Unforgotten: Stop the Erasure

Welcome to UNFORGOTTEN:
STOP THE ERASURE

This site provides a foundational overview of significant Black figures, locations, and events that are often (and wrongfully) diminished or ignored entirely in US history books. In each bio, you will find hyperlinked text that takes you to the source of the information so you can conduct any further research.

Click the X at the top to begin exploring, or use the filter below to sort through career fields. Click the Fist of Solidarity in the top left to reopen this menu.

Fannie Lou Hamer

Civil rights activist

Born in Montgomery County, MS,
October 6, 1917

1917

Born Fannie Lou Townsend

1923

Joined her parents, who were sharecroppers, and siblings in the cotton fields at the age of six

Left school to work at the age of twelve

1944

Married Perry “Pap” Hamer and Worked alongside him at W.D. Marlow's plantation near Ruleville, in Sunflower County until 1962

Also served as the plantation timekeeper because she was the only worker who could read and write

1961

Given a hysterectomy by a white doctor without her knowledge or consent while undergoing surgery to remove a uterine tumor

Procedure was so common it was known as the “Mississippi appendectomy”

“[In] the North Sunflower County Hospital, I would say about six out of the 10 Negro women that go to the hospital are sterilized with the tubes tied”

Adopted two daughters whose families could not care for them—adopted her two grandchildren after the oldest daughter's death

Attended a meeting led by civil rights activists James Forman of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and James Bevel of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)

Became a SNCC organizer after learning about Black people being denied the right to vote

1962

August 31: Led 17 of her neighbors on a bus to register to vote at the Indianola, MS Courthouse

Officials blocked most of them from attempting to register—Only Hamer and one man were allowed and were denied due to an unfair literacy test

Harassed on the way home—the group was forced to pool together $100 after the police stopped them and fined the driver because the bus was too yellow

Sang spirituals including “This Little Light of Mine” and “Go Tell It on the Mountain,” which became a defining feature of her activism.

W.D. Marlow ordered her off his land when she refused to withdraw her application

“I didn't go down there to register for you. I went down to register for myself.”

Stayed with friends in Ruleville while Pap was required to stay until the harvest

September 10: Moved to Tallahatchie County with her daughters after the Ku Klux Klan shot at her sixteen times

December 4: Returned to Ruleville to retake the literacy test

Invited to a SNCC conference at Fisk University in Nashville by field secretary Bob Moses and became a community organizer

1963

June 9: Staged a sit-in with fellow activists at a whites-only bus station restaurant in Winona, MS, on their way back from a citizenship training program in Charleston, SC

Arrested and beaten at the Winona jailhouse—Left her with lifelong injuries from a blood clot in her eye, and kidney and leg damage

Released on June 12

1964

Co-founded the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) to challenge the local pro-segregation Democratic Party

Ran for Congress as the MFDP candidate against veteran Congressman Jamie Whitten in the Democratic Primary

Lost but set the stage for the MFDP to have a national presence

Helped organize the Mississippi Summer Project (Freedom Summer)

Brought hundreds of Black and white college students to support Black voter registration

Traveled to Oxford, OH, to train volunteers who would be teaching classes and registering voters, and sing spirituals

Elected Vice Chair of the MFDP's integrated delegation and spoke before the Credentials Committee at the Democratic National Convention, calling for mandatory integrated state delegations

President Lyndon B. Johnson held a televised press conference to block her airtime and gain Southern Democrat support for his re-election

The Credentials Committee dropped their support for the MFDP due to pressure from LBJ and Hubert Humphrey but offered two at-large seats, which the MFDP rejected

1967

Took the lead in lawsuits that led to the first elections Black residents in Sunflower County were registered and eligible to vote in

1968

Began a "pig bank" to provide free pigs for Black farmers to breed, raise, and slaughter

1969

Launched the Freedom Farm Cooperative (FFC), buying land Black people could own and farm collectively

Purchased 640 acres with the assistance of donors and launched a co-op store, boutique, and sewing enterprise

