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.
Fisk University Franklin Library’s Special Collections A[lrutheus] A[mbush] Taylor, historian, was born in Washington D.C. where he also went through the public school system. He earned a B.A. degree from the University of Michigan in 1916 and taught at the Tuskegee Institute (now Tuskegee University) … Read MoreAlrutheus Ambush Taylor (1893-1955)
Wilfred Augustus Low — or “Gus,” as he was universally known to friends and colleagues — was born to a sharecropping family in the Delta country of Mississippi on May 17, 1916. When Low was a teenager, his family relocated to St. Louis, Missouri, which … Read MoreW. Augustus Low (1916-1988)
Historian and anthropologist, William Leo Hansberry began his college education at Atlanta University, but (at the urging of W.E.B. DuBois) he transferred to Harvard in 1917. Based on his reading of classical texts and his study of archeological evidence, Hansberry became convinced as an undergraduate … Read MoreWilliam Leo Hansberry (1894-1965)
Although Lucy Parsons was one of the first and most important African American activists on the left, there is scanty historical documentation about her origins. It is believed that Lucy Parsons was born on a plantation in Hill County, Texas around March of 1853. Significantly … Read MoreLucy Parsons (1853-1942)
African American philosopher Richard I. McKinney was born on August 8, 1906 in Live Oak, Florida on the college campus of Farmer Institute (later named Florida Memorial College). The son of educators, he graduated from Morehouse College in 1931 with a major in philosophy and … Read MoreRichard I. McKinney (1906-2005)
African American philosopher Charles Leander Hill was born on July 28 1906 in Urbana Ohio. Hill was one of seven children born to David Leander and Karen (Andrews) Hill. Well respected in the Urbana community, the family lived on a street which was named after … Read MoreCharles Leander Hill (1906-1956)
Anna Murray Douglass is best known as the first wife of black abolitionist Frederick Douglass. Her life illustrates the challenges facing women who were married to famous men. Born as a free black in rural Maryland, her parents, Mary and Bambarra Murray, were manumitted shortly … Read MoreAnna Murray Douglass (c. 1813-1882)
Charleton Tandy was born in Kentucky in 1836 to parents who were free only because his grandparents had purchased the family’s freedom three years before his birth. Throughout his childhood, Tandy’s family worked to free slaves through the Underground Railroad, and as a young man, … Read MoreCharleton Tandy (1836-1919)
In 1950, Ethel Waters was the first black American performer to star in her own regular television show, Beulah, but it was the 1961 role in the “Good Night, Sweet Blues” episode of the television series Route 66 that earned her an Emmy award. She … Read MoreEthel Waters (1896-1977)
Jerry Butler was born to sharecropping farmers in Sunflower, Mississippi, but at the age of three his family joined the Great Migration and moved to Chicago, Illinois (to an area now known as the Cabrini-Green Housing Projects). His initial introduction to music began as a … Read MoreJerry Butler (1939- )
