Olga Bourlin, Author at • Page 2 of 4

Independent Historian

Olga Bourlin is editor of The Human Prospect, a journal published by the Institute for Science and Human Values. Having grown up in China and Brazil before emigrating to the United States at age 9 has given her an abiding love of history and a relentless curiosity about cultures around the world. Her Bachelor of Science degree is from San Francisco State University. She has written for Free Inquiry, Apogee, The Secular Humanist Press, and The Examiner (the newsletter for African Americans for Humanism (AAH)). A lifelong reader and big fan of the First Amendment, Olga was a co-founder and co-chair of the Northwest Feminist Anti-Censorship Taskforce.

Dorothy Lavinia Brown (1919-2004)

Dr. Dorothy Lavinia Brown was a medical pioneer, educator, and community leader. In 1948-1949 Brown became the first African American female appointed to a general surgery residency in the de jure racially segregated South. In 1956 Brown became the first unmarried woman in Tennessee authorized … Read MoreDorothy Lavinia Brown (1919-2004)

Robert “Bobby” Waltrip Short (1924-2005)

Recording artist and three-time Grammy award nominee Bobby Short, a self-taught piano prodigy during his childhood, was regarded as the quintessential sophisticated cabaret and supper-club vocalist and piano player of his time. Short, who learned to play piano by ear at the age of four, … Read MoreRobert “Bobby” Waltrip Short (1924-2005)

Geoffrey Lamont Holder (1930-2014)

“Image Ownership: Nightscream” Geoffrey Lamont Holder, acclaimed choreographer and legendary figure in the dance world, was also a respected actor, Tony Award-winning director, costume designer, singer, music composer, voice-over artist, orator, painter, sculptor, and photographer. Holder was born to a middle-class family in Port of … Read MoreGeoffrey Lamont Holder (1930-2014)

Simmie Lee Knox (1935- )

“Image Ownership: Public Domain” In 2004 former President Clinton’s and former First Lady Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s official oil portraits were revealed in the East Room at the executive mansion. The artist, Simmie Lee Knox, became in 2002 the first African American artist to get … Read MoreSimmie Lee Knox (1935- )

George Marion McClellan (1860-1934)

African American poet, writer, minister, and educator George Marion McClellan was born in Belfast, Tennessee on September 29, 1860 to George Fielding and Eliza (Leonard) McClellan. Little is known about McClellan’s early life. In 1885 McClellan obtained a bachelor’s degree from Fisk University in Nashville, … Read MoreGeorge Marion McClellan (1860-1934)

Samuel (“Sammy”) Leamon Younge, Jr. (1944-1966)

Samuel (“Sammy”) Leamon Younge Jr. was a 21-year-old civil rights activist who was shot to death on January 3, 1966 when he attempted to use a whites-only restroom at a gas station in Macon County, Alabama. He was a navy veteran studying political science at … Read MoreSamuel (“Sammy”) Leamon Younge, Jr. (1944-1966)

Donyale Luna (1945-1979)

Before the Civil Rights Movement in America, African American models were visible in Black magazines such as Jet and Ebony, but non-white models were never seen on the covers of Western fashion magazines, on the runway, or in advertising. With that movement, and especially the … Read MoreDonyale Luna (1945-1979)

Gail Fisher (1935-2000)

Gail Fisher was already a popular model in African American newspapers and magazines, as well as a theater actress when, in the late 1950s, she starred in The New Girl in the Office, a film about integrating a hitherto all-white office staff of a white-owned … Read MoreGail Fisher (1935-2000)

Carmen Paula de Lavallade (1931- )

Legendary dancer, choreographer, and actor Carmen de Lavallade came to prominence in the early 1950s when black artists came into their own in the world of American dance on Broadway, in film, and on television. De Lavallade was born on March 6, 1931, in Los … Read MoreCarmen Paula de Lavallade (1931- )

Derrick Albert Bell Jr. (1930-2011)

Derrick Bell, legal scholar and teacher, was the first black law professor at Harvard Law School to achieve tenure and one of the first African American deans in a non-historically black law school. Bell was also a founder of an academic model called critical race … Read MoreDerrick Albert Bell Jr. (1930-2011)