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 April 01:

Date	Type	Event
1875		The United States Supreme Court finished hearing arguments in United States v. Cruikshank, a case that asked whether the federal government had the power to punish white men convicted of slaughtering dozens of Black people in Louisiana. Two years earlier, on Easter Sunday, April 13, 1873, hundreds of white men clashed with formerly enslaved Black men at the Grant Parish courthouse in Colfax, Louisiana. It is estimated that nearly 150 Black people died in the ensuing Coalfax Massacre - many murdered in cold blood after surrendering. Only three white men died. After the massacre, the federal government indicted over 100 members of the white mob under the Enforcement Act of 1870, a law was specifically enacted during Reconstruction to protect newly freed Black voters from the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacist terrorists. Only three members of the mob were convicted, and they appealed. Nearly one year after hearing arguments, the Supreme Court issued a ruling reversing the criminal convictions of the three white men and holding that that the Bill of Rights did not apply to private actors or to state governments despite the adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment. The Cruikshank decision severely limited the federal government's authority to legally enforce Black civil rights and protect Black citizens from racial terror at the hands of mobs intent on enhancing white racial dominance. Learn more.
1899		Serial African American entrepreneur and successful businessman John Merrick establishes the North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company (“NC Mutual”, successor to the North Carolina Mutual and Provident Society which he had co-founded the year prior). Born into slavery in Clinton, North Carolina, Merrick founded various companies in the Raleigh, North Carolina and Durham, North Carolina areas. Portions of his wealth were channeled back into the black community through philanthropy. His business acumen and social consciousness made him one of the most influential members of the African-American community in his lifetime. Merrick gained his first business success by founding a chain of barbershops catering to wealthy white men. Merrick parlayed his wealth from the barber business into other ventures that served the Black community, including NC Mutual (thr oldest and largest Black-owned life insurance company), the Mechanics and Farmers Bank (the first bank in Durham owned and controlled by African Americans), and Bull City Drug Company (a much-needed African American drug store in Durham). Learn more.
1942		Samuel Ray “Chip” Delany Jr., an award-winning African American gay writer, editor, professor, and literary critic, is born. He is the first major African American science fiction writer as well as one of the most influential writers of this genre in the United States. He transformed the field in the 1960s and 1970s with daring and visionary novels. He has published over 40 works. Much of his fiction combines mythology, linguistics, deconstructed gender politics, and a frank treatment of sex. Delany’s best known work, Dhalgren (1975), was based on burned out inner cities and explores the life of a black man considered a sexual predator. It sold over a million copies. Since the 1980s, he has focused more on non-fiction. Delany’s memoir, The Motion of Light In Water, was published in 1988. Delany received four Nebula Awards for science fiction: Babel-17, The Einstein Intersection, and two of his short stories. Hugo Awards went to the novella “Time Considered as a Helix of Semi-Precious Stones” and his autobiography. He earned the Stonewall Book Award in 2007 for his novel, Dark Reflections. In 2002, he was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame. Two lifetime achievement awards have been bestowed upon him: the Bill Whitehead Award for Gay Literature in 1993 and the J. Lloyd Eaton Award in 2010. Learn more.