Episodes Nearest to January 18, 1896: 1 through 25 of 25

  1. Industrious Women Find a Niche
    date January 18, 1896map RICHMOND, Georgiatags Women's roles, Southern Women, Industry

    “In many places there are plenty of industrious and accomplished women who are skillful with the needle, or in the kitchen, and who could make many a nice things the public would like to have if there was only some way in which they could be got before the public.” The Augusta Women’s Exchange, noted the Atlanta Constitution, provided women with the means. “For the fee of one dollar...

  2. Formation of “Citizens' League'
    date January, 1896map ORLEANS, Louisianatags African-Americans

    In response to the machine politics in Louisiana, commercial elites attempted to further their desired reforms by introducing the “Citizens' League.' The league had a “crusade-like' quality fighting for a smaller city council, clean voter registration laws, a secret ballot, and an enlargement of the police force among other things. These critics of “the Ring rule'...

  3. Young Woman Dies Giving Birth to Illegitimate Child
    date February 13, 1896map DAVIE, North Carolinatags Church/Religious-Activity, Crime/Violence, Health/Death, Women

    A young white woman by the name of Graves stumbled into a tobacco barn in Jerusalem township, North Carolina, one cold January night in order to give birth to her illegitimate child. Her parents had thrown her out of their house when they discovered she was pregnant, and while she had tried to seek refuge at several other houses, she was repeatedly refused, and the barn was her only option for shelter...

  4. George Washington Carver Joins Tuskegee Institute
    date February, 1896map MACON, Alabamatags African-Americans, Agriculture, Economy

    George Washington Carver joined Booker T. Washington and the faculty of the Tuskegee Institute. Here, he revolutionized agricultural development in the south in the early 20th century. Through his research in a response to a decline in the success of cotton farming, he discovered that it is better for farmers to diversify rather than relying solely on the cotton farming which weakened the soil and...

  5. Grand Jury Investigates Lynching
    date February 17, 1896 to March 2, 1896map MONTGOMERY, Alabamatags African-Americans, Crime/Violence, Race-Relations

    The Grand Jury investigated a lynching which occurred on February 15, 1896. The victim of the lynching was an African American man named Bob Williams, who shot and killed a Montgomery police officer who was attempting to arrest Williams on charges of beating his wife. After the alleged offense, Williams fled the scene, but was followed and captured approximately 30 miles away. He was brought back...

  6. South Carolina Bill Introduced for a Separate State-Funded College
    date February 26, 1896map LEXINGTON, South Carolinatags African-Americans, Race-Relations

    While South Carolina governor and former farmer Tillman did nothing to create separate but equal facilities for African-Americans, Thomas E. Miller introduced an 1896 bill to “create a separate black state-supported college in Orangeburg, the Normal, Industrial, Agricultural, and Mechanical College of South Carolina,' to which he was elected the colleges first president. (The school was...

  7. Trains Fatally Wreck at Stone Creek
    date February 29, 1896map BIBB, Georgiatags Crime/Violence, Migration/Transportation

    On the evening of February 29, 1896, a Southern Railway passenger train wrecked on the Stone Creek bridge, outside of Macon, Georgia, sending the railcars and the bridge into the marshy ground 15 feet below. Minutes after, despite an attempt to warn it, a freight train following on the same line met the same fate. Three men died, while at least five people were seriously injured in the wreckage....

  8. Erection of a church in Paris
    date November 23, 1895map FAUQUIER, Virginiatags Church/Religious-Activity

    The erection of a church in Paris, Virginia, on November 22, 1895, stood as a symbol of hope and comfort for a southern people still mourning their dead and nursing a variety of wounds inflicted by the Civil War. The foundation for the church was laid two years earlier when a Rev. J. L. Shipley was pastor. The opening of the new church was a reason to celebrate, and many people were invited, including...