Ensured 200 units of low-income housing were built (with many still existing in Ruleville)

1971

Helped found the National Women's Political Caucus

Bessie Coleman

First Black and Native American woman pilot

Born in Atlanta, TX,
January 26, 1892

1892

Born Elizabeth Coleman

Worked in the cotton fields with her parents, who were sharecroppers of Native American and Black descent, and siblings

1898

Began attending school in Waxahachie, TX, in a one-room, segregated schoolhouse at age six

Completed first–eighth grade there

1904

Got accepted into the Missionary Baptist Church School on a scholarship

1910

Saved enough money to enroll at the Colored Agricultural and Normal University (now Langston University) in Langston, OK

Ran out of funds after one semester and moved back to Texas

1915

Moved to Chicago at age 23 to live with her brothers

Attended Burnham School of Beauty Culture and became a manicurist in a barbershop on the city's south side

Met Robert Abbott, publisher of the Chicago Defender

Inspired to become a pilot by flying stories from pilots returning from World War I (WWI) and her brothers' teasing that French women were superior to Black women because they could fly

Got a second job to save money for flight school but was rejected by each one she applied to because she was Black and a woman

Encouraged by Robert Abbott to study flying abroad and began learning French at a Berlitz school in the Chicago loop

1920

November 20: Used her savings and funding received from a banker, Jesse Binga, and the Chicago Defender to travel to France

Attended the Caudron Brothers' School of Aviation in Le Crotoy

Was the only student of color in her class

Learned to fly in a 27-foot biplane known to fail frequently, sometimes in the air, and witnessed a fellow student die in a plane crash during training

1921

June 15: Graduated from the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale and received her international pilot's license

Returned to the states in September with the goal of opening a flying school for Black people

Was met by several reporters who dubbed her “a full-fledged aviatrix, the first of her race”

Invited as a guest of honor to attend the all-Black musical Shuffle Along and received a standing ovation from the audience

1922

September 3: Performed the first public flight by a Black woman at an American airshow in Garden City, Long Island, honoring veterans of the all-Black 369th Infantry Regiment of WWI

The airshow was sponsored by Robert Abbott and the Chicago Defender, and billed her as “the world's greatest woman flier”

Toured the country giving flight lessons, encouraging Black people and women to learn how to fly, and performing in airshows

Only ever performed if the crowd was desegregated and permitted to enter through the same gates

1923

Survived her first major airplane accident in February after her engine suddenly stopped working

Suffered a broken leg, cracked ribs, and cuts on her face but fully recovered

1925

Returned to performing dangerous maneuvers, including loop-the-loops figure eights, and near-ground dips

Nicknamed “Queen Bess” and “Brave Bessie”

Earned enough money to buy her own Jenny-JN-4 with an OX-5 engine

1926

April 30: Tragically fell to her death during a test flight in Jacksonville, FL when a wrench got caught in the plane's engine controls and it flipped over at 3,500 feet

Mechanic William Wills, who was piloting the plane, also died when it crashed a few feet from Coleman's body

May 2: About 10,000 mourners attended her funeral in Chicago's South Side, and was presided over by activist Ida B. Wells-Barnett

1931

The Challenger Pilots' Association of Chicago started a tradition of flying over Coleman's grave every year

1977

A group of Black women pilots established the Bessie Coleman Aviators Club

1992

A Chicago City Council resolution requested the US Postal Service issue a Bessie Coleman stamp

Annie Lee Cooper

Civil rights activist

Born in Selma, AL,
June 2, 1910

1910

Born Annie Lee Wilkerson

1924

Moved to Kentucky to live with her ill sister when she was fourteen and saw Black people going to voting polls

Never thought about Black people voting—Alabama's constitution, passed in 1901, suppressed Black voters with a poll tax and literacy requirements

1962

Returned to Selma when her mother's health declined and started working at Dunn's Rest Home

