohio State University and started working as a newspaper reporter and a freelance pulp fiction […]

René Maran, Writer born

*René Maran was born on this date in 1887. He was a Black French journalist, and the first black writer to win the renowned French literary prize, the Prix Goncourt.

Fenton Johnson, Chicago Poet born

*The birth of Fenton Johnson in 1888 is marked on this date. He was an African American poet and writer.

Chandler Owen, Writer, and Socialist born

*Chandler Owen was born on this date in 1889.  He was a Black writer, editor, and early member of the Socialist Party of America.   Owen was born in Warrenton, North Carolina. He graduated from Virginia Union University in 1913. Later, while studying economics at Columbia University in 1916, he joined the Socialist Party of America. He began a lifelong friendship with A. Philip Randolph, and together they followed the lead […]

Pilar Barrios, Poet, and Journalist born.

*Pilar Barrios was born on this date in 1889. He was an Afro-Uruguayan poet. He was born in Rocha Department, Uruguay, with a brother, Ventura, and a sister, Maria, both writers. Barrios was an essential poet of the Black community of Uruguay and one of the founders of the Partido Autóctono Negro. His poetry demonstrated an understanding of […]

Willis Richardson, Playwright born

Willis Richardson, an African American playwright, was born on this date in 1889.

Born in Wilmington, N.C., he and his parents, Willis Wilder and Agnes Ann Harper Richardson, moved to Washington, D.C. shortly after the Wilmington Riots of 1898. The riots resulted in the death of 16 Blacks and affected Richardson as a child. Richardson’s father read to him as a young boy and encouraged his interest in books and writing.

Vivian G. Harsh, Librarian, and Historian born

Vivian Harsh was born on this date in 1890. She was an African American librarian, historian, and administrator, who made an important contribution to saving African American history.

Claude McKay, Author born

*This date marks the birthday of Claude McKay in 1890. He was an African American writer, born in Jamaica.

He was educated by his older brother, who owned a library of English novels, poetry, and scientific texts. At twenty, McKay published a book of verse called “Songs of Jamaica,” recording his impressions of Black life in Jamaica in dialect. In 1912, he traveled to the United States to attend Tuskegee Institute. He remained there only a few months, leaving to study agriculture at Kansas State University.

Zora Neale Hurston, Author born

Zora Neale Hurston, an African American writer and folklorist, was born on this date in 1891. She is best known for her 1937 novel, “Their Eyes Were Watching God.” In 2002, scholar Molefi Kete Asante listed Zora Neale Hurston on his list of 100 Greatest African Americans.

Born in Notasulga, AL, she grew up in Eatonville, FL., and was educated at Howard University, Barnard College, and Columbia University, where she studied anthropology. Hurston returned to Florida after college for an anthropological field study that influenced her later fiction and folklore.