Jan 07
1869 - The property of the old Tuskegee Railroad was sold at a sheriff’s sale to William G. Swanson and others. This group would later, in February 1871, enter into an agreement with E.T. Varner and Company, to reconstruct the railroad between Chehaw and Tuskegee, and equip it for operations by January 1872. Once completed, the property was transferred to Varner, to be operated as a partnership by E.T. Varner and Company, with the name “Tuskegee Railroad Company”. This new rail line was a 36-inch gauge railroad laid on the right-of-way of the old Tuskegee Rail Road Company of 1860. The gauge was broadened to meet the new standard in August 1898. 1891 - Zora Neale Hurston was born in Notasulga, to her father John Cornelius Hurston II (born 1861, died 1918), who was a carpenter and Baptist minister born in slavery, and her mother Lucy (Lula) Potts from Notasulga, Alabama. Zora was the fifth of eight Hurston children. Zora’s first and middle names come from Lucy Hurston’s friend, Mrs. Neale. John Hurston traveled to Eatonville, Florida in 1892 and became pastor of the Zion Hope Baptist Church, in Sanford, Florida. He later moved the family to Eatonville, Florida, where Zora was raised. In 1897, John Hurston was elected Mayor of Eatonville. Zora and her siblings attended Hungerford School, which was founded by Russell and Mary Calhoun, Tuskegee Institute graduates, who used Booker T. Washington’s principles of education in the school’s coursework. Zora would become a major author of the Harlem Renaissance, in New York City.
Jan 08
1927 - Dr. Robert Russa Moton moved Tuskegee Institute from a High School curriculum to become a full college. 1950 - Dr. John A. Kenney, Sr. passed away from a stroke in Newark, New Jersey. Dr. Kenney was the former Tuskegee Institute Medical Director, and personal physician to Dr. Booker Taliafero Washington and his family.