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 July 31:
| Date | Type | Event |
|---|---|---|
| 1873 |  Patrick Francis Healy SJ, an American Catholic priest and Jesuit, is appointed president of Georgetown University. Though he passed as white after his father sent he and his brothers north for their educations, Healy was of mixed race and was born in Georgia as legally enslaved to his father (as were his mother and siblings) under that state’s laws. Healy would be posthumously recognized as the first African American to become a Jesuit, earn a Ph.D., and become the president of a predominantly white university. As president of Georgetown, Healy oversaw a period of growth and transformed the institution into a modern university, becoming known in later years as its "second founder". He increased the prominence of the sciences, raised the standards of the School of Medicine, and oversaw rapid expansion of the Law School. He also constructed a grand flagship building that became known as Healy Hall. Learn more. | |
| 1919 |  The Syracuse Riot of 1919, a violent racial attack, occurs when the management of the Globe Malleable Iron Works pitted striking white unionized workers against Black strikebreakers in Syracuse, New York. Labor unions were not integrated, so African Americans found themselves excluded from union jobs (and the relatively higher pay they brought) in the Northern industrial communities to which they migrated. During strikes, large companies throughout the nation turned to these Black laborers as a source of cheaper labor, to avoid giving their white workers more money, and with the hope of pitting the two groups against one another to weaken the labor movement. The result was a series of attacks by white workers on Black strikebreakers throughout the US, including in the ironworks at Syracuse. Learn more. |
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