Stephanie Christensen

Student Historian

Stephanie Christensen is an undergraduate at the University of Washington majoring in History.  She will graduate in June 2008, and plans on beginning law school in Fall 2008.

Women’s Political Council of Montgomery

Thelma Glass, one of the Founding Members of the Women’s Politcal Council Image Courtesy of The Montgomery Advertiser The Women’s Political Council (WPC) of Montgomery, Alabama was founded in 1946 by scholar and Alabama State College professor Mary Fair Burks. The Council was a political … Read MoreWomen’s Political Council of Montgomery

Rodney King (1965-2012)

  Image Ownership: Public Domain Rodney King, a Los Angeles taxicab driver, became the catalyst for the second major urban uprising in the city in the 20th Century.  On March 3, 1991 King was the victim of a brutal police beating that occurred in the … Read MoreRodney King (1965-2012)

Juanita Millender-McDonald (1938-2007)

Born in Birmingham, Alabama in 1938, Juanita Millender McDonald was an educator and member of the United States House of Representatives.  She received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Redlands and a master’s degree from California State University at Los Angeles. Millender-McDonald taught in … Read MoreJuanita Millender-McDonald (1938-2007)

Eartha Mae Kitt (1928-2008)

Image Ownership: Public Domain Eartha Mae Kitt was born on January 26, 1928, in North, South Carolina.  Her sharecropper parents abandoned Kitt and her half-sister as young children, forcing them to live with a foster family until they moved to New York City, New York … Read MoreEartha Mae Kitt (1928-2008)

Niagara Movement (1905-1909)

The Niagara Movement Annual Meeting, Boston, 1907 Image Ownership: Public Domain The Niagara Movement was a civil rights group organized by W.E.B. DuBois and William Monroe Trotter in 1905.  After being denied admittance to hotels in Buffalo, New York, the group of 29 business owners, … Read MoreNiagara Movement (1905-1909)

Oscar W. Holden, Jr. (1887-1969)

Oscar Holden, often called the patriarch of Seattle jazz, was one of the earliest of Seattle, Washington’s influential jazz musicians. Holden was born in Nashville, Tennessee in 1887. Before moving to Chicago, Illinois to escape from the South, Holden had played on Fate Marable’s famous … Read MoreOscar W. Holden, Jr. (1887-1969)

Operation PUSH (People United to Serve Humanity)

Image Ownership: Public Domain Operation PUSH was founded by Rev. Jesse Jackson in 1971 to improve the economic status of African Americans in Chicago, Illinois.  Prior to founding PUSH, Jackson was head of the Southern Leadership Conference’s Operation Breadbasket in Chicago.  Through Breadbasket, Jackson succeeded … Read MoreOperation PUSH (People United to Serve Humanity)