In 1881, Booker T. Washington built Tuskegee Institute on an abandoned plantation. In 1890, Charles Wallace Green, the agriculture director, built a home in a wooded area west of campus. Over the years others followed, and Washington would name the settlement the “Village of Greenwood” to honor Green. In the midst of the Jim Crow era, this all African American community grew and thrived.
SEPTEMBER 1, 1891
Halle Tanner Dillion Johnson becomes first woman of any race to practice medicine in Alabama.
SEPTEMBER 5, 1939
Claudette Colvin, civil rights pioneer, arrested for refusing to give up her bus seat on March 2, 1955, was born in Montgomery, Alabama.
Ruby Bridges Hall, first African American to desegregate a southern elementary school, was born in Tylertown, Mississippi.
Mae Carol Jemison becomes first African American woman to travel in space.
The 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama is bombed, killing four young girls.
Vanessa Williams becomes first African American woman named Miss America.
SEPTEMBER 23, 1923
Nancy Green, born a slave, one of the first African Americans hired to promote a corporate trademark (Aunt Jemima), died.
SEPTEMBER 1, 1891
Halle Tanner Dillion Johnson becomes first woman of any race to practice medicine in Alabama.
Claudette Colvin, civil rights pioneer, arrested for refusing to give up her bus seat on March 2, 1955, was born in Montgomery, Alabama.
Ruby Bridges Hall, first African American to desegregate a southern elementary school, was born in Tylertown, Mississippi.
Mae Carol Jemison becomes first African American woman to travel in space.
The 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama is bombed, killing four young girls.
Vanessa Williams becomes first African American woman named Miss America.
SEPTEMBER 23, 1923
Nancy Green, born a slave, one of the first African Americans hired to promote a corporate trademark (Aunt Jemima), died.
