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 May 08:

Date	Type	Event
1879		Robert J. Harlan delivers an address titled, “Migration is the Only Remedy for Our Wrongs” arguing that, in the wake of the end of Reconstruction, the withdrawal of federal troops from the south, and rampant violence against and repression of African Americans in the South, migration to the north was not only a way to escape oppression, it was also a powerful protest against those who would deny African Americans their freedom. This position placed Harlan in opposition to Frederick Douglass, the nation’s most prominent African American leader of that time. Read the full text of Harlan’s brief but powerful speech.
1910		American jazz pianist, arranger, and composer Mary Lou Williams (birth name Mary Elfrieda Scruggs) is born. She wrote hundreds of compositions and arrangements and recorded more than one hundred records (in 78, 45, and LP versions). Williams wrote and arranged for Duke Ellington and Benny Goodman, and she was friend, mentor, and teacher to Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Tadd Dameron, Bud Powell, and Dizzy Gillespie. Her productive and influential career spanned half a century and remains an inspiration to both women and men in jazz. Learn more.
1925		The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the first successful black trade union, is organized by A. Philip Randolph. Learn more.
2009		On May 8, 2009, Steven Joshua Dinkle of the Ozark, Alabama, chapter of the International Keystone Knights of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), burned a cross in a local Black neighborhood. Joined by a KKK recruit named Thomas Windell Smith, Dinkle targeted the neighborhood because of the race of its residents. Both men were arrested and pled guilty to conspiracy to violate housing rights. At Dinkle’s plea hearing, he admitted that he burned the cross in order to scare the members of the African American community in Ozark, and that he was motivated to burn the cross because he did not like that African Americans were occupying homes in that area. Learn more.