  9. African American Voters Assaulted for Registering to Vote
    date March 28, 1896map ST LANDRY, Louisianatags African-Americans, Crime/Violence, Government, Politics, Race-Relations

    The African American voters of St. Landry parish were unable to vote. However, this inability to vote was not because it was illegal for African Americans to do so. Three hundred armed white men were standing in front of the registry office in the town of Palmetto in St. Landry Parish, Louisiana to prevent them from registering to vote. After the armed men left, a few African Americans had managed...

  10. The South Carolina Constitutional Convention of 1895
    date September 10, 1895 to December 4, 1895map RICHLAND, South Carolinatags Race-Relations

    In the 1892 gubernatorial election, Benjamin “Pitchfork' Tillman gathered much support from the growing number of poor farmers and was successfully re-elected, despite the fact that opposing candidates attempted to push blacks to the poles to vote against Tillman. Once his two year term as governor ended, Tillman was elected to the United States Senate in 1894. After having nearly lost...

  11. Troops Called in to New Orleans Municipal Elections
    date April, 1896map ORLEANS, Louisianatags African-Americans, Education, Race-Relations

    The Democratic machine was removed from power and the Citizens' League came in, showing how successful their efforts were. They were backed by negroes who supported their cause for reform in mass public meetings. They quickly implemented structural reforms. However, by the time the Citizens' League spread throughout the state, blacks realized that these elite reformers were just as hostile...

  12. Joseph Johnson Chosen in Alabama Gubernatorial Democratic Primary
    date April, 1896map JACKSON, Alabamatags Economy

    In another effort of fusionists to bind the Populist Party to its best alternative, Johnson took up many of the parties issues and thus won their votes. He succeeded in “[blurring] the lines between reactionary and reformer' and when he was nominated at the convention he restated the mission of his Democratic Party: “It is our purpose to maintain a government in this State, fair and...

  13. Mechanization
    date April 23, 1896map ROWAN, North Carolinatags Agriculture, Economy, Migration/Transportation

    A local newspaper in Salisbury, North Carolina published an article on April 23, 1896, reporting the effects that labor-saving machinery was having on their community. The Salisbury Truth article was composed of statements and facts gathered by a person who has given the subject a great deal of thought. The piece described how, with the help of modern machinery, one man and his two sons were able...

  14. Speech Gone Rotten in Kentucky
    date May 9, 1896map KENTON, Kentuckytags Economy

    A member of President Grover Cleveland's cabinet, and a “sound money man,' Secretary Carlisle was sent to calm the gold men in Kentucky who were fearful of all the talk of free coinage. He was expected to make an appearance in Louisville, but to the dismay of many he did not show up. The brooding anxiety between the “gold men' and the free coinage advocates pointed to the growing...

  15. Boll Weevils and the Destruction of Cotton Crops
    date September 27, 1895map AUSTIN, Texastags Agriculture, Economy

    Cotton: it was one of the most valuable crops in the agricultural South, and it was under attack by a seemingly indestructible new beetle known as the boll weevil. On September 27, 1895, an announcement ran in the Chicago Daily Tribune explaining the recent arrival of the boll weevil population to the United States. The species moved up from Mexico into certain areas of Texas and was wreaking...

  16. George Henry White is Nominated for Republican Party Congressman
    date May 13, 1896map EDGECOMBE, North Carolinatags African-Americans, Government, Politics, Race-Relations

    On May 13, 1896, the Republican Party of the Second Congressional District nominated George Henry White, a black native of New Bern, North Carolina, for their delegate to Congress. He showed a masterful display of personal strength as he denied his brother-in-law, Henry Cheatham's, bid for a fifth straight nomination. John Fields had appointed a credentials committee that favored Cheatham, just...

  17. Black Police Marshal Uses Club on White Man and Gets Shot
    date September 23, 1895map MARION, South Carolinatags African-Americans, Crime/Violence, Race-Relations

    On September 23, 1895, a very large crowd gathered in Marion to watch the circus and ended up getting much more of a performance than they had bargained for. The weather was sweltering and dry and the crowd left the tent hot and sweaty. As the crowd walked outside to leave, they were greeted by the police force in addition to several special marshal reinforcements who had been appointed to help...

