AME bishop Henry McNeal Turner begins publishing his magazine Voice of the People. The magazine, which runs until 1904, advocates repatriation to Africa.

The Boston Guardian is founded by William Monroe Trotter. The paper, widely regarded as militant, takes up offices in the same building as William Lloyd Garrison's Liberator.

Grambling State University is founded by Charles P. Adams, who also served as its first president. It was originally known as The Colored Industrial and Agricultural School.

Famed author and figure of the Harlem Renaissance Zora Neale Hurston is born on this day.

Mississippi Senator Hiram Revels, who was the only black member of the United States Congress at the time of his inauguration in 1870, dies in Holly Springs, Mississippi.

Representative George White of North Carolina, a vehement opponent of Jim Crow laws bids farewell to Congress. He is to be the last black congressman for twenty years.

Government officials announced that enslaved blacks had been found in parts of South Carolina on this date.

Painter William H. Johnson was born on this date in Florence, South Carolina. He is the first modern Black artist to be given a retrospective by the National Museum of American Art. The Smithsonian American Art Museum is home to the largest collection of Johnson's works.

Inventor Granville T. Woods patented his overhead conducting system for the electric railway.

Louis Armstrong, trumpeter known around the globe as "Satchmo," is born in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Executive director of the NAACP Roy O. Wilkins was born on this date in St. Louis, Missouri. Wilkins served as the executive director of the NAACP from 1955 to 1977.

Black leader Booker T. Washington is the dinner guest of President Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt is often criticized by southern whites for his liberal stance.

Singer and actress Etta Moten Barnett is born on this day. She would go on to perform on Broadway in such hits as Porgy and Bess and Lysistrata.