Today in “Hidden” History is a daily listing of important but little-known events illustrating the range of innovators, contributors, or incidents excluded from formal history lessons or common knowledge. Hidden history is intended not as an exhaustive review, but merely as an illustration of how popular narratives "hide" many matters of fundamental importance. Bookmark this page and check daily to quickly expand your knowledge. Suggest entries for Today in “Hidden” History by clicking the Contact Us link. Entries for April 16:
| Date | Type | Event |
|---|---|---|
| 1862 |  U.S. President Abraham Lincoln signs the District of Columbia Compensated Emancipation Act into law, thereby ending slavery in the District of Columbia and compensating slaveholders for releasing their enslaved people. This signing occurred 9 months prior to Lincoln’s issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation. April 16 is celebrated in Washington, DC as Emancipation Day. Learn more. | |
| 1864 |  Popular and well-known black concert singer Flora Batson is born. Batson was nicknamed "The Double-Voiced Queen of Song" because of her soprano-baritone range, and was also called "the colored Jenny Lind" in the press. Batson began singing at a young age, in her church choir. In 1885, she began touring with the Bergen Star Company and became internationally known. She was a contemporary of Marie Selika Williams, Madam Flower "Bronze Melba", and Matilda Sissieretta Joyner Jones. She performed with Jones in 1885 in Providence, Rhode Island and was sometimes considered her rival. Batson married John Bergen in 1887 and their interracial marriage was fodder for tabloids. Supported by Bergen's management and touring company, she performed all over the world, including performances for royalty and religious leaders. Learn more. | |
| 1903 |  A mob of 2,000 angry white men storms the Joplin, Missouri jail, forcibly removes Thomas Gilyard, who had been arrested just an hour before for murder of a white police officer on no real evidence, and lynches him by hanging from a telephone and burning. The mob than proceeded to violently attack every Black person on sight in the city, then descended upon the Joplin’s Black districts, looting and burning houses, buildings, and businesses, and blockading the fire department from responding. These actions effectively drove every African American from Joplin, forcing most to flee with nothing but the clothes on their backs, foreclosed by threat of violence from ever recovering their losses. The lynching and terrorist racial cleansing made national newspapers, but were otherwise unexceptional for the era. Learn more. |
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