  18. Ladies Let In
    date May 14, 1896tags Women

    Post Reconstruction in the United States brought along many evaluations of the emancipated slaves and their rights, yet through debates on black issues, women's issues arose. In 1896, modern women were taking advantage of the liberties to congregate together in clubs as their husbands did. One evening about sixty to seventy ladies, with permission, sat down together at the club to where their...

  19. Supreme Court Cases: Blacks Not Allowed on Juries
    date May 19, 1896map JEFFERSON, Mississippitags African-Americans, Race-Relations

    The Mississippi Supreme Court upheld the Mississippi Constitution's suffrage provision which did not allow blacks on juries as they became ineligible upon disenfranchisement with the 1890 Constitution, in its decision in Ratliff v. Beale. The United States Supreme Court upheld this ruling by making the following distinction: discriminating against race and discriminating against “its characteristics...

  20. Booker T. Washington calls to Cast Down Your Buckets
    date September 18, 1895map FULTON, Georgiatags African-Americans, Economy, Education, Race-Relations

    Cast down your buckets where you are This was the prophetic cry of Booker T. Washington at the Atlanta Cotton Exposition on Wednesday, September 18, 1895. The talented representative of the negroes and President of the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial School spoke brilliantly and passionately as he lobbied for African American employment in the burgeoning industrial age. He called upon whites throughout...

  21. Women Prepare for 1895 Atlanta Cotton Exposition
    date September 18, 1895map FULTON, Georgiatags Urban-Life/Boosterism, Women

    Porcelain panels of fruit, intricate paintings, exquisite displays of needlework, and skillfully-crafted carpentry. These elaborate and beautiful adornments awaited guests of the Women's Department at Atlanta's 1895 Cotton Exposition. Women's social clubs from the entirety of Georgia labored to make their display a true success. To do so, they culled art and handiwork from around the...

  22. A Controversial Letter to the Editor
    date September, 1895map CHARLESTON, South Carolinatags African-Americans, Politics, Race-Relations

    In the summer of 1895, a person identifying themselves only as Pee-Dee wrote an explosive letter to the Charleston News and Courier. He proposed all men, both white and black, should be allowed to vote, but that those who owned property should have their vote count for more. Specifically, a man would receive an additional vote for each 500 worth of property he owned up to 5000. Thus, a wealthy man...

  23. Zeigler Brothers Witch Hunt
    date September, 1895map SCREVEN, Georgiatags Crime/Violence, Politics

    Searching high and low, the virtual witch hunt for the Zeigler Brothers, suspected of murdering Sheriff Brooker, came to an unfruitful end. Sheriff Mills attempted to capture and arrest two populist brothers who were accused of shooting and killing Sheriff Brooker, the predecessor to Sheriff Mills in office. Following the murder of their father by Brooker, the brothers swore out a vendetta against...

  24. Effectively Speaking: Booker T. Washington’s Speech at the “Atlanta Exposition”
    date September 15, 1895map MACON, Alabamatags Speeches, Principal, Cotton States, Black Americans, Exposition, Educational Tour, Tuskegee Normal and Indus, Atlanta Exposition, African-Americans, Booker T. Washington

    The time had come to deliver his speech. As principal of an all-Black school he realized the importance of conveying his message carefully at the opening of “the Atlanta Cotton States Exposition in Tuskegee, Alabama”. Standing in front of a large gathering the principal of the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute understood his words had to be effective. He looked into a sea of anxious white...

  25. Woman Shoots Man
    date May 18, 1896 to May, 1896map LEWIS, Tennesseetags Women

    Violence was very prevalent amongst people of the Post- Bellum era. A young woman named Sarah Hunn, better known as Fascinating Sarah Bunn, was the most expert thief and all round female crook in the city. While in her room she shot her lover, a black man named Alex Howard, with a fatal wound to the stomach. He died later that night in the City Hospital. She claimed that it was performed out of...