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.
Wilton Norman Chamberlain was an African American basketball player who played in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for the Philadelphia/San Francisco Warriors, the Philadelphia 76ers, and the Los Angeles Lakers. Chamberlain is known as one of the greatest basketball players of all time, being selected … Read MoreWilton Norman Chamberlain (1936-1999)
Born Robert Todd Duncan in Danville, Kentucky in 1903, Todd Duncan was the first African American to perform in an otherwise all-white cast in the New York City Opera’s production of Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci. He began his professional stage career in 1933 in Pietro Mascagni’s Cavalleria … Read MoreTodd Duncan (1903-1998)
Ann Bradford, early African American Navy nurse, was born a slave in Rutherford County, Tennessee, in 1830. Few other details of her early life are known. She was not able to read or write and was taken aboard a Union ship as “contraband” (an escaped … Read MoreAnn Bradford Stokes (1830-1903)
Born in Antebellum South Carolina, the Rt. Rev. Samuel David Ferguson emigrated to Liberia as a child and became the first African American member of the Episcopal House of Bishops. As is sometimes thought, he was not the first African American Episcopal bishop. That distinction … Read MoreSamuel David Ferguson (1842-1916)
Editor and bibliophile Henry Proctor Slaughter is best remembered for his vast collection of rare documents on African American history. The son of former slaves, a young Slaughter questioned the biased treatment of slavery in his school textbooks, and he spent a lifetime collecting materials … Read MoreHenry Proctor Slaughter (1871-1958)
Vivian Gordon Harsh was the first African American librarian in the Chicago Public Library system and a significant contributor to Chicago’s Black Renaissance. In 1932 she was appointed head librarian of the George Cleveland Hall Branch, the city’s first library built in an African American … Read MoreVivian Gordon Harsh (1890-1960)
Actress and performing artist Mamie Smith made music history in 1920 when she stepped into a studio to lay down “Crazy Blues,” considered by industry scholars to be the very first blues recording. Smith was a glamorous and multi-talented entertainer, performing on stage and in … Read MoreMamie Smith (1883-1946)
Maurice Ashley, the first African American chess grandmaster, was born in St. Andrew, Jamaica on March 6, 1966. At age 12, his family moved to Brooklyn, New York, where Ashley began to develop an interest in chess. Although he spent several hours a day playing … Read MoreMaurice Ashley (1966- )
Anderson Ruffin Abbott, Canada’s first black doctor, was born April 7, 1837 in Toronto, Ontario. He was the son of free black property owners William Ruffin Abbott and his wife Ellen (Toyer) Abbott who left Alabama after their store had been destroyed. They settled briefly … Read MoreAnderson Ruffin Abbott (1837-1913)
Ambassador Harold E. Doley, Jr is the founder of Doley Securities, LLC, the oldest African American owned investment banking firm in the nation. Doley is the only African American to have owned a seat on the New York Stock Exchange. Born on March 8, 1947 … Read MoreHarold Doley, Jr. (1947- )
