• December 29, 1907 Robert Clifton Weaver, the first African American to hold a cabinet level position in a United States President’s administration, was born in Washington, D.C. Weaver attended Harvard University where he earned his Bachelor of Arts degree cum laude in economics in 1929, his Master of Arts degree in 1931, and his Ph.D. in 1934. Weaver was an expert on urban housing and wrote several books on the subject, including “The Negro Ghetto” (1948) and “The Urban Complex: Human Values in Urban Life” (1964). In 1966, Weaver was appointed by President Lyndon B. Johnson the first Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), a position he held until 1968. After leaving his cabinet post, Weaver became president of Baruch College in 1969 and in 1970 became a professor of urban affairs at Hunter College, from which he retired in 1978. In 1962, Weaver was awarded the NAACP Spingarn Medal. Weaver died July 17, 1997 and in 2000 the HUD headquarters building was renamed the Robert C. Weaver Federal Building. Robert Clifton Weaver Way in northeast Washington, D.C. is also named in his honor.

• December 28, 1829 Bill Richmond, hall of fame boxer, died. Richmond was born enslaved on August 5, 1763 in Staten Island, New York. He was taken to England to apprentice as a cabinet maker, but took up boxing. Known as “The Black Terror,” he was one of the most accomplished and respected fighters of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Richmond retired from boxing in 1818 at the age of 55 and established a boxing academy. He was posthumously inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2005.

• December 27, 1939 John Amos, Jr., television, film, and stage actor, was born in Newark, New Jersey. Amos attended Colorado State University and Long Beach City College and briefly played professional football. He is best known for his television roles on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” from 1970 to 1973 and “Good Times” from 1974 to 1976. Unhappy with the scripts, Amos quit “Good Times” after the third season. Amos appeared in the 1977 Emmy Award winning television miniseries “Roots,” for which he was nominated for the Emmy Award for Best Actor, and has guest starred on a number of other television programs, including “The Cosby Show,” “The West Wing” and “Men in Trees”. He has won more TV Land Awards than any other actor or actress. Amos has had roles in several films, including “Coming to America” (1988), “Die Hard 2” (1990), and “Dr. Dolittle” (2006). Amos is the writer and producer of “Halley’s Comet,” a critically acclaimed one-man play that he performs around the world. In 2009, he was the recipient of the New Jersey Education Association Award for Excellence.

• December 26, 1884 Felix Adolphe Eboue, French colonial administrator, was born in Cayenne, Guyana. Eboue was a brilliant scholar and won a scholarship to study in Bordeaux, France. After graduating in law from the Ecole Colonial in Paris, from 1909 to 1931 he served in Oubangui-Chari (now the Central African Republic). In 1932, he was appointed secretary general of Martinique where he served until 1934 when he was transferred to the same position in French Sudan. In 1938, Eboue was transferred to Chad where he served until 1940 when he was appointed General Governor of all of French Equatorial Africa, a position he held until his death on March 17, 1944. During his tenure as general governor, Eboue worked to improve the status of Africans. He placed some Gabonese civil servants into positions of authority and advocated the preservation of traditional African institutions. After his death, the French colonies in Africa brought out a joint stamp issue in his memory. Eboue’s ashes are in The Pantheon of Paris, the first back man to be so honored. Eboue’s biography, “Eboue,” was published in 1972.

• December 25, 1745 Joseph Bologne the Chevalier de Saint-Georges, musician, swordsman, and equestrian, was born in Guadeloupe, but raised in France. While still a young man, he acquired reputations as the best swordsman in France, as a violin virtuoso, and as a classical composer. In 1771, he was appointed maestro of the Concert des Amateurs and later director of the Concert de la Loge Olympique, the biggest orchestra of his time. He was eventually selected for appointment as director of the Royal Opera of Louis XVI, but was prevented from taking the position because three Parisian divas felt that “it would be injurious to their professional reputations for them to sing on stage under the direction of a mulatto.” Saint-Georges also served in the French army and was appointed the first black colonel and commanded a regiment of a thousand free colored volunteers. Despite his successes, Saint-Georges died destitute June 10, 1799. Biographies of Saint-Georges include “Joseph Boulogne called Chevalier de Saint-Georges” (1996) and “Joseph de Saint-Georges, le Chevalier Noir (The Black Chevalier)” (2006).

