1867?1940. b. Amelia co., Va., grad. Hampton Institute, 1890. He was commandant (1890?1915) of Hampton Institute, then principal and president of Tuskegee Institute until 1935. A successor of Booker T. Washington, he raised Tuskegee to college level and was important in national and international racial affairs. He received the Harmon award (1930) and Spingarn medal (1932).
1875?1939
b. New York City, grad. Columbia (B.A., 1895; Ph.D., 1899). He was professor (1899?1911) of comparative literature at Columbia, and a founder (1919) of the publishing firm of Harcourt, Brace and Company. His literary work includes A History of Literary Criticism in the Renaissance (1899), Creative Criticism and Other Essays (1931), and several books of poems. A prominent officer of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People from 1913 until his death, he established (1913) the Spingarn medal, awarded annually for outstanding achievement by a black American.
1830 ? 1909 Founder of Howard Univ., b. Leeds, Maine, grad. Bowdoin College, 1850, and West Point, 1854. Made a brigadier general of volunteers (Sept., 1861), he fought in the East from the first battle of Bull Run through the Gettysburg campaign. Howard lost his right arm at Fair Oaks in the Peninsular campaign (1862). His 11th Corps was completely routed by Stonewall Jackson’s flank attack in the battle of Chancellorsville. On the first day at Gettysburg, Howard, assuming command after J. F. Reynolds was killed, was driven back with heavy losses to Cemetery Hill. His corps constituted part of the Union reinforcements under Hooker in the Chattanooga campaign. In the Atlanta campaign he commanded the Army of the Tennessee after the death of J. B. McPherson, and he led it in Sherman’s march through Georgia and the Carolinas. President Andrew Johnson made Howard, who was devoted to the cause of black betterment, chief commissioner of the Freedmen’s Bureau in May, 1865. The bureau, under difficult circumstances, provided necessary and useful services. Although some officials were dishonest, the corruption has sometimes been overstated. Howard himself was honest; but he was not an able administrator. A founder (1867) of Howard Univ. (named for him), he was its president (1869?73). He later helped to found Lincoln Memorial Univ. in Tennessee. As commander of the Dept. of the Columbia (1874?81), Howard directed several campaigns against the Native Americans and negotiated with Chief Joseph in 1877. In 1886 he was promoted to major general and assigned to command the Division of the East; he held this post until his retirement in 1894. He wrote biographies of Chief Joseph (1881) and Zachary Taylor (1892), as well as Famous Indian Chiefs I Have Known (1908) and an autobiography (1907).
(1905-10), organization of black intellectuals led by W.E.B. Du Bois and calling for full political, civil, and social rights for black Americans. This stance stood in notable contrast to the accommodation philosophy proposed by Booker T. Washington in the Atlanta Compromise of 1895. The Niagara Movement was the forerunner of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). In the summer of 1905, 29 prominent blacks, including Du Bois, met secretly at Niagara Falls, Ont., and drew up a manifesto calling for full civil liberties, abolition of racial discrimination, and recognition of human brotherhood. Subsequent annual meetings were held in such symbolic locations as Harpers Ferry, W.Va., and Boston’s Faneuil Hall.
Despite the establishment of 30 branches and the achievement of a few scattered civil-rights victories at the local level, the group suffered from organizational weakness and lack of funds as well as a permanent headquarters or staff, and it never was able to attract mass support. After the Springfield (Ill.) Race Riot of 1908, however, white liberals joined with the nucleus of Niagara “militants” and founded the NAACP the following year. The Niagara Movement disbanded in 1910, with the leadership of Du Bois forming the main continuity between the two organizations.
b. July 24, 1893, Bristol, Va., U.S.
d. Oct. 27, 1956, Louisville, Ky.
U.S. sociologist, authority on race relations, and the first black president (1946-56) of Fisk University, Nashville, Tenn. (established in 1867 and long restricted to black students). Also founded and edited (1923-28) the intellectual magazine “Opportunity.”