In the article that follows, Richard S. Kirkendall, the Scott and Dorothy Bullitt Professor Emeritus of American History at the University of Washington, Seattle, pays tribute to fellow historian Arvarh E. Strickland. Kirkendall was chairman of the History Department of the University of Missouri-Columbia in … Read MoreArvarh E. Strickland, 1930-2013: An Historian’s Life
Harold Mills is a boat racing pioneer and award winning driver. Born August 16, 1953 in Seattle, Washington, he spent nine years in Houston, Texas as a child. He came back to Seattle and grew up as a fan of boat racing. In the late … Read MoreHarold Mills (1953- )
Samuel Harrison, a minister, political activist, and former slave, became one of Berkshire County, Massachusetts’s most ardent abolitionists. Harrison was born enslaved in Philadelphia in 1818 but he and his mother were freed in 1821. Shortly afterwards the widowed mother and her son moved to … Read MoreSamuel Harrison (1818-1900)
On October 25, 1997, an estimated 750,000 African American women gathered together to march on the Ben Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia to focus on their trials, circumstances, and successes. The day-long march and program of prayer, music, and inspirational speeches, which began at the Liberty … Read MoreMillion Woman March, 1997
Father Divine, founder of the International Peace Missions Movement, was a religious leader, businessman, and civil rights activist. He was born George Baker in Rockville, Maryland sometime in 1876 to George and Nancy Baker. Viewed by many to be a cult leader, his doctrine was … Read MoreFather Divine (c.1876-1965)
The first African American to win the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, Alice Walker was born the eighth child of sharecroppers Willie Lee and Minnie Lou Grant Walker, on February 9, 1944, in Eatonton, Georgia. Walker became the valedictorian of her segregated high school class, despite … Read MoreAlice M. Walker (1944- )
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- )
U.S. Congressman Elijah E. Cummings was born in Baltimore, Maryland on January 18, 1951. He received a B.A. in political science from Howard University (Washington, D.C.) in 1973 and a J.D. from the University of Maryland (College Park) in 1976. Cummings, one of seven children … Read MoreElijah E. Cummings (1951-2019 )
U.S. Congresswoman Barbara-Rose Collins was born in Detroit, Michigan on April 13, 1939 to Lunar N. and Vera (Jones) Richardson. Collins attended Wayne State University in Detroit. Her career began at Wayne State University where she served as business manager, worked in the Physics department, … Read MoreBarbara-Rose Collins (1939- )
Former State Legislator and Mayor Willie Lewis Brown Jr. was born in Mineola, Texas, to Willie L. Brown, Sr., and Minnie (Boyd) Lewis on March 20, 1934. After migrating to San Francisco, California in 1951, Brown worked as a janitor in order to subsidize his … Read MoreWillie Brown, Jr. (1934- )
