Known as the “Midwife of the Harlem Renaissance,” Jessie Redmon Fauset was an important member of the literary and artistic movement. For seven years, Fauset helped promote the work of writers such as Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, Claude McKay, Georgia Douglass Johnson and Zora Neale Hurston through her editorial positions at The Crisis and The Brownie’s Books, both published through the NAACP.

Her ability to speak french fluently allowed Fauset to translate texts of African and Caribbean writers as well–offering these men and women the opportunity to have their voices heard in America. In addition, these translations offered African-American readers insight to the issues present in the lives of others in the African Diaspora.

Throughout her career as an editor, writer and educator, Fauset worked to improve the opportunities for African-Americans to express themselves through the arts.

Suggested Reading

Literary Timeline of the Harlem Renaissance

Article source: http://afroamhistory.about.com/b/2012/07/31/jessie-redmon-fauset-literary-editor-of-the-crisis.htm

In 1908John Baxter Taylor made history. Participating in the 1908 Olympics, held in London, Taylor became the first African-American to represent the United States at an international sporting event.

Days later, after competing in the 1600 meter medley relay race, Taylor became the first African-American to win an Olympic gold medal.

Sadly, Taylor’s victory was short-lived. A mere four months after returning home with a gold medal, he died of typhoid pneumonia. One of Taylor’s teammates wrote a letter to Taylor’s parents, characterizing the athlete as “…more as the man (than the athlete) that John Taylor made his mark. Quite unostentatious, genial, (and) kindly, the fleet-footed, far-famed athlete was beloved wherever known…As a beacon of his race, his example of achievement in athletics, scholarship and manhood will never wane, if indeed it is not destined to form with that of Booker T. Washington.”

Article source: http://afroamhistory.about.com/b/2012/07/31/john-baxter-taylor-first-olympic-gold-medalist.htm

In 1925, Alain Leroy Locke edited a special issue of Survey
Graphic magazine. Entitled Harlem: Mecca of the New Negro, this issue featured essays, poems, and fiction of up and coming African-American artists of the day. The issue was so popular that two printings were sold out and within months, Locke expanded the issue’s contents and published it as New Negro: An Interpretation. Locke’s anthology included a historical and socio-political essays, poems, fiction as well as photography and visual artistry of up and coming African-American artists.

For these contributions, Locke is considered the “Father of the Harlem Renaissance” movement.

Suggested Reading

Enter the New Negro by Alain Leroy Locke

Article source: http://afroamhistory.about.com/b/2012/07/31/alain-leroy-locke.htm

Is the African-American press still viable in the black community?

Bruce A. Dixon, editor of the Black Agenda argues thatThe Black Press is Dead.
Dixon contends that African-American journalists and news publishers are no longer crusaders of social justice as they were during the Jim Crow Era. Instead, he argues that black journalists work for “white oriented, corporate-owned outlets.” And African-American media outlets, once a bastion of social entrepreneurship, are now owned by media conglomerates such as Viacom, Clear-Channel and others.

I agree with many of Dixon’s arguments. Yes, the majority of African-American journalists work for mainstream news organizations. Yes, African-American media outlets are not always independently owned any longer. And those that are independently owned, may be more concerned with advertising dollars than emphasizing the issues that plague many African-Americans in urban environments.

However, I am not certain if I believe that the African-American Press is completely dead.
After all, how can an institution with such a strong legacy of galvanizing a community for change, really ever perish?

In 1827, John B. Russwurm and Samuel Cornish wrote in the first editorial of Freedom’s Journal, “We wish to plead our own cause. Too long have others spoken for us.”

During the Red Summer of 1919 the Chicago Defender exposed the horrors of race riots not only in Chicago, but throughout the nation.

And in 2012, as many black newspapers have folded, black media outlets have been sold to mainstream corporations, The Afro-American based out of Baltimore, celebrates 120 years of independent publication.

Instead, I believe that the black press is evolving. True, circulation of African-American newspapers is on the decline. Yes, media outlets such as Black Entertainment Television focus way too often on entertainment versus substantive information. However, let us not forget the importance of the Internet and the powerful words that are posted daily on blogs.

In a recent post, blogger Marc Polite of Polite on Society answers the question,
“Can the Black Blogosphere Carry the Torch for the Black Press?”, in a post. Polite argues that perhaps African-American bloggers need to build a strong coalition to reach audiences of issues concerning African-Americans locally, nationally and internationally. And in doing so, will reinvigorate the African-American press.

What do you think–is the African-American press dead? Or, can African-American bloggers become the muckrakers of the 21st Century?

