• May 17, 1864 John William “Blind” Boone, pianist and ragtime music composer, was born near Miami, Missouri. When he was six months old, doctors removed his eyes in an attempt to cure his brain fever. Boone’s musical talents were recognized early and in 1872 he was sent to the St. Louis School for the Blind to study piano. In 1880, his professional career was launched after he played in a concert with the famous pianist, Blind Tom. After that, Boone played thousands of concerts in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. During his lifetime, Boone was a committed philanthropist who supported local causes and opened his home to the community. He donated generously to several churches and gave his time and talent to local youth. Boone died October 4, 1927 and his home in Columbia, Missouri is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The John William Boone Heritage Foundation was founded to preserve the history of Blind Boone and Blind Boone Park in Warrensburg, Missouri is named in his honor. His biography, “Blind Boone: Missouri’s Ragtime Pioneer,” was published in 1998.

• May 16, 1840 James Milton Turner, Consul to Liberia, was born enslaved in St. Louis, Missouri. Turner and his parents were freed when he was young, but he still had limited educational opportunities because Missouri laws restricted blacks from learning to read. Despite the legal obstacles, Turner learned to read and briefly attended Oberlin College. After the Civil War, he became a prominent politician known for his speaking ability. He worked for the Missouri Department of Education, establishing over 30 new schools in the state for African Americans and providing support for Lincoln Institute (now Lincoln University). In 1871, President Ulysses S. Grant appointed Turner United States Minister to Liberia, the first African American to hold that position. After returning from Liberia in 1878, Turner organized the Colored Emigration Aid Association to provide assistance to blacks migrating from the South. Turner died November 1, 1915. His biography, “James Milton Turner and the Promise of America: The Public Life of a Post-Civil War Leader,” was published in 1991.

• May 15, 1868 George Henry Wanton, Congressional Medal of Honor recipient, was born in Paterson, New Jersey. By June 30, 1898, he was serving as a private in the 10th Calvary Regiment (Buffalo Soldiers) in the Spanish-American War. On that day, American forces aboard the USS Florida near Tayacoba, Cuba dispatched a small landing party to provide reconnaissance on Spanish outposts in the area. The party was discovered and came under heavy fire. Their boats were sunk, leaving them stranded on shore. After four failed attempts, Wanton and three other members of the 10th Calvary successfully found and rescued the surviving members of the landing party. In recognition of his actions, on June 23, 1899 Wanton was awarded the medal, America’s highest military decoration. Wanton continued to serve in the military and reached the rank of master sergeant and served in the Quartermaster Corps before retiring. Wanton died November 27, 1940 and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

• May 14, 1890 Rosa Jinsey Young, “the mother of Black Lutheranism in Alabama,” was born in Rosebud, Alabama. Young earned her bachelor’s degree from Payne University and was the valedictorian of her class in 1909. After receiving her teaching certificate, she taught at various schools for African Americans across Alabama. In 1912, Young established the Rosebud Literary and Industrial School. However, by 1915 the school was on the brink of closure due to financial problems. The Lutheran Church provided financial support to keep the school open and added Lutheran based instruction to the school’s curriculum. Young went on to help found five other Lutheran based schools across Alabama, including Alabama Lutheran Academy and College (now Concordia College) which was founded in 1922 and where she served on the faculty from 1946 to 1961. In 1930, Young published her autobiography, “Light in the Dark Belt,” and in 1961 she received an honorary doctorate from Concordia Theological Seminary for her dedicated service. Young died June 30, 1971.

• May 13, 1913 William Richard Tolbert, Jr., former President of Liberia, was born in Bensonville, Liberia. Tolbert graduated summa cum laude from the University of Liberia in 1934 and entered government in 1935 as a civil servant. Tolbert was also an ordained minister and in 1965 became the first African to serve as president of the Baptist World Alliance. In 1951, Tolbert was elected Vice President of Liberia where he served until the death of President William Tubman in 1971. Tolbert succeeded Tubman as President of Liberia and served until April 12, 1980 when he was killed in a coup d’etat.

