Harry Hosier was a renowned Black preacher and an evangelist. Hosier was born a slave in North Carolina, following the Revolutionary War he gained his freedom and was converted to Methodism. His sermon, “The Barren Fig Tree,” preached at Adam’s Chapel, Fairfax County, Virginia, in May of 1781, was the first recorded Methodist sermon by […]
Four years ago, a 13-year-old entrepreneur started a bow tie company– and it has already hit $200,000 in sales Moziah Bridges appeared on CNBC last year (2014) to promote his holiday collaboration with Cole Haan. Bridges came up with the idea of starting his own bow tie company, Mo’s Bows, when he was just 9 years old. He told […]
Eddie Gay Robinson, Sr. was an American football coach. He coached the second most victories in NCAA Division I history and the third most overall. From 1985 to 2011, Robinson held the Division I record for most wins. He held the record again from July 2012 to January 2015, as 111 of Joe Paterno’s wins […]
The Afro American Journal was published in Seattle, WA from November 1967 to December 1972. During its time it was the most militant weekly newspaper to serve the black community. Supporting the principles of black power, the paper gave space to the Black Panther Party, the Nation of Islam, and other activist groups. The Afro […]
Today, cocaine may be stereotyped as a drug favored by whites – business executives or rock stars, perhaps. But its beginnings were mired in racism, in some cases forcing cocaine use on black slaves and workers for increased production. Learn more about the history of cocaine and crack, how history has reshaped the reputation of […]
Jose Morelos y Pavyn was an Afro Mexican abolitionist, priest, and soldier. He was also an early leader of Mexico’s struggle for independence from Spain. Morelos was born in Morelia (then known as “Valladolid” and later renamed in his honor) in what is now the state of Michoacan, then part of New Spain. At the […]
The Montgomery Bus Boycott of Montgomery, Alabama is known as the crucial catalyst that jump-started the Civil Rights Movement. When Rosa Parks, a well respected secretary of the local NAACP chapter, refused to give up her seat on the bus to a white man as she returned home from work, Parks was arrested. Her refusal […]
Ann Plato was a nineteenth century educator and author. Plato was born around 1820 in Hartford, Connecticut. There is very little known about her early life. Most of the information known about her life comes from comes from the introduction in her book that was written by Reverend W.C. Pennington, pastor of the Colored Congregational […]
At Black Then, we frequently see interesting photos that give us a glimpse into the past. They tend to show us a piece of black history that is often not covered in textbooks, in history classes, or shown in the media. In a photo that we found on Black History Album , we see this […]
By Lestey Gist, The Gist of Freedom Emigrationist, Sarah Parker Remond had first come to public notice three years before when she was ejected from a Boston theater because she refused to sit in a segregated gallery. She was handled roughly by a policeman, and successfully sued the theater’s owners for $500 in damages. Born […]
Jane Matilda Bolin, LL.B. was the first black woman to graduate from Yale Law School, the first to join the New York City Bar Association and the first to join the New York City Law Department. Bolin was born in Poughkeepsie, New York, on April 11, 1908, to an interracial couple, Matilda Ingram Emery and […]
South Carolina experienced one of its most tragic and unforgettable family lynchings in 1925. Bertha Lowman and her mother, Annie, were home on April 25 when they received a visit from Sheriff H.H. Howard and four other officers from Aiken County. The sheriff suspected that the women were making and selling illegal whiskey. The officers […]