Article source: http://afroamhistory.about.com/b/2012/07/16/the-african-american-press-evolving-or-lifeless.htm

On July 9, 1893, John Cornish was rushed to Provident Hospital after being stabbed in the chest during a brawl. A doctor at the hospital
worked diligently to save Cornish’s life–opening his chest and performing a number of procedures.

Cornish lived and fifty days later, he was discharged from the hospital

The physician that saved Cornish’s life was Daniel Hale Williams would
become the first surgeon to successfully perform open heart surgery. Williams’ work would become the foundation for
surgical procedures in years to come.

Article source: http://afroamhistory.about.com/b/2012/07/09/today-in-african-american-history-daniel-hale-williams-performs-first-successful-open-heart-surgery.htm

delivered countless speeches concerning the plight of African-Americans. With honesty and clarity, Douglass spoke from the point of view of a former slave. And through his speeches, narratives and editorials in the North Star, Douglass persuaded others to believe that enslavement needed to be abolished.

One of Douglass’ most famous speeches, “The Meaning of the Fourth of July for the Negro,” was delivered on July 5, 1852 in Rochester, NY.
In his speech, Douglass argues:

What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer; a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sound of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciation of tyrants brass fronted impudence; your shout of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanks-givings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are to him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy — a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of the United States, at this very hour.
.

Thoughtful, powerful and always honest, Douglass’ speech paved the way for the emancipation of slaves thirteen years later. Readers, how have Douglass’ words inspired you?

Article source: http://afroamhistory.about.com/b/2012/07/05/today-in-african-american-history-july-5-1852.htm

Public Domain

Forty-eight years ago today President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The law banned discrimination in public
facilities, banned racial segregation in schools and established the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to end workplace discrimination
And the law also abolished voter registration requirements that had systemically kept African-Americans from voting.

After signing the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Johnson told Americans:

“we have come to a time of testing. We must not fail.“Let us close the springs of racial poison. Let us pray for wise and understanding hearts. Let us lay aside irrelevant
differences and make our nation whole. Let us hasten that day when our unmeasured strength and our unbounded spirit will be
free to do the great works ordained for this nation by the just and wise God who is the father of us all.”

Article source: http://afroamhistory.about.com/b/2012/07/02/july-2-the-civil-rights-act-of-1964-is-signed.htm

“God our Father, Christ our Redeemer, Man our Brother” – David Alexander Payne

Overview

The African Methodist Episcopal Church, also called AME Church, was established by the Reverend Richard Allen in 1816. Allen founded the denomination in Philadelphia to unite African-American Methodist churches in the North that wanted to be free from white Methodists who historically had not allowed African-Americans to worship in equality. As founder of the AME Church, Allen was consecrated its first bishop. The AME Church is a unique denomination in the Wesleyan tradition–it is the only religion in the western hemisphere to develop from the sociological needs of its members. It is also the first African-American denomination to be established in the United States.

Organizational Mission

Since its establishment in 1816, the AME Church has worked to minister to the needs–spiritual, physical, emotional, intellectual and environmental–of people. Using liberation theology, the AME seeks to help those in need by preaching the gospel of Christ, providing food for the hungry, providing homes, encouraging those who have fallen on hard times as well as economic advancement, and providing employment opportunities to those in need.

History

In 1787, the AME Church was established out of the Free African Society, an organization developed by Allen and Absalom Jones who led African-American parishioners of St. George’s Methodist Episcopal Church to leave the congregation because of the racism and discrimination they faced. Together, this group of African-Americans would transform a mutual aid society into a congregation for people of African descent.

In 1792, Jones founded the African Church in Philadelphia, an African-American church free from white control. Desiring to become an Episcopal parish, the church opened in 1794 as the African Episcopal Church and became the first black church in Philadelphia.

However, Allen wanted to remain Methodist and led a small group to form the Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1793. For the next several years, Allen fought for his congregation to worship free from white Methodist congregations. After winning these cases, other African-American Methodist churches also encountering racism wanted independence and looked to Allen for leadership. As a result, these communities came together in 1816 to form a new Wesleyan denomination known as the AME Church.

Before slavery was abolished, most AME congregations could be found in Philadelphia, New York City, Boston, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Cleveland and Washington D.C. By the 1850s, the AME Church had reached San Francisco, Stockton, and Sacramento.

Once slavery was abolished, the AME Church’s membership in the South increased tremendously, reaching 400,000 members by 1880 in states such as South Carolina, Kentucky, Georgia, Florida, Alabama and Texas. And by 1896, the AME Church could boast membership on two continents–North America and Africa–as there were churches established in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and South Africa.

