Black History Knowledge — September 19

What happened on this day. These are the September 19 moments in Black history worth knowing, remembering, and passing on.

1865 — Atlanta University is founded

On September 19, 1865, months after the Civil War’s end, Atlanta University was founded to educate freedpeople. It grew into a center of Black scholarship where W. E. B. Du Bois taught and researched, and its legacy lives on in Clark Atlanta University and the Atlanta University Center, the world’s largest consortium of historically Black colleges.

1868 — The Camilla massacre bloodies Georgia’s election season

On September 19, 1868, white residents of Camilla, Georgia, opened fire on a Black Republican march headed to a political rally, killing about a dozen marchers and wounding many more as they fled through the countryside. Coming days after Georgia expelled its Black legislators, the massacre was part of the terror campaign against Black political participation.

1956 — The First Congress of Black Writers and Artists convenes in Paris

On September 19, 1956, the First International Congress of Black Writers and Artists opened at the Sorbonne in Paris, gathering James Baldwin, Richard Wright, Aimé Césaire, Léopold Senghor, and thinkers from across the diaspora. The congress connected Black American writers to the global struggle against colonialism and racism.

1994 — American forces restore Haiti’s elected president

On September 19, 1994, United States troops landed in Haiti in Operation Uphold Democracy to restore elected president Jean-Bertrand Aristide, ousted by a military coup. The intervention followed relentless pressure from Black Americans, including TransAfrica founder Randall Robinson’s twenty-seven-day hunger strike and the Congressional Black Caucus’s campaign against the coup regime.