Act of August 30, 1890, ch. 841, 26 Stat. 417, 7 U.S.C. 322 et seq. Chap. 841.–AN ACT To apply a portion of the proceeds of the public lands to the more complete endowment and support of the colleges for the benefit of agriculture and … Read More(1890) Second Morrill Act
Singer and songwriter Darius Rucker was born on May 13, 1966, to Carolyn Rucker in Charleston, South Carolina. His mother, a nurse, supported him and his five brothers and sisters because his father, a traveling musician, was rarely able to spend time with the family. … Read MoreDarius Carlos Rucker (1966- )
Philip Reid’s Lantern of the Dome of the United States Capitol, Washington D.C. “Image Ownership: Andreas Praefcke” Craftsman Philip Reid is best known as the enslaved African who worked on the casting of the Statue of Freedom which sits atop the Capitol building housing the … Read MorePhilip Reid (1820-1892)
In the following article longtime BlackPast.org contributor and San Diego State University Librarian Robert Fikes discusses African American emigrants to and visitors in Italy. Since the 1850s, African Americans have gone to Italy as tourists, students, soldiers, writers, musicians, opera singers, social activists, and actors. … Read MoreThe African American Experience in Italy, 1852 to 2013
Marion Williams, an American gospel singer, was born in Miami, Florida on August 29, 1927. Her father, originally from Nassau, Bahamas, worked as a butcher, a barber, and a music teacher while her mother, born in South Carolina, worked as a laundress. One of 11 … Read MoreMarion Williams (1927-1994)
In 1946, U.S. Army Sergeant Isaac Woodard challenged a Greyhound bus driver while traveling from Georgia to South Carolina after being discharged from service in World War II. Police officers, who met him at the next stop, brutally attacked him and left him permanently blind. … Read MoreIsaac Woodard (1919-1992)
In the essay below, Bruce L. Mouser, Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, describes the conflicting goals of African Creoles, African Americans, and British and American colonizationists in the fate of the Rio Pongo Valley along the West Coast of Africa. … Read MoreAfricans, African Americans, Great Britain and the United States: The Curious History of the Rio Pongo in the Early 19th Century
Benjamin A. Boseman, physician, politician, and postmaster, was free born in New York in 1840 to Benjamin A. and Annaretta Boseman. He was the oldest of five children, two girls and three boys. Boseman grew up in Troy, New York where his father served as … Read MoreBenjamin Anthony Boseman (1840-1881)
Barbara Hillary was the first African American woman on record to reach both the North and South Poles. Born in New York City, New York on June 12, 1931, to Viola Jones Hillary and raised in Harlem, Hillary attended the New School University in New … Read MoreBarbara Hillary (1931-2019)
Larry Doby was the first African American baseball player to go directly from the Negro Leagues to the major leagues when the Cleveland Indians purchased his contract from the Newark Eagles on July 3, 1947. Two days later, on July 5, 1947, Larry Doby became … Read MoreLarry Doby (1923-2003)
