Today In Black History: May 22

1922 – George Rawles Passes Away

George Rawles was born enslaved in South Carolina and later moved to Mississippi, where he was forced to serve his master’s son, Benjamin Rawles III, during the Civil War. Both were enlisted in the Confederate Army’s 7th Battalion Mississippi Infantry. Though present at key battles like Vicksburg and Atlanta, it’s unclear if George fought. He and Benjamin survived the war; Benjamin later died in 1910.

After the war, George married Jane and farmed in South Carolina. They lost most of their nine children. Drawn by the 1880 mining boom, the family moved to Leadville, Colorado, where George worked as a hod carrier. When mining declined, they relocated to Seattle. After Jane’s death in 1907, George remarried. He died in Tacoma, Washington, on May 22, 1922.

1948 – Claude McKay Passes Away

Festus Claudius “Claude” McKay was born in Jamaica in 1889 to peasant farmers. He was educated by his brother and later mentored by Walter Jekyll, who nurtured his literary interests. McKay published two early poetry collections in Jamaican dialect before migrating to the U.S. He became a leading voice in the Harlem Renaissance, known for militant sonnets like “If We Must Die” and his romantic connection to his Jamaican roots.

McKay authored novels such as Home to Harlem, Banjo, and Banana Bottom, along with two autobiographies and essays. While his work sparked both praise and controversy, he remains a central figure in Black literary history. McKay converted to Catholicism in 1944 and died in Chicago on May 22, 1948 at age 59.

1967 – Langston Hughes Passes Away

Langston Hughes, born in 1902 in Missouri, was a poet, playwright, novelist, essayist, and key figure of the Harlem Renaissance. Raised mostly by his grandmother in Kansas, he later lived in Cleveland, New York, Africa, and Europe. Rejecting his father’s push toward engineering, Hughes pursued writing, publishing The Weary Blues (1926) and other celebrated works reflecting Black working-class life, jazz, and folk culture.

Politically engaged, Hughes reported from the Spanish Civil War and traveled to the Soviet Union. Though later caught in Cold War anti-communist scrutiny, he remained a prolific writer, earning major literary honors. Settling in Harlem in the 1940s, Hughes continued mentoring young artists until his death on May 22, 1967.