January 1939

Just's major scientific monograph synthesized decades of research on egg cell fertilization and the role of the cell surface in development, advancing theories that anticipated later discoveries in cell biology. It was a landmark contribution produced despite the racial exclusion that forced Just to conduct most of his research in Europe.

Dunham's company presented this landmark concert of Caribbean and Black American dance forms rooted in her anthropological fieldwork in the Caribbean, launching her professional career and introducing the Dunham Technique — which synthesized African diasporic movement vocabulary with Western concert dance — to New York audiences.

Marine biologist Ernest Everett Just published his landmark monograph arguing that the cell surface plays a central role in development and heredity, decades ahead of mainstream recognition of membrane biology. Despite facing severe racial discrimination in American academia, Just produced foundational research that shaped modern cell biology.

Café Society in Greenwich Village, founded by Barney Josephson as New York's first racially integrated nightclub, was where Holiday first performed Strange Fruit. The club itself was a landmark in integration, hosting Black and white performers and audiences together when most American entertainment venues were segregated.

A.G. Gaston of Birmingham, Alabama built one of the most significant Black business empires in the South during the 1940s, expanding from his Booker T. Washington Burial Insurance Company (founded 1923) to add a business college (1947), a motel (later used as civil rights movement headquarters), and a savings bank — all serving a segregated Black consumer market denied access to white institutions. By the 1950s he was a millionaire.

The only Black woman commissioned for the 1939 New York World's Fair unveils her 16-foot sculpture.