• May 12, 1906 William “Gorilla” Jones, hall of fame boxer, was born in Memphis, Tennessee. Jones started boxing professionally in 1923 and won the World Middleweight Championship in 1925. He retired in 1940 with a record of 101 wins, 24 losses, and 13 draws. After retiring, he served as a chauffeur and bodyguard for the movie star Mae West and from the late 1940s to the 1970s trained other boxers. Jones died January 4, 1982 and was posthumously inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2009.

• May 11, 1895 William Grant Still, “the dean” of African American classical composers, was born in Woodville, Mississippi but raised in Little Rock, Arkansas. Still started taking violin lessons at the age of 15 and taught himself to play a number of other instruments. Still attended Wilberforce University where he conducted the university band and started to compose. He also studied at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. After serving in the United States Navy during World War I, he worked as an arranger for W. C. Handy and later played in the pit orchestra for the musical “Shuffle Along.” In 1934, Still was the recipient of the first Guggenheim Fellowship. In 1936, he conducted the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, becoming the first African American to conduct a major American orchestra, and in 1949 his opera “Troubled Island” (1939) was performed by the New York City Opera, the first opera by an African American to be performed by a major opera company. Still eventually moved to Los Angeles, California where he arranged music for films, including “Pennies from Heaven” (1936) and “Lost Horizon” (1937). Still received honorary doctorates from a number of institutions, including Oberlin College, Howard University, the New England Conservatory of Music, and the University of Southern California. Still died December 3, 1978 and in 1981 his opera “Bayou Legend” became the first opera by an African American to be performed on national television when it premiered on PBS. His biography, “In Our Lifetime,” was published in 1984.

• May 10, 1837 Pickney Benton Stewart Pinchback, the first African American to become governor of a state in the United States, was born in Macon, Georgia. In 1862, he made his way to New Orleans where he raised several companies of the Corps d’Afrique for the Union Army during the Civil War and was one of the few officers of African ancestry. Pinchback resigned his commission because of racial prejudice against black officers. In 1868, he was elected to the Louisiana State Senate and in 1871 became the acting Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana. On December 9, 1872, the incumbent governor was removed from office and Pinchback became governor and served until January 13, 1873. During that brief 35 day period, he received vicious hate mail from around the country as well as threats on his life. After his brief governorship, Pinchback was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1874 and the U.S. Senate in 1876. Pinchback also served on the Louisiana State Board of Education and was instrumental in establishing Southern University and served on their board of trustees. In 1882, President Chester Arthur appointed Pinchback surveyor of customs in New Orleans. Pinchback later moved to Washington, D.C. where he practiced law until his death on December 21, 1921. His biography, “Pickney Benton Stewart Pinchback,” was published in 1973.

• May 9, 1919 James Reese Europe, ragtime and jazz bandleader, arranger, and composer, was stabbed to death by one of his musicians. Europe was born February 22, 1881 in Mobile, Alabama and moved to New York City in 1904. In 1910, Europe organized the Clef Club, a society for African Americans in the music industry. In 1912, they made history as the first band to play proto-jazz at Carnegie Hall when they played a concert for the benefit of the Colored Music Settlement School. The band played music written solely by black composers. In 1913 and 1914, Europe made a series of recordings that are some of the best examples of the pre-jazz ragtime style of the 1910s. During World War I, Europe saw combat as a lieutenant with the Harlem Hellfighters and went on to direct the regimental band to great acclaim. After his return to the United States in 1919, he stated “I have come from France more firmly convinced than ever that Negros should write Negro music. We have our own racial feelings and if we try to copy Whites we will make bad copies.” At the time of his death, Europe was the best known African American bandleader in the U.S. and he was granted the first ever public funeral for an African American in New York City. His biography, “A Lifetime in Ragtime: A Biography of James Reese Europe,” was published in 1995.

• May 8, 1901 Norman Thomas “Turkey” Stearnes, hall of fame baseball player, was born in Nashville, Tennessee. Stearnes began his professional career in 1921 and from 1923 to 1931 played for the Detroit Stars of the Negro League. Stearnes retired in 1942 and over his career batted over .400 three times and led the Negro League in home runs seven times. Despite his baseball success, Stearnes worked winters in Detroit’s auto plants to survive financially. Stearnes died September 4, 1979 and was posthumously inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2000. A plaque in Stearnes’ honor is on display outside the centerfield gate at Comerica Park in Detroit.

