Episodes Nearest to April 30, 1895 to May 9, 1895: 1 through 25 of 25
- Double Murder in Louisville, Kentucky
April 30, 1895 to May 9, 1895
JEFFERSON, Kentucky
Crime/Violence, Health/DeathOn 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...
- Halma Wins the Kentucky Derby with African American Jockey
May 4, 1895
JEFFERSON, Kentucky
African-Americans, Arts/LeisureTwenty 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...
- Pollock v. Farmers' Loan & Trust Co.
April 16, 1895 to May 20, 1895
WASHINGTON, Virginia
EconomyThe 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...
- African American Composer William Grant Still is Born
May 11, 1895
WILKINSON, Mississippi
African-Americans, Arts/LeisureWilliam 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...
- Free Silver or Bust
April 7, 1895
LIMESTONE, Alabama
Economy, Government, Law, PoliticsA 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....
- Birth of Blues Singer, Lyricist, and Actress Alberta Hunter
April 1, 1895
SHELBY, Tennessee
African-Americans, Arts/LeisureAlberta 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...
- Convention of Free Silver Supporters
June 12, 1895 to June 14, 1895
SHELBY, Tennessee
EconomyAfter 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...
- Growing Violence in the South between Blacks and Whites
June, 1895
LUNENBERG, Virginia
African-Americans, Crime/Violence, Race-RelationsLucy 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...
- Black Emigrate to Liberia
March 18, 1895 to March 19, 1895
CHATHAM, Georgia
African-Americans, Migration/Transportation, Race-RelationsEmigration 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...
- White Man Lynched in New Orleans, LA
June 24, 1895
ORLEANS, Louisiana
African-Americans, Crime/Violence, Health/Death, Race-RelationsOn 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...
- Sex Across The Color Line
March 16, 1895
HENRICO, Virginia
African-Americans, Crime/Violence, Health/Death, Race-Relations, Slavery, WomenThe 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...
- Georgia Lynchings & Murder
January, 1895 to May 22, 1895
MONTGOMERY, Georgia
African-Americans, Crime/Violence, Health/Death, Race-RelationsIn 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...
- Sanitation in Medicine
March 9, 1895
Washington City, District of Columbia
Health/Death, Science/TechnologyOn 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,...
- Ida B. Wells Writes and Releases Book About Lynching in the South
1895
WASHINGTON, Virginia
African-Americans, Crime/Violence, Race-RelationsThree 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...
- Taxes and Their Uses
1895
WESTMORELAND, Virginia
Arts/Leisure, Economy, Education, Government, PoliticsIn 1895 Mr. Thomas Brown paid his taxes to S.B. Hardwick, who was the treasurer of Westmoreland County, Virginia at that time. During that time, everyone had to pay one dollar to the state and fifty cents to the county per head. Taxes were based on every one hundred dollars worth of property. For example, it was thirty cents for state tax, ten cents for state school tax, and fifteen cents for road...
- The Importance of Place
1895
RICHLAND, South Carolina
Map, Agriculture, South CarolinaWho better than the biggest name in printing today to lead the expedition into map printing than Rand McNally? Starting in railroad guides, the company eventually worked its way into maps in 1872, using a new wax engraving method that allowed it to print maps at a greatly reduced cost. This ensured the company’s ability to expand its publishing productions into maps and geography textbooks; in...
- A Reporters Response to Frederick Douglass
March 7, 1895
BEAUFORT, South Carolina
African-Americans, EducationOn 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...
- The St. Louis Brown Stocking Ball Club
March 4, 1895 to March 5, 1895
ST LOUIS CITY, Missouri
Arts/LeisureThe 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...
- Ignoble and Impotent
March 4, 1895
ARKANSAS, Arkansas
Crime/Violence, Economy, Government, PoliticsOn 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...
- Charleston Suffers a Cold Spell
February, 1895 to March, 1895
CHARLESTON, South Carolina
African-Americans, Agriculture, Health/DeathIn 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...
- Black Ministers Gather in Columbia to form a Suffrage Committee
July 10, 1895
RICHLAND, South Carolina
African-Americans, Race-RelationsAs racial tension mounted throughout the South, many black citizens felt that voting the only way that African-Americans could achieve racial equality. Although a few blacks could vote in South Carolina, many were unable to vote because they were chased away from the poles by whites, couldn't afford to pay the pole taxes, or didn't own enough property to be eligible to vote. <br />In...
- Solomon Marable Convicted of Murdering Mrs. Lucy Pollard
July 12, 1895
LUNENBERG, Virginia
African-Americans, Crime/Violence, Health/DeathOn June 15th 1895, Lucy Pollard, the wife of a white farmer in Lunenburg, Virginia, was beaten to death with an ax just before 6 pm. Later that evening, her husband, Edward found her body by a freshwater spring on the farm, and also noticed 855 stolen from the couple's house. Having witnessed Solomon Marable near the spring the day before the Mrs. Pollard was killed, a concerned group of Lunenburg...
- North Carolina Legislature Adjourns for Frederick Douglass's Death
February 21, 1895 to February 22, 1895
WAKE, North Carolina
African-Americans, Health/DeathThe 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...
- Black Laborers Attacked
February, 1895 to March 13, 1895
ORLEANS, Louisiana
African-Americans, Crime/Violence, Health/Death, Race-RelationsIn 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...
- Death of Frederick Douglass
February 20, 1895
WASHINGTON, Virginia
African-Americans, Health/Death, Race-RelationsOn 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;...