Episodes Nearest to April 1, 1895: 1 through 25 of 25

  1. Birth of Blues Singer, Lyricist, and Actress Alberta Hunter
    date April 1, 1895map SHELBY, Tennesseetags African-Americans, Arts/Leisure

    Alberta Hunter was born on April 1, 1895 in Memphis, Tennessee. Both of her parents were former slaves. At age 15, Hunter left home for Chicago, Illinois, where she launched her singing career, performing with King Oliver's legendary Creole Jazz Band. She came of age as a singer when female musicians received little respect. Her career pinnacled twice: in the 1920s and 1930s, she was one...

  2. Free Silver or Bust
    date April 7, 1895map LIMESTONE, Alabamatags Economy, Government, Law, Politics

    A total of 400 Republicans, Democrats, and Populists declared that they stand emphatically in favor of free silver. Men of all three parties gathered in convention at Athens, Alabama to form themselves into the Central Silver Club. They promised that they would vote for all and only those men who supported the free coinage of silver in the next elections, regardless of the candidate?s party affiliation....

  3. Black Emigrate to Liberia
    date March 18, 1895 to March 19, 1895map CHATHAM, Georgiatags African-Americans, Migration/Transportation, Race-Relations

    Emigration of African-Americans back to Africa was not a new idea in 1895. In fact, many of the colonizing missions were quite experienced by 1895 for the missions had taken place since the early nineteenth century. White Americans felt that blacks needed to be removed from society. Prior to the Civil War, many states, including Virginia, had laws which stated that free blacks had to petition...

  4. Sex Across The Color Line
    date March 16, 1895map HENRICO, Virginiatags African-Americans, Crime/Violence, Health/Death, Race-Relations, Slavery, Women

    The town did not look on Thomas J. Penn, a prominent white man, with favor as they suspected him of committing a rape and two murders. In Danville, Virginia, Penn raped ten year old, defenseless Lina Hanna. Penn, her owner, badly injured Hanna, an African American, who was very lucky to have survived. The rape was not the only disaster in this story. The biggest mystery of all was the disappearance...

  5. Georgia Lynchings & Murder
    date January, 1895 to May 22, 1895map MONTGOMERY, Georgiatags African-Americans, Crime/Violence, Health/Death, Race-Relations

    In the first half of 1895, four black men were lynched by whites in Georgia. On May 22, 1895, Sheriff George Dunham went to the residence of William Connell in Dublin, Georgia to investigate claims that Connell had beaten his wife. According to a Georgia newspaper, the Atlanta Constitution, which claimed it represented “the true facts of the case,' Connell opened the door when the Sheriff...

  6. Sanitation in Medicine
    date March 9, 1895map Washington City, District of Columbiatags Health/Death, Science/Technology

    On March 9th, 1895, the Times and Registrar published an article detailing a new hypodermic syringe. Its sleek design, metal casing surrounding a sanitary inner glass chamber, was the newest in medical technology. A screw-on needle kept the syringe itself from being dangerous, decreasing the chance of sticks and accidents. Though the metal casing itself could be used many times,...

  7. A Reporters Response to Frederick Douglass
    date March 7, 1895map BEAUFORT, South Carolinatags African-Americans, Education

    On March 7, 1895 an African American reporter wrote quite a compelling article in New South, a local black newspaper in Beaufort, South Carolina. The article told the story of a slave boy abandoned at a young age who had to scrounge for food in order to survive. The author explained the many hardships and troubles this black youth experienced throughout his life. As the boy grew older he learned...

  8. The St. Louis Brown Stocking Ball Club
    date March 4, 1895 to March 5, 1895map ST LOUIS CITY, Missouritags Arts/Leisure

    The New York Times reported that the National League of Professional Baseball Clubs was on the verge of dissolution on Monday March 4, 1895. National League Baseball was founded slightly before Major League Baseball. The Major League was founded in the early 1900s and since then the two leagues have competed in an annual series of games called the World Series. At the time of the reported...

  9. Ignoble and Impotent
    date March 4, 1895map ARKANSAS, Arkansastags Crime/Violence, Economy, Government, Politics

    On the evening of Monday March 4, 1895, the Fifty-third Congress came to an end. The headlines that ran in the New York Times that day took the opportunity to let lose a harsh critique on that particular Congress. They read: A DISGRACE TO AMERICA, FAITHLESS TO PARTY AND COUNTRY, and, NO ONE REGRETS THE DISSOLUTION. The prestigious newspaper commented on the corruption and ineptitude of the political...

  10. Charleston Suffers a Cold Spell
    date February, 1895 to March, 1895map CHARLESTON, South Carolinatags African-Americans, Agriculture, Health/Death

    In February of 1895, Charleston experienced the coldest winter ever on record up to that date. It reached a low of twelve degrees Fahrenheit. Entire crops of strawberries, cabbage, lettuce, and peas were destroyed both within the city and across the state. The cold weather decimated both the city's food supply and its ability to export food products. While the account of the cold spell focuses...

  11. 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...

  12. Halma Wins the Kentucky Derby with African American Jockey
    date May 4, 1895map JEFFERSON, Kentuckytags African-Americans, Arts/Leisure

    Twenty thousand people attended the Kentucky Derby in 1895, the largest crowd ever at the Churchill Downs racetrack. Halma's victory increased morale among Kentuckians because he was the first homebred to claim the Derby title for several years. Halma was hailed as a great horse, worthy of the victory. He had never run a mile and a half before, but his superb breeding (Hanover Julia L.) predicted...

