1875 - Robert Smalls, Former Slave, Elected to House 1878 - The Black Cowboy and George McJunkin 1881 - Booker T. Washington Opens Tuskegee Institute 1884 - T. Thomas Fortune Prophesises the Long and Bitter Struggle for Equality 1887 - Granville T. Woods, Called the 'Black Edison,' Patents the Induction Telegraph System 1893 - Ida B. Wells-Barnett Crusades Against Black Lynching in America 1896 - Plessy v. Ferguson Case Upholds Segregation