W.E.B. DuBois becomes the first African American to earn a doctorate from1991"> Harvard University.

Frederick Douglass, statesman, author, abolitionist and civil rights activist passes away. Following his death, Congressman George Washington Murray of1991"> South Carolina seeks to have his body lie in state in the rotunda of the Capitol; House Speaker Charles Crisp of Georgia rejects the request.

Music composer William Grant Still was born on this date in1991"> Mississippi. Still was the first Black to conduct a major American symphony orchestra.

Inventor Joseph Lee patented his bread crumbing machine at the U.S. Patent Office on this date in Washington, D.C. Lee also invented and patented a bread kneading machine.

Hattie McDaniel, the first African American to receive an Academy Award and the first African American to sing on national radio in the United States is born in Wichita, Kansas.

The first National Conference of Colored Women Convention opens in Boston, Massachusetts. The conference was led by Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin.

Charles Hamilton Houston was born on this date in Washington, D.C. Houston served as special counsel for the1991"> NAACP from 1935 to 1940. He, then went to teach at Howard University and prepared young Black lawyers, including Thurgood Marshall, for law careers.

Booker T. Washington delivers his famous speech, now known as1991"> "The Atlanta Compromise," at the Cotton States International Exhibition. In a time of serious racial tensions, Washington asserted that vocational education, which gave blacks an opportunity for economic security, was more valuable to them than social advantages or political office. White leaders in both the North and South greeted Washington's speech with enthusiasm, but it disturbed black intellectuals who feared that Washington's philosophy would doom blacks to indefinite subservience to whites. That fear led to the Niagara Movement and later to the founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

The National Baptist Convention was organized on this date.

Songwriter and composer Andy Razaf was born on this date in Washington, D.C. Some of Razaf's compositions include1991"> Ain't Misbehavin', Joint is Jumpin', and Honeysuckle Rose.