Linda Brown is best remembered as the subject of the lawsuit that led to the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision which eventually impacted public schools across the United States. Brown was born on February 20, 1943, in Topeka, Kansas. She was the daughter of Oliver and … Read More … Read MoreLinda Brown (1943-2018)
The National Negro Business League (NNBL) was founded by Booker T. Washington in Boston, Massachusetts in 1900. The league, which predated the United States Chamber of Commerce by 12 years, strives to enhance the commercial and economic prosperity of the African American community. The NNBL … Read More … Read MoreNational Negro Business League (1900 – )
Mississippi attorney and jurist Reuben V. Anderson had a series of “firsts” in his career. On January 16, 1985, he was sworn as the first African American Supreme Court Justice in the state of Mississippi, a position he held until his retirement from the bench in 1991. Anderson … Read More … Read MoreReuben V. Anderson (1943- )
In 1998 Dr. Carolyn Jefferson-Jenkins of Colorado Springs, Colorado, was elected the first African American President of the National League of Women Voters. She became the 15th President of the League in its 78-year history. After joining the League in 1982, she served as a … Read More … Read MoreCarolyn Jefferson-Jenkins (1952- )
Yuri Kochiyama was born Mary Yuriko Nakahara in 1921 and raised in San Pedro, California, in a small working-class neighborhood. When Pearl Harbor was bombed, the life of Yuri’s family took a turn for the worse. Her father, a first-generation Japanese immigrant, was arrested by … Read More … Read MoreYuri Kochiyama (1921-2014)
The ancient land of Nubia stretched from the Middle and Upper Nile River Valley, from the First cataract of the Nile River down to the merging of the White and Blue Nile Rivers. Many cultures populated and fought over this region resulting in dynamic trade … Read More … Read MoreAncient Nubia (ca. 5000 BC-500 AD)
Elijah Abel, early convert to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), was born on July 25, 1810 in Washington County, Maryland to Andrew and Delilah Abel, likely in bondage. There is some evidence that he used the Underground Railroad to escape slavery. He eventually … Read More … Read MoreElijah Abel (1810-1884)
On April 12, 1864, some 3,000 rebels under the command of Nathan Bedford Forrest overran Fort Pillow, a former Confederate stronghold situated on a bluff on the Tennessee bank of the Mississippi, some 40 miles north of Memphis. The garrison consisted of about 600 Union … Read More … Read MoreFort Pillow Massacre (1864)
John Francis Wheaton was a late 19th Century and early 20th Century lawyer and a politician. Wheaton ran for elective office in three states and was the first African American to serve in the Minnesota House of Representatives. John Francis Wheaton was born on May … Read More … Read MoreJohn Francis Wheaton (1866-1922)
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]This entry is for juvenile audiences. To see the full version of this entry, click here.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]What happened (Who are they): Sojourner Truth was the most prominent African American woman to participate in both the abolition of slavery and women’s rights movements in the 19th century. … Read More … Read MoreSojourner Truth (1797-1883) [Children’s Edition]
