September 26, 1968 Martha Minerva Franklin, founder of the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses, died. Franklin was born October 29, 1870 in New Milford, Connecticut. She graduated from the Women’s Hospital Training School in 1897, the only black graduate in her class, and in the early 1900s moved to New Haven, Connecticut. After two […]
Archive | September 26, 2011
September 26th in African American History – Bessie Smith
September 26, 1937 Bessie Smith, blues singer, died. Smith was born on April 15, 1894 in Chattanooga, Tennessee. In 1912, she was hired as a dancer with the Moses Stokes troupe which included Ma Rainey. By the early 1920s, Smith had starred with Sidney Bechet in “How Come?,” a musical that made its way to […]