Episodes Located: WASHINGTON, Virginia in the 1890's

  1. Death of Frederick Douglass
    date February 20, 1895map WASHINGTON, Virginiatags African-Americans, Health/Death, Race-Relations

    On February 20, 1895, after attending a women's rights meeting, Frederick Douglass was struck by a heart attack and died at the age of 77. Crowds gathered to pay their respects at the Washington Church where he lay in state. His body was later brought to Rochester, N.Y., where he was laid to rest.
    Douglass was born a slave in Talbot County, Maryland in 1818* (exact date unknown; some sources...

  2. Pollock v. Farmers' Loan & Trust Co.
    date April 16, 1895 to May 20, 1895map WASHINGTON, Virginiatags Economy

    The Pollock v. Farmers' Loan & Trust Co. was an important Supreme Court case dealing with the first establishment of an income tax in the United States and the Wilson-Gorman Tariff Act of 1894. The Gorman Tariff Act stated that, for a five year period, any “gains, profits and incomes' in excess of 4,000 would be taxed at two percent. In compliance with the Act, the Farmers' Loan & Trust Co.,...

  3. Ida B. Wells Writes and Releases Book About Lynching in the South
    date 1895map WASHINGTON, Virginiatags African-Americans, Crime/Violence, Race-Relations

    Three years prior to the release of A Red Record, Ida B.Wells was forced out of her home in Memphis, Tennessee and into Northern exile by her campaign against lynching. The white Northern press excluded most African American writers, so Wells was forced to create new arguments and tactics. In an effort to attract attention to the plight of blacks, Wells attacked white fears of declining manliness...

  4. Mary Church Terrell is First Black Woman to Serve on Washington, D.C. Board of Education
    date April 5, 1895 to December 31, 1900map WASHINGTON, Virginiatags African-Americans, Education, Race-Relations

    Mary Church Terrell, a writer, lecturer, and educator, was the first African American to serve on the Washington, D.C. Board of Education. She took office in the spring of 1895 and stayed until 1901. She later returned to the Board from 1906-1911. In a Washington Post article on April 6, 1895, Terrell is specifically mentioned as “a colored woman' whose appointment “will suit a large...

  5. Theobald Smith publishes results on Texas cattle fever
    date June, 1893map WASHINGTON, Virginiatags Agriculture, Health/Death

    In the late 1860's, outbreaks of disease among Texas cattle completely destroyed almost every herd that came into contact with the disease. After the end of the Civil War, Texas cattle ranchers began shipping their calves to markets in the north to be sold. Northern ranchers began to realize, however, that whenever the “southern' cattle, cattle raised in pre-Civil War slave states, came into...

  6. Panic of 1893
    date May 5, 1893 to 1893map WASHINGTON, Virginiatags Economy

    On May 5, 1893, the United States economy began a steady decline. Americans became unable to turn in their bank notes for gold because the limit for gold in the federal reserve was met. Over 500 financial institutions throughout the country were forced to close down and 153 national banks in the South and West failed. Rumors spread like wildfire about the failing U.S. economy and the depleted U.S....

  7. March 3, 1893 act of Congress to aid Cherokee Nation, NC
    date March 3, 1893map WASHINGTON, Virginiatags Migration/Transportation, Race-Relations

    On March 3, 1893 Congress passed an act to allow for a training school for the remaining citizens of the Cherokee Nation in North Carolina. The Cherokee Nation still owned land called the Cherokee Outlet in northwestern Oklahoma, although the Cherokee weren't able to use the land because other displaced tribes had settled there and Texas ranchers mostly used the land for grazing their cattle. The...

  8. Rural delivery amendment to post office appropriation bill passed
    date February 17, 1893map WASHINGTON, Virginiatags Urban-Life/Boosterism

    By 1892, rural Southern farmers were practically begging Washington for free delivery of their mail. The Committee on Post Office and Post Roads refused to submit a bill for the service to the House of Representatives because they feared that the cost of rural delivery would put too much of a burden on Americans. Southern congressmen, however, decided to take a different route and, instead, attempt...

  9. Rural delivery amendment to post office appropriation bill passed
    date February 17, 1893map WASHINGTON, Virginiatags Urban-Life/Boosterism

    By 1892, rural Southern farmers were practically begging Washington for free delivery of their mail. The Committee on Post Office and Post Roads refused to submit a bill for the service to the House of Representatives because they feared that the cost of rural delivery would put too much of a burden on Americans. Southern congressmen, however, decided to take a different route and, instead, attempt...

  10. Land donated to American Red Cross
    date February 10, 1893map WASHINGTON, Virginiatags Health/Death

    Clara Barton founded the American Red Cross organization and later set up its business headquarters in Washington, D.C. On February 10, 1893, however, a gentleman wrote her a letter offering the American Red Cross a donation of land in Indiana. On March 18, 1893, Clara Barton replied to the gentleman's letter, thanking him immensely and promising that his gift of land would be used only in ways...

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