Ridgefield Allies

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 September 12:

Date	Type	Event
1873		Madame Sul-Te-Wan is born as Nellie Conley in Louisville, Kentucky where her widowed mother worked as a laundress. Madame Sul-Te-Wan was a pioneering stage and film actress who became one of the most prominent black performers in Hollywood during the silent film era. Her career spanned more than seventy years and she is best known as the first African American actress contracted to appear in D.W. Griffith’s groundbreaking and racist cinematic epic, Birth of a Nation (1915). Prior to her film career, Madame Sul-Te-Wan worked in dance troupes and theater companies throughout the East and Midwest billed as “Creole Nell.” She later formed her own musical performing company, The Black Four Hundred. She reconstituted the group as the Rair Back Minstrels and toured the East Coast to great acclaim. When Birth of a Nation was completed, Madam Sul-Te-Wan was discharged from Griffiths’ film company for “allegedly stealing a book from a white actress and inciting blacks to protest the film’s showing in the Los Angeles area.” Hiring prominent African American attorney E. Burton Ceruti, she successfully defended herself against the charges and was reinstated in the company. She continued to work in film until her death at the Motion Picture Country Home in Woodland Hills on February 1, 1959. Learn more.
1935		Richard Howard Hunt, one of the foremost African-American abstract sculptors, artists of public sculpture, and first African American sculptor to have a major retrospective at Museum of Modern Art, is born on Chicago's South Side. Descended from enslaved African Americans, Hunt was interested in the arts from an early age, as his mother, an artist and librarian, would bring him to performances by local opera companies that sang classical repertoires of Mozart, Rossini, Verdi, and Handel. As a young boy, Hunt began to show enthusiasm and talent in artistic disciplines such as drawing and painting, and also sculpture, an interest that grew more and more as he got older. Hunt was inspired to pursue his career in the arts because his family appreciated art and he clearly said "My mom was supportive and dad was tolerant." In the seventh grade, Hunt attended the Junior School of Art Institute of Chicago. Hunt also acquired business sense and awareness of social issues from working in his father's barbershop. In 1953 Hunt entered the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Hunt worked with materials of copper, iron and then steel and aluminum which led to him to produce a series of "hybrid figures" which where references to human, animal and plant forms. Hunt began exhibiting his sculptures nationwide while still a student at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. As a Junior, his piece “Arachne,” was purchased by the Museum of Modern Art in New York. He received a B.A.E. from the Art Institute of Chicago in 1957. He became the youngest exhibiting artist at the 1962 Seattle World's Fair. Hunt has created over 150 public sculpture commissions in prominent locations in 22 states across the United States, more than any other sculptor. With a career that spans seven decades, Hunt has held over 100 solo exhibitions and is represented in more than 100 public museums. Hunt has served on the Smithsonian Institution's National Board of Directors. Hunt's abstract, modern and contemporary sculpture work is notable for its presence in exhibitions and public displays as early as the 1950s, despite social pressures for the obstruction of African-American art at the time. Learn more.
1966		Two hundred fifty African American students attempt to integrate Grenada, Mississippi, schools on the first day of class. Though it was 12 years after the Supreme Court's landmark Brown v. Board of Education ruling held racially-segregated public schooling unconstitutional, the city of Grenada, Mississippi, had not stopped operating a segregated school system. In August 1966, a federal judge ordered Grenada officials to enroll African American students in the formerly white-only schools, and approximately 450 Black students had enrolled by the start of the 1966 school year, but 200 Black families were intimidated by threats of eviction or firing into withdrawing their children. When the remaining 250 Black students arrived for classes on September 12, a large white mob surrounded the school and turned them away. As the students retreated, members of the mob pursued them through the streets, beating them with chains, pipes, and clubs. At lunchtime, the mob returned to the school to attack the few African American students who had made it inside that morning. As the students left for lunch, members of the mob attacked them, leaving some hospitalized with broken bones. Some reporters covering the story were also beaten. The mob violence continued for several days with no intervention from law enforcement. On September 16, a federal judge ordered protection for the students, and on September 17, 13 members of the mob were arrested by the FBI. Learn more.
1973		Tarana Burke, the activist who sparked the Me Too movement that raises awareness about sexual harassment, assault, and abuse, is born in The Bronx, New York. Burke had many troubling experiences growing up in a low-income, working-class family. She was raped and sexually assaulted as a teenager. These incidents inspired Burke to dedicate her life to improving the lives of girls going through similar hardships. Burke’s career started in Selma, Alabama where she worked with the 21st Century Youth Leadership Movement, the Black Belt Arts and Cultural Center, and the National Voting Rights Museum & Institute. In 2003, Burke co-founded an African-centered rites of passage program for girls called Jendayi Aza. The program eventually evolved and in 2006 it became a non-profit called Just Be Incorporated that focused on the well-being of young women of color. It was when she was working at this organization that Burke first spoke the words “me too” when trying to empathize with a young woman who was at the time being abused by her mother’s boyfriend. On October 15, 2017, actress Alyssa Milano, inspired by Burke’s words, posted a tweet that said “If you’ve been sexually harassed or assaulted write ‘me too’ as a reply to tweet.” The hashtag #MeToo went viral and encouraged women and men to speak out about their past experiences of sexual abuse. In 2017, Burke along with her fellow activists were named the “silence breakers” and were awarded Time magazine’s Person of the Year. Learn more.