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 03:

Date	Type	Event
1798		Kwaku Walker Lewis, an early African-American abolitionist and Freemason from Massachusetts, is born, He was an active member of the Underground Railroad and the anti-slavery movement. Lewis, who had worshipped with the Episcopal Church, converted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and in the summer of 1843, was ordained an elder (priest) by William Smith, brother of founder Joseph Smith. Lewis became the third Black man known to hold the Mormon priesthood. He migrated to Salt Lake City, but left after 6 months in response to the church’s banning of Black elders/priests and legislation that opened the state to slavery and implemented anti-miscegenation laws. Learn more.
1897		Lloyd P. Ray secures U.S. Patent No. 587,607 for his invention of an improved dustpan. Ray was born into slavery just before the start of the civil war. Learn more.
1919		Five days of racial violence, gunfire, beatings, and burnings targeting Black communities in Chicago, Illinois, finally come to an end after intervention by the state militia. Overall, 15 white people and 23 African Americans had been killed, 537 people injured, and 1,000 African American families were left homeless. During those five terrifying days, white mobs attacked Black people on sight, set fire to more than 30 properties on Chicago’s south side, and even attempted to attack Provident Hospital—which served mostly Black patients. Though state officials announced a plan to investigate and punish all parties responsible for violence and destruction of property during the unrest, many more Black people were arrested and indicted than white. The city's police chief admitted this was due to bias in his department of white officers, “There is no doubt that a great many police officers were grossly unfair in making arrests," he said in 1922. "They shut their eyes to offenses committed by white men while they were very vigorous in getting all the colored men they could get." Learn more.
1936		Track and field star Jesse Owens wins the first of his four gold medals in the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games. He was the most successful athlete at the Games and, as a Black man, was credited with "single-handedly crushing Hitler's myth of Aryan supremacy", although he "wasn't invited to the White House to shake hands with the President, either". Learn more.