Tried to register to vote but was told she was too young

Took the “voting test” often but was told she failed each time

Civil rights activists Bernard Lafayette and his new wife, Colia Liddell, arrived to organize a petition for voting rights on behalf of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)

Joined the SNCC efforts—was already working with the Dallas County Voters League, organized by Amelia Boynton and her husband

1963

October 7: SNCC organized the first Freedom Day, urging Black residents to come to the Dallas County Courthouse and attempt to register to vote

Mr. Dunn, owner and manager of Dunn's Rest Home, saw Cooper and another employee, Elnora Collins, in line, fired them in the following days, and had them along with forty other Black employees blacklisted by white Selma

1965

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and SCLC arrived in Selma to stage a nationally-geared campaign for voting rights and began demonstrations

January 25, attempted to register to vote again with other activists at the Dallas County Courthouse but was stopped by police and local sheriff Jim Clark

Clark poked her in the neck with his billy club after she said, “Nobody's afraid of them,” and she knocked him to the ground with a punch to the jaw

Attacked, arrested and charged with criminal provocation but was released after Clark threatened to beat her

“I try to be nonviolent, but I just can't say I wouldn't do the same thing all over again if they treat me brutish like they did this time.”

These actions along with her contemporaries led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965

2010

Street in Selma was named Annie Cooper Avenue in her honor

2014

Portrayed by Oprah Winfrey in the film Selma

Jane Matilda Bolin

First Black woman judge

Born in Poughkeepsie, NY,
April 11, 1908

1908

Inspired as a child to pursue law by her love of her father, Gaius C. Bolin's leather-bound law books and the NAACP's Crisis magazine articles

1924

Attended private women's liberal arts college Wellesley College in Massachusetts

One of two Black freshmen attending, both opted to live off-campus due to rampant racism

Graduated in 1928 as one of the top students and was named a Wellesley Scholar

Discouraged to pursue a law career by her father and counselor, who told her “there was little opportunity for women in law and absolutely none for a ‘colored one’”

1928

Attended Yale Law School and earned a Juris Doctor degree in 1931

Was one of only three women in her class and the Black woman to earn her law degree from the institution

Became the first Black woman to join the New York City Bar Association

Apprenticed in her father's law office

1932

Passed the New York state bar exam

1933

Married and practiced law with her first husband, Ralph E. Mizelle

1936

Ran for the New York State Assembly

1937

Appointed Assistant Corporation Counsel of the City of New York

First Black woman attorney hired by that office

1939

Appointed and sworn in as a judge of the Domestic Relations Court (now called Family Court) at the World's Fair by New York City Mayor Fiorello La Guardia

First Black woman judge in history

Led the charge of dismantling racial barriers and segregation within the legal system and requiring child care agencies that got public funding to accept children regardless of their race or ethnicity

Ended the practice of assigning probation officers based on race or religion

Worked alongside First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt to decrease juvenile crimes for young boys

Reappointed by three more mayors for three more ten-year terms

1978

Stepped down from the bench when she reached the mandatory retirement age of 70

Volunteered as a tutor at New York City public schools for two years

Served on the New York State Board of Regents, the National Urban League, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and the Child Welfare League

Dr. Rebecca Lee Crumpler

First Black woman doctor

Born in Delaware,
February 8, 1831

1831

Raised by her aunt in Pennsylvania who provided care for sick neighbors

Inspired her to want to “relieve the suffering of others”

Attended the West-Newton English and Classical School in Massachusetts as a “special student”

1852

Moved to Charlestown, MA and worked as nurse

1860

Applied and was accepted into the New England Female Medical College (NEFMC)

Initially only trained women to be midwives—became the first school in the country to train women M.D.s

1864

Graduated NEFMC with a Doctress of Medicine, becoming its only Black graduate and the first Black woman to earn a medical degree and be a doctor

Married her second husband Arthur Crumpler

Started a medical practice in Boston

1865

Moved to Richmond, Virginia after the Civil War

Believed it was “the proper field for real missionary work, and one that would present ample opportunities to become acquainted with the diseases of women and children.”

