Melba “Malín” Falú Pesante, model, producer, radio and television personality, was born June 28, 1946, in la Parada 22, Santurce, Puerto Rico to María Magdalena “Malen” Pesante Santana and Juan “Juanín” Falú Zarzuela, founder of the League to Promote the Advancement of Blacks in Puerto … Read MoreMalín Falú (1946- )
José Celso Barbosa Alcalá, physician, polemicist, professor, politician, and publisher, was born on July 27, 1857 in Bayamón, Puerto Rico to Carmen Alcalá and Hermógenes Barbosa, brick mason and San Antonio sugar mill overseer. Barbosa’s life traversed significant periods: Spanish colonization; Grito de Lares; slavery, … Read MoreJosé Barbosa (1857-1921)
Julia de Burgos was a celebrated literary icon of the Americas whose themes of Blackness, feminism, love, migration, nationalism, and nature helped birth the 1960s Nuyorican movement. Julia Constanza Burgos García, teacher, activist, journalist, and poet, was born February 17, 1914 in Santa Cruz, Carolina, … Read MoreJulia de Burgos (1914-1953)
Georgina Falú Pesante, university executive, community organizer, professor, and Pan-Africanist, was born on April 23, 1939 in Santurce, Puerto Rico to María Magdalena “Malen” Pesante Santana, business owner and homemaker, and Juan “Juanín” Falú Zarzuela, civil rights activist. Her father created the League to Promote … Read MoreGeorgina Falú (1939- )
Alton Parker Hornsby, Jr., author, historian and professor, was born on September 3, 1940 in Atlanta, Georgia to Lillie Mae Newton Hornsby, an entrepreneur and voting rights activist, and Alton P. Hornsby, an automobile painter. Hornsby was one of six children whose parents briefly owned … Read MoreAlton Hornsby, Jr. (1940-2017)
Imari Obadele, black power activist, reparations advocate, and college professor, is best known as co-founder of the Republic of New Afrika. Obadele was born Richard Bullock Henry on May 2, 1930 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His homemaker mother, Vera N. Robinson Henry, and his father, Walter … Read MoreImari Abubakari Obadele, I (1930-2010)
Maude Craig, public school teacher, suffragist, civil rights and community activist, was born in Austin, Texas in February 1880 to Marie Sanders Craig, a homemaker, and George Washington Craig, a grocer. In 1900, Craig graduated from Prairie View State Normal and Industrial College (now Prairie … Read MoreMaude E. Craig Sampson Williams (1880-1958)
Raymond A. Brown, a prominent civil rights activist, attorney, and military officer was born on May 6, 1915 in Fernandina Beach, Florida. His mother, Elizabeth Christopher Traeye, was a domestic, teacher and homemaker who in 1930 helped establish Christ the King, Jersey City’s only Black … Read MoreRaymond Aloysius Brown (1915-2009)
James N. Eaton, archivist, curator, museum founder, distinguished professor of history and pioneering architect of the Black studies movement in Florida was born in Richmond, Virginia on September 14, 1930 to Sarah Cousin Eaton, a domestic, and John Jasper Eaton, Sr., a broom maker, World … Read MoreJames Nathaniel Eaton, Sr. (1930-2004)
Lee Frank Hagan, professor and academic administrator, was born July 28, 1945 in Brunswick, Georgia to Melvania Rhymes-Hagan, a Nurse Assistant; and Felton Hagan, a maintenance supervisor. Lee was one of four children: Oadline, Jerome and Maurice. In 1952, the Hagan family migrated to Newark, New Jersey where Lee graduated from … Read MoreLee Frank Hagan (1945-1986)
