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 22:

Date	Type	Event
1906		After local newspapers reported sensational allegations that several white women had been assaulted by Black men, mobs of angry white men gathered in the streets of Atlanta, Georgia, attacking and killing Black men on sight, and ransacking Black businesses. The violent terror continued throughout Atlanta and its surroundings for four days, resulting in 25 to 40 Black people killed and countless more injured. Learn more.
1913		Leighla Frances Whipper, author, songwriter, and restaurateur, is born in Athens, Georgia into a prestigious family that encompassed the wide ranging areas of literature, theater, medicine, and social activism. Leighla was the daughter of the noted Hollywood actor Leigh Whipper and Virginia Eva Wheeler, a talented dancer in the chorus lines of Harlem in the 1920s and 1930s. She was the niece of Dr. Ionia Rollin Whipper, founder of the Ionia Rollin Whipper Home in Washington, DC. Learn more.
1928		Supporter of the Gandhian philosophy of nonviolent protest and one one of the 1950s-1960s Civil Rights Movement’s leading theoreticians and tacticians in the African American struggle for freedom and equality, the Reverend James M. Lawson, Jr. is born in Uniontown, Pennsylvania. Lawson grew up in Massillon, Ohio, which is where he received his primary and secondary educations. During college, Lawson became a member of the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR) local chapter and the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), both of which were devoted advocates of direct nonviolent resistance to racism. Consistent with his beliefs towards nonviolence, Lawson became a “conscientious objector” during the Korean War; found guilty of violating the draft laws in 1951, Lawson was sentenced to three years in a federal prison. Upon his release from prison, Lawson earned his bachelor’s degree, then traveled to India working with the Methodist Board of Missionaries. While in India, he studied the Gandhian principles of satyagraha, or the strategy of passive political resistance. Lawson would later use these principles to combat and end racial segregation in the US. Returning to the US in 1956, Lawson entered Oberlin College’s Graduate School of Theology and was introduced him to the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. King urged Lawson to move south and aid in the Civil Rights Movement. Heeding King’s advice, Lawson moved to Nashville, Tennessee and enrolled at the Divinity School of Vanderbilt University, where he served as the southern director for FOR and began hosting nonviolence training workshops for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. There Lawson trained many of the future leaders of the Civil Rights Movement, including James Bevel, Diane Nash, John Lewis, Bernard Lafayette, and Marion Barry. He became pastor of Memphis's Centenary Methodist Church in 1962, from which he led many community movements for justice. In 1974, Reverend Lawson became pastor of Holman United Methodist Church in Los Angeles, California, where he expanded his social activism to Palestinian and immigrant rights; gay and lesbian issues; the Iraq wars; and poverty. Learn more.