Philosophy

The AME Church follows the doctrines of the Methodist Church. However, the denomination follows the Episcopal form of church government, having bishops as religious leaders. In addition, since the denomination was founded and organized by African-Americans, its theology is based on the needs of people of African descent.

Early Notable Bishops

Since its inception, the AME Church has cultivated African-American men and women who could synthesize their religious teachings with a fight for social injustice.

Benjamin Arnett addressed the 1893 World’s Parliament of Religions, arguing that people of African descent have helped develop Christianity.

Benjamin Tucker Tanner wrote, An Apology for African Methodism in 1867 and The Color of Solomon in 1895.

AME Colleges and Universities

Education has always played an important role in the AME Church. Even before slavery was abolished in 1865, the AME Church began establishing schools to train young African-American men and women. Many of these schools are still active today and include senior colleges Allen University, Wilberforce University, Paul Quinn College, and Edward Waters College; junior college, Shorter College; theological seminaries, Jackson Theological Seminary, Payne Theological Seminary and Turner Theological Seminary.

The AME Church Today

The AME Church now has membership in thirty-nine countries on five continents. There are currently twenty-one bishops in active leadership and nine general officers who oversee various departments of the AME Church.

Article source: http://afroamhistory.about.com/od/africanamericanculture/a/AMECHurch.htm

Overview

As a leading civil rights, political and legal advocate for African-Americans and women, Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander is
considered to be a tireless, life-long fighter for social justice. In 1947, Alexander was awarded an honorary degree from the University of
Pennsylvania, she was described as “…an active worker for civil rights, she has been a steady and forceful advocate on the national, state, and
municipal scene, reminding people everywhere that freedoms are won not only by idealism but by persistence and will over a long time…”

Key Achievements

• 1921: First African-American woman to receive a PhD in the United States.
• 1921: First African-American to receive a PhD in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania.
• 1927: First African-American woman to enroll and earn a law degree from the University of Pennsylvania.
• 1943: First woman to hold a national office in the National Bar Association.

Family

Alexander came from a family with a rich legacy.
Her maternal grandfather, Benjamin Tucker Tanner was appointed bishop of the
African Method Episcopal Church. Her aunt, Halle Tanner Dillon Johnson was the first African-American woman to
receive a license to practice medicine in Alabama. And her uncle was internationally acclaimed artist Henry Ossawa Tanner.

Her father, Aaron Albert Mossell, was the first African-American to graduate for the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1888.
Her uncle, Nathan Francis Mossell, was the first African-American physician to graduate from University of Pennsylvania Medical School and co-founded the Frederick Douglass Hospital in 1895.

Early Life, Education and Career

Born in Philadelphia in 1898, as Sarah Tanner Mossell, she would be called Sadie throughout her life. Throughout her childhood, Alexander would live
between Philadelphia and Washington D.C. with her mother and older siblings.

In 1915, she graduated from the M Street School
and attended the University of Pennsylvania School of Education where she received her bachelor’s degree in 1918. The following year,
Alexander received her master’s degree in economics. Awarded the Francis Sergeant Pepper fellowship, Alexander went on to become the first African-
American woman to receive a PhD in the United States. Of this experience, Alexander said “I can well remember marching down Broad Street from Mercantile Hall to the Academy of
Music where there were photographers from all over the world taking my picture.”

After receiving her PhD in economics from University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business, Alexander accepted a position
with the North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company where she worked for two years before returning to Philadelphia to marry
Raymond Alexander in 1923.

Soon after marrying Raymond Alexander, she enrolled in the University of Pennsylvania’s Law School where she became a very active student, working as a contributing writer and associate editor on the University of Pennsylvania Law Review. In 1927, Alexander graduated from the University of Pennsylvania School of
Law and later became the first African-American woman to pass and be admitted to the Pennsylvania State Bar.

For thirty two years, Alexander worked
with her husband, specializing in family and estate law.

In addition to practicing law, Alexander was served as Assistant City Solicitor for the City of Philadelphia from 1928 to 1930 and again
from 1934 to 1938.

The Alexanders were active participants in the
Civil Rights Movement and practiced
civil rights law as well. While her husband served on the city council, Alexander was appointed to President Harry Truman’s Committee
of Human Rights in 1947. In this position, Alexander helped to develop the concept of a national civil rights policy when she coauthored the report, “To Secure These Rights.” In the report, Alexander argues that Americans–regardless of gender or race–should be granted the opportunity to improve themselves and in doing so, strengthen the United States. Later, Alexander served on the Commission on Human Relations
of the City of Philadelphia from 1952 to 1958.

