Today in Black History: September 5th
1846 – John W. Cromwell Is Born
John Wesley Cromwell, born on September 5th,1846, was a historian, editor, educator, and lawyer born into slavery in Portsmouth, Virginia. Freed in 1851, he moved to West Philadelphia, attended Bird’s Grammar School, and graduated from the Institute for Colored Youth in 1864. Cromwell opened a school for freedmen in Portsmouth, later worked with the Baltimore Association, and taught in freedmen’s schools across the South. In 1871, he graduated from Howard University Law School and became an attorney. Cromwell founded several key organizations, including the National Afro-American Press Association and the American Negro Academy. He authored “The Negro in American History” in 1914 and continued to teach and write until his death in 1927.
1916 – Frank Yerby Is Born
Frank Garvin Yerby, born in Augusta, Georgia, on September 5, 1916, was of mixed Black, White, and Native American heritage. Yerby gained fame as an author, with his novel The Dahomean being highly regarded. He graduated from Haines Institute in 1933, Paine College in 1937, and earned a master’s degree from Fisk University. Yerby briefly studied for a doctorate at the University of Chicago but did not complete it. He taught at Florida A&M College and Southern University before working at Ford Motor Company and Ranger Aircraft. Despite his success, he faced criticism for his treatment of race in his work and later renounced his American citizenship, living in Spain until his death on November 21, 1991.
1939 – Claudette Colvin Is Born
Claudette Colvin, born September 5, 1939, in Birmingham, Alabama, was a pioneering Civil Rights activist. Raised in Montgomery, she attended Booker T. Washington High School. On March 2, 1955, at 15, Colvin refused to give up her bus seat for a white passenger, defying segregation laws. Arrested, she was charged with disturbing the peace, violating segregation ordinances, and assaulting police. Although initially convicted and sentenced to indefinite probation, her case eventually helped inspire the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Colvin, overshadowed by Rosa Parks, only spoke publicly about her activism after retiring in 2004.
