The first African American professional football player, Charles W. Follis, was born February 3, 1879, in Cloverdale, Virginia. The Follis family moved to Wooster, Ohio, where he attended Wooster High School and participated in organizing and establishing the first varsity football team. He played right … Read MoreCharles W. Follis (1879-1910)
Charles Spurgeon Johnson, one of the leading 20th century black sociologists, was born in Bristol, Virginia on July 24, 1893. After receiving his B.A. from Virginia Union University in Richmond, he studied sociology with the noted sociologist Robert E. Park at the University of Chicago, … Read MoreCharles S. Johnson (1893-1956)
The American Colonization Society (ACS), also known as the American Society for Colonizing the Free People of Color in the United States, emerged in 1816 as a national organization dedicated to promoting the manumission of the enslaved and the settlement of free blacks in West … Read MoreAmerican Colonization Society (1816-1964)
James Edward Shepperson is considered one of the most influential leaders and spokesmen among Black miners in Washington during the late 19th century and early 20th centuries. Shepperson was born in Roanoke, Virginia in 1858. In the 1870 census, he was listed living with his … Read MoreJames Edward Shepperson (1858-1934)
Titus Cornelius, also known as Titus Tye, was an escaped slave who fought with the British in the American Revolution, eventually rising to the rank of colonel and leading the Black Brigade of guerrilla fighters. Challenging Patriot forces primarily in New York and New Jersey, … Read MoreColonel Tye (1753-1780)
Carl Murphy, publisher, was born in Baltimore, Maryland on January 17, 1889. In 1892, his father, John Henry Murphy edited and published the first issue of the paper the Baltimore Afro-American. Murphy went to high school in Baltimore and after graduating attended Howard University receiving … Read MoreCarl Murphy (1889–1967)
John Mitchell, Jr. edited and published the Richmond Planet newspaper from one year after its founding in 1883, until his death in 1929. He was known as the “fighting editor” for his writing against racism. In 1863, John Mitchell, Sr. and his wife Rebecca were … Read MoreJohn Mitchell Jr. (1863–1929) and the Richmond Planet (1883 -1996)
Most visitors who tour the Hermitage outside Nashville, Tennessee come to the historic site because it is the home of Andrew Jackson, the seventh president of the United States. Hermitage Archaeology Director Kevin Bartoy reminds us, however, that the plantation was also home to over … Read MoreThe Other Hermitage: The Enslaved at the Andrew Jackson Plantation
Colonel Stephen Blucke led an all-black Regiment that fought for the British during the American Revolution. He settled in Birchtown, Nova Scotia in 1783 and became a leader in the Black Loyalist community. During the Revolutionary War, the most famous of the Black Loyalist Military … Read MoreStephen Blucke (?-1792)
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People v. Button, Attorney General of Virginia, ET No. 5 Supreme Court of the United States November 8, 1961, Argued January 14, 1963, Decided Prior History: Certiorari to the Supreme Court of Appeals of Virginia. Case Summary: Procedural … Read More(1963) NAACP v. Button, Attorney General of Virginia, ET