• December 24, 1853 Octavia Victoria Rogers Albert was born enslaved in Oglethorpe, Georgia. Albert was emancipated after the Civil War and attended Atlanta University where she studied to be a teacher. In 1874, she moved to Louisiana where she began to conduct interviews with men and women previously enslaved. These narratives became the material for “The House of Bondage, or, Charlotte Brooks and Other Slaves.” The book was published in 1891 shortly after Albert’s death in 1890. Her goal in writing the book was to tell the story of the ex-enslaved as well as to “correct and create history.”

• December 23, 1815 Henry Highland Garnet, orator and abolitionist, was born enslaved near New Market, Maryland. In 1824, Garnet’s family escaped to freedom in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They subsequently moved to New York City where from 1826 to 1833 Garnet attended the African Free School and the Phoenix High School for Colored Youth. Garnet went on to graduate with honors in 1839 from the Oneida Theological Institute of Whitesboro. He later joined the American Anti-Slavery Society and frequently spoke at abolitionist conferences. He delivered one of his most famous speeches, “Call to Rebellion,” in August, 1843 to the National Negro Convention. In that speech, he called for the enslaved to act for themselves to achieve total emancipation. By 1849, Garnet began to support emigration of blacks to Mexico, Liberia, or the West Indies and he founded the African Civilization Society. On February 12, 1865, he became the first black minister to preach to the United States House of Representatives when he spoke about the end of slavery. After the Civil War, Garnet was appointed president of Avery College in 1868 and in 1881 was appointed U.S. Minister to Liberia. Garnet died February 13, 1882. The Henry Highland Garnet School for Success in Harlem, New York and the HHG Elementary School in Chestertown, Maryland are named in his honor. His biographies include “Henry Highland Garnet: A Voice of Black Radicalism in the Nineteenth Century” (1977) and “Rise Now and Fly to Arms: The Life of Henry Highland Garnet” (1995).

• December 22, 1870 Jefferson Franklin Long, the first African American from Georgia to be elected to the United States House of Representatives, was seated. Long was born enslaved March 3, 1836 near Knoxville, Georgia and was self-educated. By 1867, he was a prominent member of the Republican Party, traveling throughout the South urging formerly enslaved people to register to vote. Partially as a result of his efforts, 37 African Americans were elected to the Georgia constitutional convention of 1867 and 32 to the state legislature. Long advocated for public education, higher wages, and better terms for sharecroppers. He also helped organize the Union Brotherhood Lodge, a black mutual aid society in Macon, Georgia. Long was elected to fill a vacancy and served in Congress until March 3, 1871. On February 1, 1871, Long became the first African American to speak on the floor of the United States House of Representatives. Long did not seek re-election, but did serve as a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1880. After serving in Congress, Long resumed business as a merchant tailor in Macon and died there February 4, 1901.

• December 21, 1872 Robert Scott Duncanson, landscape painter, died. Duncanson was born in 1821 in Seneca County, New York and went to live with his father in Canada as a young boy. He returned to the United States in 1841 with a desire to be an artist and taught himself by painting portraits and copying prints. Duncanson traveled the world in pursuit of his art and in 1845 moved to Detroit, Michigan. In 1846, the Detroit Daily Advertiser praised Duncanson for his skill and color usage, adding “Mr. Duncanson deserves, and we trust will receive the patronage of all lovers of the fine arts.” With the onset of the Civil War, Duncanson exiled himself to Canada and the United Kingdom where his work was well received and the London Art Journal declared him a master of landscape painting. His paintings “Drunkard’s Plight” (1845), “At the Foot of the Cross” (1846), and “Uncle Tom and Little Eva” (1853) are in the collection of the Detroit Institute of Arts.

