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.
Born in Arkansas City, Arkansas on January 19, 1918, publisher, philanthropist, businessman, entrepreneur, John Harold Johnson became the leading 20th Century publisher of African American news magazines. Johnson moved to Chicago in 1932 where he attended school and graduated with honors in 1936. He attended … Read MoreJohn H. Johnson (1918-2005)
In a remarkable and controversial life, Max Yergan spanned both the globe and the ideological spectrum of American politics. An early champion of racial uplift and the social gospel in South Africa, Yergan transformed into a leading figure on the radical Black Left during the … Read MoreMax Yergan (1892-1975)
Danny K. Davis was born in Parkdale, Arkansas on September 6, 1941, the son of a sharecropper. He received a B.A. in history from Arkansas A.M. & N. College in 1961 and then moved to Chicago. In 1968 he earned an M.A. from Chicago State … Read MoreDanny K. Davis (1941- )
Stanley Crouch was a tough-minded and controversial jazz critic, playwright, essayist, novelist, and percussionist. After a personal intellectual transformation in the late 1970s, Crouch became the contemporary champion of traditionalist jazz – an identity which he defined with both powerful cultural criticisms and outbursts of … Read MoreStanley Crouch (1945-2020)
Robert Colescott’s massive paintings evoke powerful emotions and thoughtful contemplation. For the past thirty years, Colescott has engaged themes of race, gender, and social inequality. His art is both highly charged and also intrinsically beautiful. In 1997, Colescott was the first African American painter to … Read MoreRobert Colescott (1925-2009)
Born into poverty, the grandson of a former slave, business executive Stanley O’Neal rose through the ranks of corporate America to become the first African American to head a major firm on Wall Street when Merrill Lynch named him chief executive officer in 2002. In … Read MoreStanley O’Neal (1951- )
Aviation company founder William J. Powell was born in Kentucky on July 27, 1897. His family soon moved to Chicago, Illinois where he attended school. In 1914 at the age of 17 Powell was accepted into the University of Illinois engineering program. His studies were … Read MoreWilliam J. Powell (1897-1942)
Andrew J. Young (not related to Martin Luther King’s lieutenant and Southern Christian Leadership Conference member of the same name) was a civil rights activist in Seattle during the middle part of the twentieth century. A lawyer, Young first reached prominence when he served as … Read MoreAndrew Young (Seattle)
Robert Russa Moton was born in 1867 on the William Vaughan Plantation in Prince Edward County, Virginia. Moton attended the local freedman’s school and eventually went on to college at the Hampton Institute (now called Hampton University). At Hampton Institute, Moton distinguished himself academically and … Read MoreRobert R. Moton (1867-1940)
Lodie Biggs, one of the few black professional women in pre-World War II Seattle, was also a significant political activist in the 1920s and 1930s. She was also involved with the transformation of the Seattle branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored … Read MoreLodie Biggs (?-?)
