Robert Louis Johnson, founder, chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Black Entertainment Television (BET), is also the majority owner of the Charlotte (North Carolina) Bobcats of the National Basketball Association (NBA) and the first African American billionaire. He was born in Hickory, Mississippi in … Read MoreRobert Louis Johnson (1946- )
An exceptional athlete and one of America’s leading sprinters of the 1930s, Matthew Mackenzie “Mack” Robinson, was born in Cairo, Georgia in 1912. Matthew grew up with three other siblings, including the famed Jackie Robinson. After their father left following the birth of the last … Read MoreMatthew MacKenzie “Mack” Robinson (1912-2000)
Stax Records is an American record company known for its talented, and often integrated, rhythm and blues (R&B) musicians. Founded by Estelle Axton and her brother Jim Stewart in 1957 as Satellite Records, in 1960 the company moved into the Capitol Theater in Memphis, Tennessee. … Read MoreStax Records (1957- )
John Chilembwe was a Baptist educator and political leader who organized an uprising against British colonial rule in Nyasaland (today Malawi). Though details about Chilembwe’s early life are largely undocumented, it is believed that he was born in the Chiradzulu region of Nyasaland sometime around … Read MoreJohn Chilembwe (ca. 1871-1915)
Moïse Kapenda Tshombe was the president of Katanga, once a secessionist state of Congo immediately after the country’s independence in 1960. Tshombe was born in 1919 in the southern region of Katanga. His father was said to be the first Congolese millionaire, amassing a fortune … Read MoreMoïse Kapenda Tshombe (1919–1969)
Carl Lewis was a successful track and field athlete whose career spanned two decades from 1979 to 1997. He won ten medals as a member of five Olympic teams and won ten World Championship medals. Carl Lewis was born in Birmingham, Alabama, on July 1, … Read MoreFrederick Carlton “Carl” Lewis (1961- )
The Black Loyalists were the approximately 3,000 African American supporters of the British during the American Revolution who were repatriated to British Canada at the end of the conflict. Most settled in Nova Scotia and established what would be for decades, the largest concentration of … Read MoreBlack Loyalists Exodus to Nova Scotia (1783)
Harry Herbert Pace was the founder of the first black record company, Pace Phonograph Corporation which sold recordings under the Black Swan Records label. He was born on January 6, 1884 in Covington, Georgia the son of Charles Pace and Nancy Ferris Pace. His father, … Read MoreHarry Pace (1884-1943)
The Orangeburg Massacre took place in Orangeburg, South Carolina at South Carolina State University on February 8, 1968. This horrific incident ended with three young men killed, Samuel Hammond, Henry Smith, and Delano Middleton, and twenty-seven other students wounded. It was the worst example of … Read MoreOrangeburg Massacre (1968)
Bobby Lee Rush was born in Albany, Georgia on November 23, 1946. He graduated from Marshall High School in that city at the age of seventeen and soon afterwards enlisted in the United States Army. Rush served in the Army from 1963 to 1968 when … Read MoreBobby L. Rush (1946- )