DECEMBER 2012: The Voices of the Civil War is a five-year film series dedicated to celebrating and commemorating the Civil War over the course of the sesquicentennial. Each month, new episodes cover pertinent topics that follow the monthly events and issues as they unfolded for African Americans during the Civil War. Within these episodes there are various primary sources – letters and diaries, newspaper reports, and more - to recount various experiences of blacks during this period. We encourage your feedback and commentary through our Voices of the Civil War web blog.

Click here to visit the Voices of the Civil War blog to see previous episodes.

On September 22, 1862 President Abraham Lincoln issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation after the Union’s win at the Battle of Antietam.  By December 1862, northern morale was declining and many doubted that Lincoln would issue the Emancipation Proclamation as promised on January 1, 1863.

Credits

1. White House Historical Association
2. Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History
3. Library of Congress
4. Library of Congress
5. National Archives and Records Administration
6. Library of Congress
7. Library of Congress
8. Library of Congress
9. Library of Congress
10. Paul Collins
11. Library of Congress
12. Library of Congress
13. National Archives and Records Administration
14. Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History
15. Library of Congress
16. Library of Congress
17. Library of Congress
18. Library of Congress
19. Library of Congress
20. Library of Congress

• December 20, 1942 Robert Lee “Bullet Bob” Hayes, hall of fame track and field athlete and football player, was born in Jacksonville, Florida. While a student at Florida A&M University, Hayes was the Amateur Athletic Union 100 yard dash champion from 1962 to 1964 and in 1964 was the NCAA champion in the 200 meter race. At the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games, he won Gold medals and set world records in the 100 meter race and the 4 by 100 meter relay. At that time, he was considered the world’s fastest man. Hayes was selected by the Dallas Cowboys in the 1964 NFL Draft. Over his 11 season football career, he was a three-time Pro Bowl selection and was instrumental in the Cowboys’ 1972 Super Bowl victory. Hayes is the only man to win an Olympic Gold medal and a Super Bowl ring. In 1972, he was inducted into the USA Track & Field Hall of Fame. Hayes died September 18, 2002 and was posthumously inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2009.

• December 19, 1875 Carter Godwin Woodson, historian, author and journalist, was born in New Canton, Virginia. Through self-instruction, Woodson mastered the fundamentals of common school subjects by the age of 17 and graduated from high school at the age of 22. He then earned his Bachelor of Literature degree from Berea College in 1903, his Master of Arts degree from the University of Chicago in 1908, and his Ph.D. in history from Harvard University in 1912. In 1915, he co-founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History and published his first book, “The Education of the Negro Prior to 1861.” Other books that he authored include “The History of the Negro Church” (1922) and “The Mis-Education of the Negro” (1933). In 1916, Woodson began publication of “Journal of Negro History” which was renamed “Journal of African American History” in 2002 and in 1920 founded the Associated Publishers, the oldest African American publishing company in the United States. In 1926, Woodson single-handedly pioneered the celebration of Negro History Week which we now refer to as Black History Month. That same year, he was awarded the NAACP Spingarn Medal. Woodson died April 3, 1950 and his Washington D.C. home was designated the Carter G. Woodson Home National Historic Site on February 27, 2006. Also, many schools around the country are named in his honor. His biographies, “Carter G. Woodson: The Father of Black History” and “Carter G. Woodson: A Life in Black History,” were published in 1991 and 1993, respectively. Woodson’s name is enshrined in the Ring of Genealogy at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit, Michigan.