In 1959, when her husband was appointed as a judge to the Court of Common Pleas in Philadelphia,
Alexander continued to practice law until her retirement in 1982.

Death

Alexander died in 1989 in Philadelphia.

Article source: http://afroamhistory.about.com/od/biographies/a/SadieTannerMossellAlexander.htm

“I will preach with my brush” – Henry Ossawa Tanner

Overview

In 1996, President Bill Clinton acquired Henry Ossawa Tanner’s painting Sand Dunes at Sunset, Atlantic City for the White House’s permanent collection. It became the first piece of work by an African-American artist to be part of the permanent collection. But when Tanner first created the painting in 1895, gaining recognition as an African-American artist was challenging. However, through dedication to his craft and an undying faith, Tanner became the first African-American artist to receive international acclaim.

Early Life

Tanner was born in Pittsburgh on June 21, 1859 to Benjamin Tucker Tanner, a minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church and Sarah Miller Tanner, a former slave who escaped on the Underground Railroad. His parents gave him the middle name “Ossawa” in His sister, Halle Tanner Dillon Johnson, would become the first African-American woman to receive a license to practice medicine in the state of Alabama.

Throughout Tanner’s early childhood, his family moved often as his father served various congregations. However, by 1864, the Tanner family settled in Philadelphia. It was here that his interest in art began to develop. As a teenager Tanner began painting as a hobby–observing art throughout Philadelphia’s art galleries.

In 1880, Tanner enrolled in the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts where he studied under the tutelage of artists such as Thomas Eakins.

Before graduating, Tanner left the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts because he wanted go into business selling art. Tanner established a photography gallery in Atlanta where he sold drawings, offered his services as a photographer and taught art classes at Clark College. While living in Atlanta, Tanner was introduced to Bishop Joseph Crane Hartzell and his wife, who would become his patrons. Soon after, Tanner sold his gallery and moved to the Highlands in North Carolina. Living in the Blue Ridge Mountains, Tanner earned a living as a photographer. Tanner returned to Atlanta and continued teaching art classes at Clark College for the next two years.

In 1891, with the help of Bishop Hartzell, Tanner traveled to Rome where he was expected to study art. Instead, Tanner settled in Paris and enrolled in the Academie Julian where he worked with Jean Paul Laurens and Jean Joseph Benjamin Constant. It was during this period that Tanner painted Banjo Lesson, which was inspired by Paul Laurence Dunbar’s poem, Banjo Song. Other works such as The Thankful Poor, The Bagpipe Lesson and The Young Sabot Maker of 1895 were also produced during this time and received positive criticism by art critics. In 1895, Tanner’s painting Daniel in the Lion’s Den won an honorable mention in the Paris Salon.

Two years later, Rodman Wanamaker, a Philadelphia businessman financed Tanner’s trips to Israel after viewing his painting, Resurrection of Lazarus. The painting was awarded a third class medal. The French government purchased the painting for an exhibit at the Luxembourg Gallery. Soon after, the painting was featured in the Louvre.

In 1899, Tanner married opera singer Jessie Olssen. The couple had a child in 1903 named Jesse Ossawa. Tanner chose to settle his family in France–believing that Europeans were more accepting of interracial relationships. In addition, Tanner was overwhelmed by the racial prejudice that African-Americans faced in the United States. Of his experiences in France, Tanner once said, “I am simply M. Tanner, an American artist. Nobody knows or cares what was the complexion of my forebears. I live and work there in terms of absolute social equality.”

Throughout the rest of Tanner’s life as an artist, he enjoyed many accolades including

• 1900: Tanner’s painting Daniel in the Lion’s Den, received a silver medal at the Univeral Exposition in Paris.
• 1901: The painting received another silver medal at the Pan American Exhibition in Buffalo.
• 1908: Tanner returned to the United States for his one-man exhibition of religious paintings. The exhibition was held at the American Art Galleries in New York City.
• 1910: Elected member of the National Academy of Design.
• 1923: Appointed honorary chevalier of the Order of the Legion of Honor, which is France’s highest honor.
• 1925: Appeared on the cover of The Crisis with images of men such as W.E.B. Du Bois
  , Frederick Douglass and Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
• 1927: Became the first African-American to be appointed as a full member of academe to the National Academy of Design.

Death

Tanner died on May 25, 1937 at his home in Paris.

Article source: http://afroamhistory.about.com/od/biographies/a/Henry-Ossawa-Tanner-A-Naturalist-At-Heart.htm