  13. Double Murder in Louisville, Kentucky
    date April 30, 1895 to May 9, 1895map JEFFERSON, Kentuckytags Crime/Violence, Health/Death

    On April 30, 1895, Fulton Gordon murdered his wife, Nellie Bush Gordon and her lover, Arch Dixon Brown. Brown, recently divorced from his wife, was the son of the Kentucky governor. The double murder took place at “the disreputable resort of Lucy Smith, a colored woman,' who was in part blamed for providing accommodations for the illicit lovers. <br /> The murder made the front...

  14. North Carolina Legislature Adjourns for Frederick Douglass's Death
    date February 21, 1895 to February 22, 1895map WAKE, North Carolinatags African-Americans, Health/Death

    The day after Frederick Douglass's death, on February 21, 1895, the North Carolina legislature adjourned for a day to honor Douglass. The legislature was dominated by black republicans and white populists who voted in favor of the adjournment, while all of the Democrats voted against it. <br />Representative Crews, an African American from Granville County brought the resolution before...

  15. Black Laborers Attacked
    date February, 1895 to March 13, 1895map ORLEANS, Louisianatags African-Americans, Crime/Violence, Health/Death, Race-Relations

    In February of 1895, the Harrison Steamship Line of Liverpool discharged many white longshoremen and screwmen in New Orleans, Louisiana and contracted 300 non-union and unskilled black workers. Other shipping firms followed suit. The firms, which appealed to the US Courts for protection, claimed that they hired blacks, not because they would work for lower wages, but because the central issue...

  16. 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.<br />Douglass was born a slave in Talbot County, Maryland in 1818* (exact date unknown;...

  17. African American Composer William Grant Still is Born
    date May 11, 1895map WILKINSON, Mississippitags African-Americans, Arts/Leisure

    William Grant Still was born on May 11, 1895 in Woodville, Mississippi. His father passed away when Still was only three months old, and he and his mother moved to Little Rock, Arkansas, where she soon remarried. As a boy, Still learned to play the oboe and cello and took violin lessons. He soon developed an interest in African American, jazz, popular, opera, and classical genres. Still attended...

  18. Railroad Ruckus
    date January 30, 1895map HAWKINS, Tennesseetags African-Americans, Crime/Violence, Migration/Transportation, Race-Relations, Urban-Life/Boosterism

    On an ordinary day in Rogersville the Southern Railway train, run by Conductor Shell, pulled into the station to unload its cargo of flour and take on the next load of lumber. Lewis Boyd, a black man, hopped up into the car to help unload the flour. As he removed the sacks of flour from the car, he happened to throw some of them to the ground. Conductor Shell reprimanded Boyd for his carelessness...

  19. Feuds Between the North and South
    date January 26, 1895map HENRICO, Virginiatags African-Americans, Crime/Violence, Health/Death, Government, Law, Migration/Transportation, Race-Relations, Slavery

    Judge M.L. Buchwalter lived in Cincinnati, Ohio. He convicted a prisoner and sent him to Kentucky. Once he arrived in Kentucky, not long after he got off the train, the prisoner was lynched. This greatly disturbed Judge Buchwalter, and the next time Kentucky asked him to send his prisoner to their state, he worried about what would happen to the prisoner. He first contacted Kentucky and pleaded...

  20. Massachusetts Cotton Mills Move South
    date January 23, 1895map JEFFERSON, Alabamatags Agriculture, Economy

    On January 23, 1895, the Alabama Birmingham Age-Herald published a front page article titled “Beyond Any Doubt, Two leading Cotton Mills of Lowell, Mass. Will Come South and Build.' The Massachusetts legislative committee on mercantile affairs heard the petitions of two cotton mills, Boott and Merrimac, to manufacture goods outside of the commonwealth. The mills were created in 1835 for...

  21. Convention of Free Silver Supporters
    date June 12, 1895 to June 14, 1895map SHELBY, Tennesseetags Economy

    After the Civil War, silver reserves were discovered in the Western United States. Free silver advocates were people who advocated the Federal Government to allow silver to be minted at 1 per troy ounce as opposed to the gold standard which valued gold at 20 per troy ounce. The result of introducing silver into the market would have been an increase in money supply and inflation. Those who backed...

  22. Dissent in the Democratic Party
    date January 16, 1895map CLARKE, Virginiatags Economy, Government, Law, Politics

    Dissent in the Democratic Party

    The big issue leading up to the election of 1896 was the question of the free coinage of silver. With the decline of the economy following Grover Cleveland's election and his repealing of the Sherman Silver Purchase act, his Democratic base began to falter, and the Populist Party support of the free coinage of silver began to invade much of the Democratic...

  23. Growing Violence in the South between Blacks and Whites
    date June, 1895map LUNENBERG, Virginiatags African-Americans, Crime/Violence, Race-Relations

    Lucy Pollard's dead body laid in the grass brutally mutilated by an ax on the sunny June afternoon in 1895. Immediately upon discovery that evening by her husband, Edward Pollard, a black farmhand named Soloman Marable was arrested for the murder along three black women of the crime - Mary Abernathy, Mary Barnes, and Pokey Barnes. Edward Pollard of Lunenburg County, Virginia was a wealthy farmer...

  24. White Man Lynched in New Orleans, LA
    date June 24, 1895map ORLEANS, Louisianatags African-Americans, Crime/Violence, Health/Death, Race-Relations

    On June 24, 1895, a white man was lynched for an attempt to lynch a black woman in Gretna, Jefferson Parish, a suburb of New Orleans. The intent had been to lynch a black woman named Frances Woodson. The crowd, composed of six young men in the community went to the woman's house, but she, having heard the threats against her life, had left. The pack of young lynchers entered her house by...

  25. 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...