January 1909

Scott Joplin completed the score and libretto of 'Treemonisha,' a grand opera set in a Black Arkansas community advocating for education as liberation. It was the first opera composed by an African American and a monumental artistic achievement largely unrecognized in his lifetime.

Vertner Woodson Tandy became the first Black person licensed as an architect in New York State around 1909, and in the 1910s received major commissions including St. Philip's Episcopal Church in Harlem and Madam C.J. Walker's Villa Lewaro estate. Tandy co-founded Alpha Phi Alpha and used his professional platform to advocate for Black inclusion in architecture and the building trades.