Worked under the aegis of General Orlando Brown, the Assistant Commissioner of the Freedmen's Bureau for the State of Virginia, and collaborated with other charity and missionary groups to care for freed Black people

Ignored daily racism, rude behavior, and sexism from her colleagues, pharmacists, and more

1869

Returned to Boston and continued practicing, treating patients around the predominantly Black neighborhood of Beacon Hill, regardless of whether they could pay

1880

Moved to the Hyde Park neighborhood of Boston and stopped actively practicing medicine

1883

Wrote and published A Book of Medical Discourses in Two Parts

Features information on treating illnesses in infants, young children, and women entering adulthood

One of the first medical publications by a Black author

Marsha P. Johnson

Gay liberation activist

Born in Elizabeth, NJ,
August 24, 1945

1945

Born Malcolm Michaels, Jr. and raised in the African Methodist Episcopal Church

1950

Started to wear dresses but stopped after being harassed and teased by the neighborhood boys

Sexually assaulted by a boy who was about 13 years old

1963

Enrolled in the US Navy after graduating from Thomas A. Edison High School

1966

Moved to New York's Greenwich Village and became “Black Marsha”

Waitressed, panhandled, and turned to prostitution to survive

Found a like-minded community within the village's nightlife and became a self-made drag queen of Christopher Street named Marsha P. Johnson

Became known as Marsha P. Johnson—the “P” stands for “Pay It No Mind”

Served as a “drag mother” helping homeless and struggling LGBTQ youth

1969

June 28: NYPD raided the Stonewall Inn on Christopher Street, forcing over 200 people outside onto the streets and using excessive violence against them

Joined the Stonewall Riots—dropped a brick through a police car's windshield after climbing a lamppost

Led a series of protests and riots demanding rights for gay people

1970

Co-founded the Street Transvestites Action Revolutionaries (STAR) with good friend Sylvia Rivera

Provided community support for gay and transgender youth who were homeless

Expanded to Chicago, California, and England before disbanding in 1973

Nicknamed the “Saint of Christopher Street”

Joined the Gay Liberation Front and participated in the Christopher Street Liberation Pride rally on June 28—precursor to the Pride Parades of today

1972

Began performing and touring with the international drag troupe Hot Peaches

1973

Performed with the drag troupe Angels of Light, taking on the role of “The Gypsy Queen” in their production of “The Enchanted Miracle”

1974

Photographed by Andy Warhol as part of his “Ladies and Gentlemen” polaroid series

1979

Mental health began declining severely and her aggressive side came out more often

Village Voice published the article “The Drag of Politics,” listing all the Manhattan gay bars that banned her

1980

Invited to stay the night with friend Randy Wicker and remained roommates for the rest of her life

Began working with Aids Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) as an organizer and marshal

1992

July 6: Found dead with a large wound in the back of her head in the Hudson River after that year's New York Pride Parade

Police ruled it a suicide despite family and friends saying she wasn't suicidal and witness testimonies describing a gang harassing her

2012

Mariah Lopez convinced police to re-open Johnson's case and investigate it as a homicide

Pay It No Mind—The Life and Times of Marsha P. Johnson released

Included footage from an interview filmed ten days before her death

2017

Anti Violence Project's Victoria Cruz investigated Johnson's death on her own

The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson released

2019

The Marsha P. Johnson Institute was founded to protect and defend the human rights of Black transgender people

2020

The Mayor of New York renamed the East River State Park in Brooklyn, the Marsha P. Johnson State Park

STOP THE ERASURE

Welcome to UNFORGOTTEN: STOP THE ERASURE

Bayard Rustin

Claudette Colvin

Fannie Lou Hamer

Bessie Coleman

Annie Lee Cooper

Dorothy Irene Height

Jane Matilda Bolin

Robert Sengstacke Abbott

Dr. Rebecca Lee Crumpler

Marsha P. Johnson

Welcome to UNFORGOTTEN:
STOP THE ERASURE