One of the original Greensboro Four who took part in the Woolworth sit-ins. It is reported that as a nine-year-old he boasted to friends that he would “one day drink from the white people’s fountains and eat at their lunch counters.” Blair was the most … Read MoreJibreel Khazan/Ezell Blair, Jr. (1941- )
Microbiologist James Monroe Jay was born in Fitzgerald, Georgia on September 12, 1927. Following service in the U.S. Army during World War II he earned his bachelor’s degree at Paine College (cum laude), then his master’s in 1953 and Ph.D. in bacteriology and biochemistry at … Read MoreJames M. Jay (1927-2008)
Olympic athlete and scientist James Ellis Lu Valle was born in San Antonio, Texas on November 10, 1912 but grew up in Los Angeles where he made use of a library card even before entering elementary school. Academics was always uppermost in his mind despite … Read MoreJames E. Lu Valle (1912-1993)
James Arthur Baldwin, fiction writer, essayist, dramatist, and poet, was born on August 2, 1924 in Harlem, New York during the Harlem Renaissance. After graduating from DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx in 1942, he began his formal career as a writer. Baldwin was … Read MoreJames Baldwin (1924-1987)
James Thomas Saunders Redding was born in Wilmington, Delaware on October 13, 1906 to Lewis Alfred Redding and Mary Ann Holmes. Redding earned a bachelor of philosophy (Ph.B.) in 1928 and later a master of arts (M.A.) in 1932 from Brown University. Redding also earned … Read MoreJ. Saunders Redding (1906-1988)
Jesse Ernest Wilkins, Jr. is often described as one of America’s most important contemporary mathematicians. At 13, he became the University of Chicago’s youngest student. Wilkins continued his studies there, earning bachelor, master, and doctorate degrees in mathematics. When he finished his Ph.D. at 19, he … Read MoreJ. Ernest Wilkins Jr. (1923-2011)
Praised as one of the world’s most distinguished academic physicians, from 1993 to 2003 Dr. Haile Tesfaye Debas served as Dean of the School of Medicine at the University of California at San Francisco. Prior to becoming dean, for six years he was chairman of … Read MoreHaile T. Debas (1937- )
Although he will more than likely be remembered best for releasing “The Message,” the first rap song to delve into social commentary about the plight of African Americans in the inner-city, Grandmaster Flash was also the original technological virtuoso of the early hip-hop movement to … Read MoreGrandmaster Flash/Joseph Saddler (1958- )
George Wiley was born in New Jersey on February 26, 1931 and raised in Warwick, Rhode Island. Wiley earned his undergraduate degree at the University of Rhode Island in 1953 and his Ph.D. in chemistry at Cornell in 1957. Afterwards he accepted a post-doctoral position … Read MoreGeorge Alvin Wiley (1931-1973)
George L. Vaughn was a black lawyer and civic leader in St. Louis, Missouri best known for representing J.D. Shelley and Herman Willer in the landmark civil rights case Shelley v. Kraemer (1948). Born to former slaves and raised in Kentucky, Vaughn graduated from Lane College … Read MoreGeorge L. Vaughan (1885-1950)
