Will Guzmán, Author at

Academic Historian

Will Guzmán is an assistant vice chancellor of International Affairs and Community Engagement at North Carolina Central University in Durham. A Florida A&M University alumnus, he is the inaugural Texas Tech University Press Afro-Texans series editor, granted a National Humanities Center fellowship, and won the C. Calvin Smith book prize for Civil Rights in the Texas Borderlands. He writes on African American history after 1865 and Afro-Puerto Rican history after 1873.

Currently, Will is coediting Maceo C. Dailey’s Emmett J. Scott: Power Broker of the Tuskegee Machine; Florida’s Black Power Movement; ‘The Hill’ We Climbed; 1876: Prairie View, The University on a Hill; and writing the biography of legendary civil rights and criminal defense New Jersey counsellor Raymond A. Brown: Black Power’s Attorney. A graduate of Passaic High, Will earned a Ph.D. in Borderlands History from the University of Texas–El Paso.

Rasheed Storey (1936-2016)

Rasheed Linway Storey, factory worker and Communist organizer, was born February 21, 1936 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Ella Mae Kimball Storey of Mobile, Alabama and James Enes Storey of Elizabeth City, North Carolina. Reared in West Philadelphia’s Mill Creek, Storey attended Overbrook High for two-years … Read MoreRasheed Storey (1936-2016)

Marvin Dunn (1940- )

Psychologist and historian Marvin Dunn was born in an orange grove barn in the Blackberry community of DeLand, Florida on June 27, 1940. His mother, Corinne Elizabeth Williams of Dothan, Alabama, was a housecleaner and cook and his dad, James C. Dunn Sr. of Glenwood, … Read MoreMarvin Dunn (1940- )

Omali Yeshitela (1941- )

Omali Yeshitela, Pan-Africanist, socialist, and activist, was born Joseph Allen Waller Jr. on October 9, 1941, in St. Petersburg, Florida, to Lucille Waller of Pensacola, Florida, and Joseph Waller of Eatonton, Georgia. Lucille, a licensed practical nurse and cosmetologist, owned multiple hair salons, and Joseph … Read MoreOmali Yeshitela (1941- )

Howard Fuller (1941- )

Howard Lamar Fuller, civil rights and education activist, was born January 14, 1941, in Shreveport, Louisiana to Juanita Smith and Tom Fuller. Grandmother Pearl Wagner raised him until his 1948 reunion with Smith in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Residing at Hillside Terrace public housing, Fuller attended St. … Read MoreHoward Fuller (1941- )

Frederick Humphries (1935-2021)

Frederick Stephen Humphries Sr., university president, professor, and HBCU advocate, was born December 26, 1935, in Apalachicola, Florida to Minnie Fry Henry, a domestic servant and teacher, and Thornton Govan Humphries Sr., a lumber mill worker and salter. A lifelong Catholic, Humphries was influenced by … Read MoreFrederick Humphries (1935-2021)

Bobby Wright (1934-1982)

Bobby Eugene Wright, Pan-African clinical psychologist, mental health administrator, and theorist, was born March 1, 1934 in Anniston, Alabama. Reared in Hobson City, Alabama’s first all-Black town, by mother Myrtle M. Johnson, stepmother Zellar C. Royle, and father, Bennie Henry Wright (1904-1949), a Monsanto Chemical … Read MoreBobby Wright (1934-1982)

Alonzo Smith “Jake” Gaither (1903-1994)

Alonzo Smith “Jake” Gaither, football coach, was born April 11, 1903 in Dayton, Tennessee to teacher Florence Kyle Gaither and AME minister Jefferson Davis Gaither. Gaither attended Knoxville College, Knoxville, Tennessee in 1919 as a high school freshman and graduated with a B.A. in 1927. … Read MoreAlonzo Smith “Jake” Gaither (1903-1994)

Delbert Africa (1946-2020)

Delbert Samuel Orr Africa, Black Panther, MOVE member, and political prisoner, was born April 2, 1946 in Chicago, Illinois to Herma Estelle Hall and Samuel Orr. After graduating from Chicago’s Crane Technical High, Orr enlisted into the US Air Force in 1963, and was honorably … Read MoreDelbert Africa (1946-2020)

Doxey Wilkerson (1905-1993)

Doxey Alphonso Lewis Alexander Wilkerson, communist, Marxist, professor, author, editor, and union leader, was born April 24, 1905 in Excelsior Springs, Missouri to Mattie L. Wilkerson of Kentucky (1884-1955) and Methodist minister Alphonso Wilkerson. A 1921 graduate of Sumner High School in Kansas City, Kansas, … Read MoreDoxey Wilkerson (1905-1993)

Jesús Colón (1901-1974)

Fabián Jesús Colón López, Afro-Puerto Rican Marxist, socialist, communist, writer, and political and community activist, was born on January 20, 1901 in Cayey, Puerto Rico (PR), to Paula López Colón (1874-1927), a domestic worker, and Mauricio Colón Coto (1863-1920), a baker, jointer, artisan, and US … Read MoreJesús Colón (1901-1974)