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 August 11:

Date	Type	Event
1873		John Rosamond Johnson — composer, actor, pioneer in his field, and one of the most successful of the early African American composers — is born in Jacksonville, Florida. Johnson was the younger brother of prominent composer and civil rights leader James Weldon Johnson. Starting in 1890, John Johnson attended Boston’s New England Conservatory, and for a brief time studied in Europe as well. He began his career as a music teacher in Jacksonville public schools but in 1899 moved to New York with his brother, James Weldon, to pursue a career in show business. Of the music that Johnson wrote himself, Lift Every Voice and Sing (1900) is the best known. The song was so popular that the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) dubbed it The Negro National Anthem. Other well known songs of his include The Maiden with the Dreamy Eyes, Didn’t He Ramble, and Li’l Gal, Since You Went Away. Original and expressive, Johnson’s work propelled him to international acclaim. Learn more.
1921		Pulitzer-prize winning author Alex Haley is born in Ithaca, New York. He is best known for his historical work, includingThe Autobiography of Malcolm X (1965) and Roots: The Saga of an American Family (1976), both highly acclaimed and very popular. Learn more.
1925		Diplomat, author, reporter, broadcaster, the first Black deputy Secretary of State, the first Black director of the United States Information Agency (USIA), and long-time syndicated columnist Carl Thomas Rowan is born in Tennessee. His father, Thomas, stacked lumber for construction, and his mother, Johnnie, cleaned houses, cooked, and did laundry for wealthier families. The Rowan family home had no electricity, running water, telephone, nor even a clock. One of young Carl’s teachers encouraged him to read and write as much as possible, even going to the library for him because, as a Black person, Rowan wasn’t allowed to check out books. He graduated at the top of his high school class. When the U.S. entered World War II, Rowan signed up for a Navy program that led to an officer’s commission. He was one of the first twenty Black Naval officers during World War II, serving on a tanker in the Atlantic Ocean. Rowan finished Oberlin College in Ohio in 1947, and earned a master’s degree in journalism at the University of Minnesota in 1948. Learn more.
1965		The Watts Riot, also known as the Watts Rebellion, begins in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. The riot took 34 lives and injured 1,032 people. There were nearly 4,000 arrests and $40 million in property damage in what was until that point, the largest urban rebellion in the United States in the 1960s. The five day revolt which involved some 30,000 people served as stark testimony to the inequality and poverty that dominated the lives of thousands of Watts’s residents. Many of those engaged in the uprising looted items from local groceries and clothing stores, acquiring what they wanted and needed but often could not afford. Others battled the LAPD which they held immediately responsible for their poverty and alienation. In spite of the protest, the Watts Rebellion did not significantly improve the lives of the community’s black population. While the revolt inspired the federal government to implement programs to address unemployment, education, healthcare, and housing under Lyndon B. Johnson’s “War on Poverty,” much of the money allocated for these programs was eventually absorbed by the Vietnam War. Learn more.
2017		An assembly of more than 200 members of white supremacist, alt-right, neo-Nazi, and pro-Confederate groups from throughout the country converge on the University of Virginia in Charlottesville for a torch-lit march through central campus shouting slogans like “Blood and soil!” “You will not replace us!” “Jews will not replace us!” and “White lives matter!” The procession was the precursor to a planned “Unite the Right” rally, scheduled to take place the next day to protest the Charlottesville City Council’s recent vote to remove a Confederate monument dedicated to Robert E. Lee. As the marchers paraded through the University’s campus, counter-protests quickly emerged and tensions escalated. The next day, approximately two hours after the City of Charlottesville declared a local state of emergency, a neo-Nazi named James Alex Fields Jr. drove his car directly into a crowd of counter-protesters, wounding at least 18 people and killing a 32-year-old white woman named Heather Heyer. Learn more.