Episodes Nearest to February 13, 1896: 1 through 25 of 25

  1. 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...

  2. 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...

  3. 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...

  4. 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...

  5. 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....

  6. 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...

  7. 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'...

  8. 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...

  9. 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...

  10. 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...

  11. 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...

  12. 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...

  13. 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...

  14. 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...

  15. 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...

  16. 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...

  17. 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...

  18. 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...

  19. The Republican Party Platform Adopted
    date June 16, 1896map ST LOUIS, Missouritags Crime/Violence, Economy

    The Republican Party adopted their platform. In it, they aimed for protecting the gold standard, advancing American interests at home and abroad, reaffirming the Monroe Doctrine, and giving sympathy to Cuba among other things. The Republican Party named William McKinley its presidential candidate . In this platform the Republicans have a provision claiming their “unqualified condemnation'...

  20. 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...

  21. Populist platform of Georgia includes plank denouncing the current lynching laws
    date 1896map FULTON, Georgiatags Race-Relations

    From the inception of the Populist party, going back to antecedent parties such as the Readjusters and Greenbackers, as well as the previous attempts in the 1880s to fuse the Farmers' Alliances and the Colored Farmers National Alliance, an attempt was made to attract the Negro to the fold using an approach devoid of what C. Vann Woodward calls “sentimental liberalism' and “romantic...

  22. National Association of Colored Women Formation
    date 1896map Washington City, District of Columbiatags African-Americans, Race-Relations

    Through the merger of the National Federation of Afro-American Women (headed by the dean of women at the Tuskegee Institute) and the National League of Colored Women, the formation of the National Association of Colored Women began which would culminate in its formation. Comprised of state and local affiliates, it addressed many social issues facing African American communities. Founded by abolitionist...

  23. Weather plagues the Southern States' Economies
    date 1896map LEXINGTON, South Carolinatags Agriculture, Economy

    The depression of the 1890s was only exacerbated by the weather conditions in the spring of 1896. The drought of 1896 brought a huge setback to the agricultural sectors of many southern states, particularly Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, and Mississippi. The lack of water caused crucial crops to wither, and brought the economy further into its depression. In Mississippi, the state also faced downpours...

  24. Race-Relations in Georgia Gubernatorial Race
    date 1896map FULTON, Georgiatags African-Americans, Race-Relations

    The occurrence of mass mob lynching or by individuals escalated during the decade of the 1890s. The severe racism of Georgia “swept away the Bourbon notion of race relations and revolutionized popular attitudes towards blacks.' The violence against African-Americans was at an unprecedented level. The gubernatorial race and the ensuing debates brought the issue of race relations to the forefront...

  25. Celebrating a Leader
    date July 2, 1896map HENRICO, Virginiatags Arts/Leisure, Economy, Government

    The South had not lost its Confederate culture following the end of the Civil War.Those criminalized by the North were made immortal by southerners in the form of monuments.Churchill Gibson Chamberlayne and all six of his family and friends attended the festivities surrounding the laying the cornerstone of the monument for former Confederate President Jefferson Davis on July 2, 1896.The event included...