October 10, 1932, Argued November 7, 1932, Decided MR. JUSTICE SUTHERLAND delivered the opinion of the Court. These cases were argued together and submitted for decision as one case. The petitioners, hereinafter referred to as defendants, are negroes charged with the crime of rape, committed … Read More(1932) Powell v. Alabama
Submitted Oct. 12, 1927. Decided Nov. 21, 1927. Mr. Chief Justice Taft delivered the opinion of the Court. This was a petition for mandamus filed in the state circuit court of Mississippi for the First judicial district of Bolivar County. Gong Lum is a resident … Read More(1927) Gong Lum v. Rice
Primary Documents: Buchanan v. Warley (1917) Argued April 10, 11, 1916 Reargued April 27, 1917 November 5, 1917 MR. JUSTICE DAY delivered the opinion of the court. Buchanan, plaintiff in error, brought an action in the Chancery Branch of Jefferson Circuit Court of Kentucky for … Read More(1917) Buchanan v. Warley
Kenneth S. Washington was one of the first black college football stars on the West Coast and one of two African Americans to reintegrate the National Football League (NFL) when he joined the Los Angeles Rams in 1946. His stardom as a running back began … Read MoreKenneth S. [“Kenny”] Washington (1918-1971)
The child who would become Denver, Colorado’s first and only woman doctor in the early decades of the twentieth century was born in Knoxville, Illinois on January 22, 1871. Her mother, Melisia Warren, had acted as a practical nurse to other slaves and sustained the … Read MoreDr. Justina Ford (1871-1952)
Born 1855 in Trenton, Kentucky, Josephine Leavell was an accomplished pianist, organist and music teacher before marrying prominent Baptist minister, Rev. Allen Allensworth, in 1877. From 1886 to 1906, Josephine lived with her husband, one of the few African American chaplains in the U.S. Army, … Read MoreJosephine Leavell Allensworth (1855-1938)
Joseph Sylvester Jackson became the first executive secretary of the newly founded Seattle Urban League when it received its charter from the national headquarters in New York in 1930. Little is known about Jackson before 1928. That year he graduated from Livingston College in Salisbury, … Read MoreJoseph Sylvester Jackson (?–?)
John T. Gayton, one of Seattle, Washington’s earliest black residents, a community leader, and patriarch of one of the city’s most outstanding black families, came to Seattle in 1889. He was born in Benton, Mississippi to former slaves. With little formal education, he moved to … Read MoreJohn T. Gayton (1866-1954)
John Alexander Somerville emigrated to the United States from Jamaica around 1900. He and his wife, Vada Watson Somerville, were both graduates of the University of Southern California School of Dentistry. Graduating with honors in 1907, he was the first black graduate, and his wife … Read MoreJohn Alexander Somerville (1882-1973)
James Andrew “Jimmy” Rushing—affectionately known as “Mister Five-By-Five” for being “five feet tall and five feet wide”—was a blues shouter born in Oklahoma City to a musical family on August 26, 1902 (give or take a year according to different sources). His father played trumpet … Read MoreJames Andrew “Jimmy”Rushing (1902-1972)
