A coalition of antipoverty organizations and black nationalist groups initiated the Watts Summer Festival in 1966 as a way to focus the Watts community on celebrating black heritage and culture annually on the anniversary of the Watts riots. Although the groups involved in establishing and … Read More … Read MoreWatts Summer Festival (1966- )
In 1867 Frederick Douglass, noted abolitionist and civil rights leader, weighed in on one of the most contentious issues of the day, suffrage for black men following the Civil War. His address, given in January 1867 in Washington, D.C., during the Congressional debate on black … Read More … Read More(1867) Frederick Douglass, “Appeal to Congress for Impartial Suffrage”
Writer Gary Younge was born in January 1969 in Hertfordshire, England, to Barbadian parents. He grew up in the town of Stevenage, which had a very small Black population at the time. Gary and his two elder brothers, Pat and Wayne, were brought up by … Read More … Read MoreGary Younge (1969- )
Most coal mining communities are transitory due to the demands of the mining industry. However, that was not the case with Buxton, Iowa, a coal mining colony with a large black population that grew in southern Iowa at the beginning of the 20th Century. Beginning … Read More … Read MoreBuxton, Iowa (1895-1927)
In the following article University of Oregon historian Daniel Pope briefly outlines the history of African Americans in the Advertising Industry since the beginning of the 20th Century. Paul Kinsey, a young white copywriter at a prominent advertising agency in 1961 dates an African American … Read More … Read More“Mad Men” in Black: African Americans in the Twentieth Century U.S. Advertising Industry
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 More … Read MoreImari Abubakari Obadele, I (1930-2010)
On October 14, 1889, Clarence Edouard Muse was born to Alexander and Mary Muse in Baltimore, Maryland. Muse had intended to become an attorney and earned a degree in International Law from The Dickerson School of Law in Pennsylvania in 1911. Because of poor opportunities … Read More … Read MoreClarence Muse (1889-1979)
The New Negro Alliance (NNA) was a Washington, D.C. based organization founded in 1933 by mostly middle class blacks to use pickets, economic boycotts, and other direct action protests to promote civil rights. It sought to increase African American employment opportunities, especially in white collar … Read More … Read MoreThe New Negro Alliance (1933-1940s)
Terrycina “Terri” Sewell, the current U.S. Representative for Alabama’s 7th district, was born January 1, 1965 in Huntsville, Alabama to Andrew and Nancy Sewell. Sewell grew up in Selma, Alabama where both of her parents were employed by the local school district. Her father, Andrew, … Read More … Read MoreTerri Sewell (1965- )
M. Gayle Dickson, also known as Asali, was the only woman graphic artist for the Black Panther Party Newspaper between 1972 and 1974. Dickson was born in Berkeley, California on June 27, 1948 to James Stowers, a dry cleaner owner, and Madeline Stowers, a seamstress. … Read More … Read MoreMadeline Gayle “Asali” Dickson (1948- )
