Jimmy Fenison, Author at

Independent Historian

Jimmy B. Fenison is a 2009 graduate in history from the University of Washington. He was born in Lexington, Kentucky in 1978. He served four years active duty in the U.S. Army and would like to express thanks for an influential African American in his life: “I would like to thank my Command Sergeant Major, Leon Hite III, in the Aviation Brigade, 25th Infantry Division, for his honor and integrity towards all 2500 (approx.) soldiers of mixed race and ethnicity under his leadership including me, his driver for three years.”

Roscoe Robinson, Jr. (1928-1993)

Roscoe Robinson Jr., the first African American four-star general in the U.S. Army, was born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1928. He received a bachelor’s in military engineering from The United States Military Academy (West Point) in 1951 and later attended the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College. … Read MoreRoscoe Robinson, Jr. (1928-1993)

Earl B. Dickerson (1891-1986)

Earl Burrus Dickerson was a member of President Roosevelt’s Fair Employment Practices Commission between 1941 and 1943 and a prominent civil rights attorney in Chicago. He was also one of the founders of the Supreme Liberty Life Insurance Company with headquarters in Chicago, Illinois. Dickerson … Read MoreEarl B. Dickerson (1891-1986)

Alexander T. Augusta (1825-1890)

Alexander Thomas Augusta was the highest-ranking black officer in the Union Army during the Civil War. He was also the first African American head of a hospital (Freedmen’s Hospital) and the first black professor of medicine (Howard University in Washington, D.C.). Augusta was born in … Read MoreAlexander T. Augusta (1825-1890)

Joseph James (?-?)

Joseph James was president of San Francisco National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). In 1944 he won a successful lawsuit, James v. Marinship Corporation which prohibited the Boilermakers union from discriminating against black workers in California. James and his wife, Alberta, came … Read MoreJoseph James (?-?)

Lacey Kirk Williams (1871-1940)

Lacey Kirk Williams was the President of the National Baptist Convention, U.S.A., Inc., from 1922 to 1940 and Vice President of the World Baptist Alliance between 1928 and 1940. He also succeeded in creating an interracial alliance which he called a “cooperative” between the wealthy … Read MoreLacey Kirk Williams (1871-1940)

Hazel W. Johnson (1927-2011 )

Hazel Johnson was the first African American woman to become a general in the U.S. Army. She was appointed the Chief of the Army Nurse Corps in 1979. Johnson held a doctorate in education administration from Catholic University (1978) and had honorary degrees from Morgan … Read MoreHazel W. Johnson (1927-2011 )

Charles W. Anderson, Jr. (1907-1960)

In 1935, Charles W. Anderson became the first black legislator in Kentucky and in the South since the Reconstruction. He championed the cause of civil rights in Kentucky including greatly improving the access of African Americans to education during six terms as a legislator. Anderson … Read MoreCharles W. Anderson, Jr. (1907-1960)

Kansas Industrial and Educational Institute (1895-1919)

The institute was known in Topeka as the “Western Tuskegee,” was the result of the work of Lizzie Riddick, a prominent member of the Colored Women’s Suffrage Association, and Edward Stephens. Riddick and Stephens successfully enlisted the support of Booker T. Washington and later the … Read MoreKansas Industrial and Educational Institute (1895-1919)

Charles Sherrod (1937 – 2022)

Charles Sherrod was a key civil rights leader in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) whose leadership led to the Albany Movement in southwest Georgia. Born in extreme poverty to his fourteen-year old mother in 1937 in Surry, Virginia, he worked to help support six … Read MoreCharles Sherrod (1937 – 2022)

Guion (Guy) Stewart Bluford Jr. (1942- )

Guy Bluford, a member of the SDS-8 space shuttle Challenger crew in 1983, was the first African American in space. Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Bluford was interested in math and science and knew he wanted to work in aerospace engineering before graduating high school. His … Read MoreGuion (Guy) Stewart Bluford Jr. (1942- )