Black History, Education, Firsts, Science
Theodore S. Wright
Theodore S. Wright (1797-1847) was an African-American abolitionist and minister who was active in New York City, where he led the First Colored Presbyterian Church as its second pastor. He was the first African American to attend Princeton Theological Seminary (and any United States theological seminary), from which he graduated in 1829. In 1833 he was a founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, and served on its executive committee until 1840.
Theodore Sedgwick Wright was born about 1797 to free parents. He is believed to have moved into New York City with his family, where he attended the African Free School.[1] With the aid of Governor DeWitt Clinton and Arthur Tappan of the New York Manumission Society, and men from Princeton Theological Seminary, Wright was aided in his studies at the graduate seminary. In 1829 he was the first African American to graduate from there, and the first to complete theological studies at a seminary in the United States.
Before 1833, Wright was called as the second minister of New York’s First Colored Presbyterian Church and served there the rest of his life. (It was later known as Shiloh Presbyterian Church and is now St. James Presbyterian Church in Harlem.) He followed the founder, Samuel Cornish. (more…)
Black History, Firsts, Politics
Alexander Lucius Twilight is the first African American to graduate from a U.S. college, receiving his bachelor’s degree from Middlebury College in 1823. Also a pioneer in Vermont politics, Twilight became the first African American to win election to public office in 1836, joining his home-state legislature. He died in Brownington, Vermont, on June 19, 1857.
Born on September 23, 1795 (though sources vary on the month and day of his birth, with some saying September 26 and others noting July 15), in Corinth, Vermont, where he also grew up, Alexander Lucius Twilight was one of six children born to Ichabod and Mary Twilight. The Twilights were one of the few African-American families living in the area at the time. According to the Old Stone House Museum’s website, Ichabod Twilight served in the American Revolutionary War. (more…)
Firsts
First black Pro Basketball team “The Renaissance” organized February 13, 1923.
The Renaissance, commonly called the Rens, become one of the dominant teams of the 1920s and 1930s.
The team’s founder was Robert L. Douglas, whose primary objective was to give New York City’s male, Black athletes opportunities to better themselves. In February 1923, Douglas struck an agreement with William Roach, a Harlem-based real estate developer who owned the New Renaissance Ballroom and Casino, and the Rens were born.
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Firsts
First annual Convention of “people of color” held in Philadelphia 1831
Firsts
1895 – 1950
Houston, a powerful advocate of civil rights, helped gain ground for the movement by taking the fight to the court system. Houston earned his A.B. from Amherst College at age 19 and then began teaching English at Howard University. He joined the Army during World War I, serving in a segregated unit of the American Expeditionary Forces.
In 1919 Houston entered Harvard Law School, where he served as the first black editor of the Harvard Law Review. He later joined the faculty at Howard University and began preparing young black lawyers, including Thurgood Marshall, to argue cases against discrimination. Houston himself argued a number of cases before the Supreme Court, serving as special counsel to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) from 1935 to 1940.
Firsts
Byname of ELIZABETH COLEMAN (b. Jan. 26, 1893, Atlanta, Texas, U.S.–d. April 30, 1926, Jacksonville, Fla.), black American aviator, a star of early aviation exhibitions and air shows.
One of 13 children, Coleman grew up in Waxahatchie, Texas, where her mathematical aptitude freed her from working in the cotton fields. She attended college in Langston, Okla., briefly, then moved to Chicago, where she worked as a manicurist and restaurant manager and became interested in the then-new profession of aviation.
Discrimination thwarted Coleman’s attempts to enter aviation schools in the United States. Undaunted, she learned French and at age 27 was accepted at the Caudron Brothers School of Aviation in Le Crotoy, France. Black philanthropists Robert Abbott, founder of the Chicago Defender, and Jesse Binga, a banker, assisted with her tuition. On June 15, 1921, she became the first American woman to obtain an international pilot’s license from the F