• December 18, 1852 George Henry White, the last African American Congressman of the Reconstruction era, was born in Rosindale, North Carolina. After graduating from Howard University in 1877, White studied law privately and was admitted to the North Carolina bar in 1879. He entered politics in 1880 when he was elected to the North Carolina House of Representatives. In 1884, he was elected to the North Carolina Senate and in 1886 was elected Solicitor and Prosecuting Attorney. In 1896, White was elected to the United States House of Representatives and re-elected in 1898. As a result of changes in the voting laws and the intimidation of black voters, White did not run for a third term. In his farewell speech he said, “This is perhaps the Negroes’ temporary farewell to the American Congress, but let me say, Phoenix-like he will rise up some day and come again.” His speech was referenced by President Barack Obama in his remarks at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s Annual Awards Dinner on September 26, 2009. White was an officer in the National Afro-American Council, a nationwide civil rights organization created in 1898. In 1906, White moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania where he practiced law, operated a commercial savings bank, and founded the town of Whitesboro, New Jersey as a real estate development. White died December 28, 1918. His biography, “George Henry White: An Even Chance in the Race of Life,” was published in 2000.

• December 17, 1663 Nzinga Mbande, queen of the Ndongo and Maamba Kingdoms in southwestern Africa, died. Nzinga was born in 1583 in what is now Angola in southwestern Africa. After the death of her brother, Nzinga assumed the title of Queen of Ndongo in 1623. From 1624 to 1657, she led her troops in battle against the Portuguese colonizers. After signing a peace treaty with Portugal, Nzinga devoted her efforts to resettling formerly enslaved Africans. After her death, the Portuguese accelerated their occupation of southwest Africa and significantly expanded the slave trade. A major street in Luanda, Angola is named in Nzinga’s honor and a statue of her sits on an impressive square. A biography, “Nzinga: Warrior Queen of Matamba, Angola, Africa, 1595,” was published in 2000 and a play, “Nzinga, the Warrior Queen,” was produced in 2006. Nzinga’s name is enshrined in the Ring of Genealogy at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit, Michigan.

• December 16, 1816 William Cooper Nell, abolitionist, author, and civil servant, was born in Boston, Massachusetts. Nell studied law in the early 1830s, but was never certified as a lawyer because he would not swear allegiance to the Constitution of the United States which he believed advocated the enslavement of African Americans in the South. Nell was influential in organizing the Freedom Association and the Committee of Vigilance, which were all-black organizations that helped previously enslaved blacks that had fled to the North. From 1848 to 1851, Nell worked with Frederick Douglass on the abolitionist publication The North Star and he was instrumental in the 1855 decision to allow African American students In Massachusetts to study alongside their white classmates. Nell was a prolific author and wrote two exhaustive studies of African Americans in war, “Services of Colored Americans in the Wars of 1776 and 1812” (1851) and “Colored Patriots of the American Revolution” (1855). In 1861, Nell became a postal clerk in Boston, making him the first African American to work in the federal civil service. He died May 25, 1874.

• December 15, 1883 William Augustus Hinton, bacteriologist, pathologist, and educator, was born in Chicago, Illinois. Hinton earned his Bachelor of Science degree from Harvard University in 1905 and his Doctor of Medicine degree with honors from Harvard Medical School in 1912. Hinton returned to Harvard in 1918 as the first black professor in the history of the university. In 1921, he began teaching bacteriology and immunology which he taught until his retirement in 1950. Hinton became internationally known as an expert in the diagnosis and treatment of syphilis and in 1936 published the first medical textbook by a black American, “Syphilis and Its Treatment.” In recognition of his contributions as a serologist and public health bacteriologist, in 1948 Hinton was elected a life member of the American Social Science Association. Hinton died August 8, 1959. The William A. Hinton State Laboratory Institute in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts and the William Augustus Hinton Elementary School in Chicago, Illinois are named in his honor.

