The following are short descriptions of the women and men who have contributed to the shaping of African American history. These encyclopedia entries serve as a starting point for much more inclusive descriptions and discussions that appear in other sources. For additional information please consult the print or website sources cited in the entry.
Magazine editor Susan L. Taylor was born in Harlem, New York on January 23, 1946. Her parents, Lawrence, from St. Kitts, and Violet, from Trinidad, came to New York in the 1920s and owned a clothing store for thirty years until it closed in the … Read MoreSusan L. Taylor (1946- )
Retired U.S. Air Force Colonel Merryl Tengesdal is the first African American female U-2 pilot in history and is the first African American woman to fly the Air Force’s U-2 Dragon Lady Spy Plane. She is the only black woman alongside five white women and … Read MoreColonel Merryl Tengesdal (1971- )
Imari Obadele, black power activist, reparations advocate, and college professor, is best known as co-founder of the Republic of New Afrika. Obadele was born Richard Bullock Henry on May 2, 1930 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His homemaker mother, Vera N. Robinson Henry, and his father, Walter … Read MoreImari Abubakari Obadele, I (1930-2010)
Luther Roderick Campbell, also known as Uncle Luke or Luke Skyywalker, is an African American rapper, promoter, actor, and record executive. Campbell was born on December 22, 1960, in Miami, Florida. His father has Jamaican ancestry and worked as a custodian, and his mother had … Read MoreLuther Campbell (1960- )
Former magazine owner Linda Johnson Rice was born on March 22, 1958, in Chicago, Illinois to John and Eunice Johnson. Rice’s father in 1942 founded Johnson Publishing Company which published Ebony and Jet magazines and as a result was the largest black-owned magazine publisher in … Read MoreLinda Johnson Rice (1958- )
Harriette Vyda Simms Moore was an African American educator, Civil Rights leader, and the wife of Harry Tyson Moore who was the founder of the first National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) branch in Florida. She and her husband were killed on … Read MoreHarriette Vyda Simms Moore (1902-1952)
Harry Tyson Moore was an African American civil rights leader and founder of the Brevard County, Florida National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). He also served as president of the state chapter of the NAACP. On December 25, 1951, Moore and his … Read MoreHarry T. Moore (1905-1951)
Rudy Gobert-Bourgarel, a professional basketball player for the Utah Jazz of the National Basketball Association (NBA), was the league’s first athlete to test positive for COVID-19, the Coronavirus. Gobert who is one of a handful of international players in the NBA, began his professional basketball … Read MoreRudy Gobert-Bourgarel (1992- )
John Macklin is an Emeritus Professor of Chemistry at the University of Washington, Seattle since his retirement in 2005. He was born in Fort Worth, Texas on December 11, 1939, and was raised in Seattle by parents Albert Macklin, a worker at Bethlehem Steel and … Read MoreJohn W. Macklin (1939- )
Maude Craig, public school teacher, suffragist, civil rights and community activist, was born in Austin, Texas in February 1880 to Marie Sanders Craig, a homemaker, and George Washington Craig, a grocer. In 1900, Craig graduated from Prairie View State Normal and Industrial College (now Prairie … Read MoreMaude E. Craig Sampson Williams (1880-1958)