• May 7, 1890 George Jordan received the Congressional Medal of Honor, America’s highest military decoration for his actions during the Indian Wars. Jordan was born enslaved in Williamson County, Tennessee in 1847 and by 1880 was serving as a sergeant in the 9th Cavalry Regiment in New Mexico. His citation reads, “While commanding a detachment of 25 men at Fort Tularosa, New Mexico, repulsed a force of more than 100 Indians. At Carrizo Canyon, New Mexico, while commanding the right of a detachment of 19 men, on 12 August 1881, he stubbornly held his ground in an extremely exposed position and gallantly forced back a much superior number of the enemy, preventing them from surrounding the command.” Jordan reached the rank of first sergeant before retiring from the army in 1897. Not much is known of Jordan’s life before or after the army except that he died October 24, 1904.

• May 6, 1812 Martin Robinson Delany, abolitionist and the first African American field officer in the United States Army, was born in Charles Town, West Virginia. Because it was illegal to teach black people to read or write, he and his siblings taught themselves. In 1835, Delany became more actively involved in political matters and attended his first Negro Conference. In 1843, he began publishing “The Mystery,” a black-controlled newspaper, and in 1847 together with Frederick Douglass and William Lloyd Garrison began publishing the “North Star” newspaper. In the 1850s, Delany became convinced that whites would not allow deserving persons of color to become leaders in society and in his book, “The Condition, Elevation, Emigration, and Destiny of the Colored People of the United States, Politically Considered” (1852), he argued that blacks had no future in the United States and should leave and found a new nation elsewhere. In 1863, Delany began recruiting black men for the Union Army to fight in the Civil War, raising thousands of enlistees, and in 1865 he was commissioned as a major, becoming the first black field officer in the U.S. Army. Following the war and the demise of the Reconstruction Period, Delany helped form the Liberia Exodus Joint Stock Steamship Company with the intent to immigrate to Africa. However, he had to withdraw from the project due to family obligations. Delany died January 24, 1885 and his biography, “Martin R. Delany: The Beginnings of Black Nationalism,” was published in 1971.

• May 5, 1883 Josiah Henson, author, abolitionist, and minister, died. Henson was born enslaved on June 15, 1789 in Charles County, Maryland. In 1830, after trying to buy his freedom and being cheated out of his money, Henson escaped with his wife and children to Canada. After arriving in Ontario, he founded The Dawn Settlement and a laborer’s school for other previously enslaved fugitives. The settlement prospered, reaching a population of 500 and exporting lumber to the United States and Britain. Henson also became a Methodist preacher, abolitionist, and served in the Canadian army as an officer. Henson had three autobiographies published, “The Life of Josiah Henson, Formerly a Slave, Now an Inhabitant of Canada, as narrated by Him” (1849), “Truth Stranger Than Fiction, Father Henson’s Story of His Own Life” (1858), and “Uncle Tom’s Story of His Life: An Autobiography of the Rev. Josiah Henson” (1876). Henson was the first black man to be featured on a Canadian stamp and also was recognized by the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada in 1999 as a National Historic Person. A federal plaque honoring him is located in the Henson family cemetery. Henson’s name is enshrined in the Ring of Genealogy at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit, Michigan.

• May 4, 1897 Joseph H. Smith of Washington, D.C. received patent number 581,785 for new and useful improvements to lawn sprinklers. His device was both simpler and less expensive to manufacture and more durable than previous devices. Not much else is known of Smith’s life.