• December 14, 1829 John Mercer Langston, attorney, abolitionist, and educator, was born in Louisa County, Virginia. Langston earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1849 and Master of Arts degree in theology in 1852 from Oberlin College. Denied admission to law school because of his race, Langston studied under an established attorney and was admitted to the Ohio bar in 1854. Together with his brothers, Langston became active in the Abolitionist Movement and in 1858 became president of the Ohio Anti-Slavery Society. During the Civil War, Langston was appointed to recruit African Americans to fight for the Union Army and after the war was appointed Inspector General for the Freedmen’s Bureau, a federal organization that assisted formerly enslaved black people. From 1864 to 1868, Langston served as president of the National Equal Rights League which called for the abolition of slavery, support of racial unity and self-help, and equality before the law. In 1868, Langston established and served as dean of Howard University Law School, the first black law school in the country. President Ulysses S. Grant appointed Langston a member of the Board of Health of the District of Columbia. In 1877, President Rutherford B. Hayes appointed him United States Minister to Haiti and in 1884 he was appointed Charge d’affaires to the Dominican Republic. In 1885, Langston was named the first president of Virginia Normal and Collegiate Institute (now Virginia State University) and in 1888 he became the first black person elected to the U.S. Congress from Virginia. In 1894, Langston published his autobiography, “From the Virginia Plantation to the National Capitol: Or the First and Only Negro Representative in Congress from the Old Dominion.” Langston died November 15, 1897. There are a number of schools named in his honor, including Langston University in Oklahoma. The John Mercer Langston Bar Association in Columbus, Ohio is also named in his honor. His biography, “John Mercer Langston and the Fight for Black Freedom, 1829 – 65,” was published in 1989 and his house in Oberlin was designated a National Historic Landmark on May 15, 1975.

• December 13, 1903 Ella Josephine Baker, civil and human rights activist, was born in Norfolk, Virginia. Baker graduated from Shaw University as class valedictorian in 1927 and moved to New York City. In 1931, she became the national director of the Young Negroes’ Cooperative League, which sought to develop black economic power through cooperative planning. In 1941, Baker was hired as secretary of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and in 1943 was named director of branches. In 1957, Baker helped form the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and was the first staff person hired by the organization. In 1960, Baker resigned from SCLC and helped form the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee where she served as mentor to many young people, including Julian Bond, Diane Nash, Stokely Carmichael, Bob Moses, and Bernice Johnson Reagon. From 1962 to 1967, Baker worked for the Southern Conference Education Fund which aimed to help black and white people work together for social justice. In 1964, she helped organize the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. Baker remained an activist until her death on December 13, 1986. The 1981 documentary, “Fundi: The Story of Ella Baker,” revealed her important role in the Civil Rights Movement. In 2009, the United States Postal Service issued a commemorative postage stamp in her honor. The Ella Baker Center for Human Rights in Oakland, California and the Ella Baker School in New York City are named in her honor. Biographies of Baker include “Ella Baker: Freedom Bound” (1998) and “Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement: A Radical Democratic Vision” (2003).

• December 12, 1882 Robert Morris, one of the first black lawyers in the United States, died. Morris was born June 8, 1823 in Salem, Massachusetts. He became the student of a well known abolitionist and lawyer and was admitted to the Massachusetts bar in 1847. Shortly after starting his practice, Morris became the first black lawyer to file a lawsuit on behalf of a client in the U.S. The jury ruled in favor of Morris’ client. Morris was active in abolitionist causes and worked in opposition of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850. He also filed the first U.S. civil rights challenge to segregated schools in the 1848 Roberts v. Boston case. The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled against Morris in 1850. In the early 1850s, he was appointed a justice of the peace and was admitted to practice before U.S. district courts. When the Civil War began, Morris helped in the recruitment of the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, the first officially sanctioned African American unit in the U.S. Army, while also advocating for equal treatment of African American soldiers.

• December 11, 1894 William B. Purvis of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania received patent number 530,650 for a Paper-Bag Machine which more perfectly formed the square bottom of paper bags. Purvis had previously received patent number 419,065 on January 7, 1890 for a fountain pen. That invention made the use of an ink bottle obsolete by storing ink in a reservoir within the pen which was then fed to the tip of the pen. Over his lifetime, Purvis received nine additional patents. He is also believed to have invented, but did not patent, several other devices. Not much else is known of Purvis’ life.