People, Locations, Episodes

Austin Curtis, Doctor born

*The birth of Dr. Austin Maurice Curtis, Sr. in 1868 is celebrated on this date. He was an African American doctor.

From Raleigh, North Carolina, he was a prominent turn of the century physician and protégé of Dr. Daniel Hale Williams. His first internship took place at Chicago’s Provident Hospital, in 1891. He was also the first Black surgeon on staff of Cook County Hospital (a non-segregated hospital) in 1896.

Curtis was a professor of Surgery, Howard University for 25 years and Chief Surgeon, Freedmen’s Hospital from 1898-1938 He died in 1939.

Reference:

Franklin McLean, Doctor, and Activist born

*Franklin Chambers McLean was born on this date in 1888. He was an White American doctor and Civil Rights activist.

Dorothy Boulding Ferebee, Physician born

Dorothy Boulding Ferebee was born in 1889. She was an African American physician, administrator, international leader on children, youth, and women.

Samuel Green, Segregationist and Obstetrician born.

*Samuel Green was born on this date in 1889.  He was a white-American obstetrician and segregationist.  Green was born in Atlanta, Georgia, and joined the Ku Klux Klan in 1922.  By the early 1930s, Green had become the Grand Dragon of Georgia.  Starting from the late 1920s, the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan had a problem with declining membership. In 1939, Imperial Wizard Hiram Wesley […]

Mabel Staupers, Activist, and Nurse born

*This date in 1890 marks the birthday of Mabel Keaton Staupers. She was an African American leader in breaking down racial barriers in American nursing.

Mabel Staupers was born in Barbados, West Indies. At 13 she immigrated with her parents to Washington D.C. In 1917 she graduated from Freedmen’s Hospital School of Nursing and was employed at the Harlem Tuberculosis Committee.

Provident Hospital (Chicago, Ill.) Opens

*On this date in 1891, Provident Hospital and Training School opened. This was the first Black controlled hospital in America, and it opened on the south side of Chicago.

A Refrigerator Device is Patented by a Black Man

On this date in 1891, John Standard from Newark, NJ, received a patent for a refrigerator.

Specifications of the patent are as follows: This invention relates to improvements in refrigerators; and it consists of certain novel arrangements and combinations of parts, as will be hereinafter more fully described, and final led embodied in the clauses of the claim. PDF version U.S. Patent 455,891 (130K), p.958-959.

Louis T. Wright, Surgeon, and Activist born

This date marks the day Louis Tompkins Wright was born in 1891. He was an African American surgeon and hospital administrator.

Annie Elizabeth Delany, Dentist born

*Annie Elizabeth Delany was born on this date in 1891.  She was a Black dentist and activist.  Annie Elizabeth “Bessie” Delany was the third of ten children born to the Rev. Henry Beard Delany and Nanny Logan Delany, an educator. H.B. Delany was born into slavery in St. Mary’s, Georgia. Nanny Logan Delany was born […]

The Sydenham Hospital Opens

*Sydenham Hospital is celebrated on this date in 1892.  This private hospital was founded in a Harlem brownstone, serving mostly African American patients.   Sydenham began as a healthcare facility in Harlem, located at 124 Street and Manhattan Avenue.  Around 1924, the hospital moved to a new 200-bed building at the intersection of West 125 Street and Lenox Avenue. In […]

Frederick McKinley Jones, Inventor born

This date marks the birth of Frederick McKinley Jones, an African American inventor, in 1893.

Alice Ball, Chemist, and Researcher born

*Alice Ball was born on this date in 1892.  She was a Black chemist and researcher. Alice Augusta Ball was born to James Presley and Laura Louise (Howard) Ball in Seattle, Washington.  She was one of four children, with two older brothers, William and Robert, and a younger sister, Addie.  Her family was middle-class and […]

The Horseshoe is Patented by a Black Man

On this date in 1892, Oscar E. Brown, Buffalo, NY., invented the horseshoe.

This patent number is 481,271.

Thomas Parran Jr., Physician born

*Thomas Parran was born on this date in 1892.  He was a white-American physician and Public Health Service officer.   Thomas Parran Jr. was born and raised near St. Leonard, Maryland, on his family’s tobacco farm. A relative tutored him at home, and attended St. John’s College in Annapolis, Maryland, on a scholarship.  Finances influenced […]

Theodore Lawless, Dermatologist born

Theodore Lawless was born on this date in 1892. He was an African American dermatologist, philanthropist, and medical pioneer.