The following are short descriptions of the groups and organizations which have contributed to the shaping of African American history. These encyclopedia entries serve as a starting point for much more inclusive descriptions and discussions that appear in other sources. For additional information please consult the print or website sources cited in the entry.
The Fannie Jackson Coppin Club was established in 1899 by members of the Beth Eden Baptist Church, one of Oakland, California’s oldest African American religious institutions (est. 1889). The club was named in honor of Fannie Jackson Coppin (1837-1913) who was born a slave in … Read MoreFannie Jackson Coppin Club
Active from 1942 to 1970, the Christian Friends for Racial Equality (CFRE) was a locally founded leader in the Seattle civil rights movement. CFRE’s non-confrontational social methods for improving race relations made it Seattle’s largest civil rights organization in 1956, with 1,000 members by 1959. … Read MoreChristian Friends for Racial Equality
In the spring of 1964, before Congress passed the Economic Opportunity Act, a group of Central Area residents and friends created a comprehensive anti-poverty proposal which was presented in the autumn of 1964 at a mass meeting called by the Seattle Urban League and the … Read MoreCentral Area Motivation Program (1964- )
Before 1941 about 4,000 black soldiers (and a handful of African American officers) served in the 9th and 10th Cavalry Regiments (the “Buffalo Soldiers”), two of the all-black units formed after the Civil War. Following the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941, the number of … Read MoreBlack Soldiers at Fort Huachuca, Arizona During World War II
Black Arts/West was Seattle’s first black theatre, eventually became a nationally known entity across the United States. Evolving out of the Civil Rights-Black Power movements of the 1960s, it was founded by Douglas Q. Barnett in 1969. Black Arts/West functioned as a three component program: … Read MoreBlack Arts/West (1969-1980)
Paul W. Stewart, founder of the Black American West Museum, grew up in Iowa playing cowboys and Indians with his friends who always made him play an Indian. They assured him that there were no black cowboys and thus he had to play the role … Read MoreBlack American West Museum (1971- )
In 1866 the Fisk Free Colored School was established in Nashville, Tennessee by the American Missionary Association. Housed in abandoned Union hospital barracks, Fisk set out to educate former slaves with the support of donations from former abolitionists. As those donations declined over the next … Read MoreFisk Jubilee Singers
Embodying the Communist Party‘s turn from Third Period sectarianism to Popular Front coalition building, the National Negro Congress (NNC) was the culmination of the Party’s Depression-era effort to unite black and white workers and intellectuals in the fight for racial justice, and marked the apex … Read MoreNational Negro Congress (1935-1940s)
First organized in 1916 as the 15th New York National Guard Infantry Regiment and manned by black enlisted soldiers with both black and white officers, the U.S. Army’s 369th Infantry Regiment, popularly known as the “Harlem Hellfighters,” was the best known African American unit of … Read More369th Infantry Regiment “Harlem Hellfighters”
The African American-manned 95th Engineer Battalion (General Service) was formed in April 1941 at Fort Belvoir, Virginia as part of the U.S. Army buildup preceding World War II. Unlike many construction units, the 95th received considerable training, participating in the Carolina Maneuvers and receiving practical … Read More95th Engineer Regiment
