Black History Month 2025
1876 1877-1895 1896
18 Ulysses S. Grant | 19 Rutherford B. Hayes | 20 James A. Garfield
Reconstruction Redemption Jim Crow
Federal Protection for Black Americans Ended
Washington, D. C. - Posse Comitatus was passed which ended Federal protection for Black Americans in the South. It was a result of the compromise of 1877, that gave Rutherford B. Hayes the presidency. Hayes signed the law.
The Reconstruction Acts and Enforcement Acts were passed to protect the rights of Black Americans, from traitorous whites, in the South. President Ulysses S. Grant used the military to enforce the law and uphold the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments.
Black people were attacked and killed for voting, assembling, and holding office, by whites. President Ulysses S. Grant used the Army to protect the rights of Black Americans, in the South. Yet, Grant gave up on Black Americans to help the Republican party in Ohio, in 1875.
The governor of Ohio, that won the election, in 1875, was Rutherford B. Hayes. From that point, the Republicans made a further deal to sacrifice Black Americans in the 1876 Presidential election. It made Rutherford B. Hayes the first Democrat elected since the Slavery War.
The deal made between the Republican and Democrat party led to the law that ended Federal protection for Black Americans in the South.
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Tuskegee University Founded
Tuskegee, Alabama - Tuskegee University began as the Tuskegee Normal School for Colored Teachers. It came from an agreement between a former Confederate Colonel, W.F. Foster, and a local Black American leader, Lewis Adams.
Foster sought to keep his office, in the 1880 election. He promised Adams a school for Black Americans, if he helped him get votes.
Adams delivered. Foster kept his promise. The State of Alabama passed a law for what would become Tuskegee University.
George W. Campbell, a former slave owner, recruited Booker T. Washington as principal. Washington held that position from July 4, 1881 until he died, in 1915.
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Noble Drew Ali Born
North Carolina - Noble Drew Ali was born Timothy Drew.
Ali founded the Moorish Science Temple of America. In 1913, Ali founded the Canaanite Temple in Newark, New Jersey. Later, the Temple relocated to Chicago. There, Ali converted thousands.
Noble Drew Ali died July 20th, 1929, in Chicago, Illinois.
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Corporations Got Civil Rights
Washington, D. C. - The United States Supreme Court gave civil rights to corporations. The case was Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad Company (1886). This decision made a legal fiction (corporation) equal to a United States citizen.
Civil Rights protections were meant for Black Americans. It was meant to unite the nation after the Slavery War. The Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments do not use 'corporation.'
The Fourteenth Amendment used 'persons' in its text. The Supreme Court decided 'persons' included corporations. This gave corporations protection under the U. S. Constitution. The decision was unanimous.
Black citizens can be hurt and jailed, but not corporations. The United States Supreme Court made no distinction. Corporations had all the benefits of law, without all the risk.
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First Black Professional Baseball League
Atlanta, Georgia - The name of the first Black American baseball league was the Southern League of Colored Base Ballists. The Georgia Champions’ won against the Memphis Eclipse. The score was 11-10.
The league only lasted one year. But, it was not the last. The next year, the National Colored Base Ball League began in 1887. The leagues were formed due to racial exclusion laws in the United States.
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Lynching of Henry Smith
Paris, Texas - Henry Smith was killed by a white mob. Smith was accused of killing a young white girl. It made national news and led to an interstate manhunt. He was burned alive until he died, by whites.
Smith was a handyman. He had been arrested by a white police worker, Deputy Henry Vance. Smith was beaten by Vance, with his club. Later, Smith was seen with the daughter of Vance, who was four (4) years of age.
The day before her death, Smith walked through town with the white girl. The Mayor of Paris, and many other whites, saw him with her. When asked, Smith told him he was taking her to the doctor.
Later, her dead body was found in a pasture, outside of town. There were hand marks around her throat. She had died from being strangled. Reports of rape and abuse were invented by relatives of the girl, to inflame white anger.
Smith fled. The town formed a posse and began a manhunt. Smith fled to Arkansas, the state where he was born. The posse found him there, six (6) days later. He was taken, by train, back to Paris, Texas.
As the posse entered Texas, with Smith, a mob of 5,000 waited. They told the local police, in Texarkana, they wanted to kill him, in Paris. Smith begged the police to either protect him or shoot him. The police said they had no power to protect him from the mob and they would not shoot him.
On February 1st, at 1:00 p.m., Smith arrived in Paris, Texas. The Mayor of Paris closed all schools and businesses for the lynching. A crowd of 10,000 came to see Smith die. The police workers released Smith to the mob, where a platform was built, to kill him.
Vance, his son (15 years of age), and brother-in-law had Smith tied-up on the platform. There, the three (3) used hot irons on his feet, torso, and limbs. They then used the hot iron and burned out the eyes of Smith. It was then shoved down his throat. The crowd cheered each response of agony from Smith. Finally, the whites poured kerosene over him and set the whole platform on fire.
The lynching of Smith made headlines for its viciousness and cruelty. The Boston Daily Globe called it 'White Savagery.' It was perhaps the most heinous lynching in United States history.
No one was punished for the lynching of Henry Smith.
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Daughters of the Confederacy Formed
Nashville, Tennessee - The Daughters of the Confederacy was founded. The two founders were Caroline Meriwether Goodlett and Anna Davenport Raines. Both supported enslavement of Black Americans.
The group created monuments and memorials to those who fought to defend slavery.
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Frederick Douglass Died
Washington, D. C. - Frederick Douglass was born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey. He was born into slavery, to a white father and enslaved mother.
Douglass spent his life either fighting to end slavery or to advance the causes of Black Americans.
While it is unknown his exact birth date, it is accepted to be sometime in February, 1818.
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