Educator Thelma Jarmon Groomes is born in Kinston, North Carolina.

Journalist, Community Leader & Former Dancer Alice Key is born.

William H. Lewis becomes U.S. Assistant Attorney General on this date. He was the first Black to ever hold this position.

The Negro Society for Historical Research was founded by Arthur Schomburg and others on this date. The archival institute was designed to collect information on the history and culture of Black people all over the world. It also published several important papers on Black history.

Blues guitarist and singer Robert Leroy Johnson was born on this date in Hazelhurst, Mississippi. Johnson is known for his recording of Terraplane Blues.

Alonzo Paul Moss is born in Springfield, Ohio. He will become an executive with the YMCA and help to revitalize a number of failing centers.

Samuel J. Battle became New York City's first Black police officer on this date.

Educator & Civil Rights Pioneer Amelia Boynton Robinson is born.

Entrepreneur, barber and artist James Guilford, Jr. is born on this date in Boston, Massachusetts.

Gospel singer Mahalia Jackson was born on this date in New Orleans, Louisiana. Some of Jackson's recordings include His Eye is on the Sparrow, Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen, and In the Upper Room. She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997.

Civil Rights Activist Eugenia Fortes is born

African American fraternal organization Omega Psi Phi is founded on the campus of Howard University.

High school science teacher Robert Beale is born in Camden, New Jersey.

William Henry Lewis is appointed Assistant Attorney General of the United States by President William Howard Taft making him the first black appointed to a sub-cabinet post.

Josh Gibson, the Negro League's "Home Run King", is born. Baseball historians estimate that during his twenty-two year baseball career, Gibson hit 823 home runs.