• May 3, 1898 Septima Poinsette Clark, “grandmother of the Civil Rights Movement,” was born in Charleston, South Carolina. She graduated from high school in 1916, but could not afford to attend college. As an African American, Clark was barred from teaching in the Charleston public schools therefore she began teaching on John’s Island. In 1919, she returned to Charleston to teach at Avery Normal Institute, a private academy for black children, and she became active with the NAACP. From 1929 to 1947, Clark taught in the Columbia, South Carolina public school system. During that time, she earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from Benedict College in 1942 and her Master of Arts degree from Hampton Institute in 1946. In 1956, Clark became vice president of the Charleston branch of the NAACP. That same year, the South Carolina legislature passed a law banning city or state employees from being involved with civil rights organizations. Clark refused to leave the NAACP and was fired from her teaching position. Beginning in 1954, Clark was active with the Highlander Folk School where she ran an adult literacy program. One of the participants in her workshops was Rosa Parks who, a few months after, helped to start the Montgomery Bus Boycott. In response to Southern states which required literacy and knowledge of the United States constitution in order to register to vote, Clark established “Citizenship Schools” throughout the Deep South. The program became so large that it was transferred to the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and Clark became SCLC’s director of education and training. Clark retired from the SCLC in 1970 and from 1974 to 1982 served on the Charleston County School Board, the first black female member. In 1979, President Jimmy Carter presented Clark a Living Legend Award. Her autobiography, “Ready from Within: Septima Clark and the Civil Rights Movement,” was published in 1986 and won the American Book Award. Clark died December 15, 1987.

• May 2, 1843 Elijah J. McCoy, engineer and inventor, was born in Colchester, Ontario, Canada. His parents had escaped enslavement to Canada. McCoy studied engineering in Edinburgh, Scotland and after returning to Canada found work with the Michigan Central Railroad. On July 12, 1872, he received patent number 129,843 for “Improvements in Lubricators for Steam-Engines.” This was a boon for railroads because it allowed trains to run faster and more profitably with less need to stop for lubrication and maintenance. McCoy continued to invent until late in his life, receiving 57 patents mostly related to lubrication, but also including a folding ironing board and a lawn sprinkler. In 1920, he formed the Elijah McCoy Manufacturing Company and he died October 10, 1929. In 1975, a historical marker was placed at the site of his Detroit, Michigan home and Elijah McCoy Drive in Detroit was named in his honor. In 2001, he was posthumously inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame and in 2006 the play “The Real McCoy” was written which chronicled his life and inventions. His biography, also titled “The Real McCoy,” was published in 2007. McCoy’s name is enshrined in the Ring of Genealogy at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit, Michigan.

• May 1, 1866 The Memphis Riots of 1866 began after a shooting altercation between white policemen and black soldiers recently mustered out of the Union Army in Memphis, Tennessee. For three days, mobs of white civilians and policemen rampaged through black neighborhoods. A report by a joint Congressional Committee detailed 46 blacks and 2 whites killed, 75 persons injured, over 100 persons robbed, 5 women raped, and 91 homes, 4 churches, and 8 schools burned. No criminal charges were ever brought against any of the perpetrators of atrocities committed during the riots. The riots did result in major changes to the city’s police force.

• April 30, 1872 Turner Byrd, Jr. of Williamsville, Michigan received patent number 126,181 for an improved neck-yoke for wagons. Byrd also received patent number 123,328 on February 6, 1872 for an improved harness rein holder, patent number 124,790 on March 19, 1872 for an improved apparatus for detaching horses from carriages, and patent number 157,370 on December 1, 1874 for an improvement in railcar couplings. Not much else is known of Byrd’s life.

• April 29, 1854 Lincoln University, the first degree granting historically black college, was established as Ashmun Institute in Chester County, Pennsylvania “to provide a higher education in the arts and sciences for male youth of African descent.” In 1866, the institution was renamed Lincoln University. The first African American president was named in 1945 and in 1952 the institution began admitting women. Between 1854 and 1954, Lincoln produced 20 percent of the black doctors and 10 percent of the black lawyers in the United States. Today, the institution offers 37 undergraduate majors and 5 pre-professional programs to approximately 2,500 students. Notable alumni include Roscoe Lee Browne, Cab Calloway, Langston Hughes, Thurgood Marshall, and Kwame Nkrumah.

• April 28, 1891 George Toliver of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania received patent number 451,086 for his invention of a new propeller for vessels. His invention was simple, durable, and efficient in providing motive power to force vessels through water and thereby gaining speed and economizing power. Not much else is known of Toliver’s life.