Texas Congresswoman Barbara Jordan was selected to give the Opening Statement to the House Judiciary Committee on July 25, 1974, as it began its momentous proceedings on the Impeachment of President Richard Nixon. Her statement appears below: Mr. Chairman, I join my colleague Mr. Rangel … Read More … Read More(1974) Congresswoman Barbara Jordan’s Statement: The Richard Nixon Impeachment Hearings
James D. Lynch, a Reconstruction era politician, is best known for his position as Secretary of the State of Mississippi from 1869 to 1872. Lynch was the first African American to hold a major political office in that state. Born in 1838 in Baltimore, Maryland, … Read More … Read MoreJames D. Lynch (1838-1872)
Vanessa Lynn Williams was born in Tarrytown, New York on March 18, 1963. She is the daughter of Helen and the late Milton Williams who were music teachers. She has a younger brother, Christopher, who is also an actor. Williams was the first African American … Read More … Read MoreVanessa Williams (1963- )
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 More … Read MoreHazel W. Johnson (1927-2011 )
T. Thomas Fortune—African American journalist, editor, and writer—was born into slavery on October 3, 1856 to Sarah Jane and Emanuel Fortune. Raised in Marianna, Florida, as a child he witnessed the politically-motivated violence of the Ku Klux Klan. Despite minimal formal education, Fortune worked in … Read More … Read MoreT. Thomas Fortune (1856-1928)
Betty Jean Owens, an African American woman and Florida A&M University student, was raped by four white men, William Collinsworth, Ollie Stoutamire, David Beagles, and Patrick Scarbourough, on May 2, 1959. Unlike most cases involving white men raping black women in the pre-1970 era, the … Read More … Read MoreBetty Jean Owens (1930s- ?)
Born into slavery in 1854, Fr. Augustine (nicknamed Augustus) Tolton was one of the country’s first African American Roman Catholic priests. Tolton shares early black Catholic history with three brothers of Irish-African American ancestry: James, Sherwood, and Patrick Healy. The Healy brothers were ordained two … Read More … Read MoreAugustine (Augustus) Tolton (1854-1897)
Two-star Major General Ernest George Talbert Jr. was born April 23, 1950 to Dorothy Georgie Burkett Talbert (1926-2020), Deputy Director of the Department of Social Services for the State of Delaware, and Ernest Talbert, Sr. (1916-2009), business professor at Delaware State University. Talbert became the … Read More … Read MoreErnest Talbert (1950- )
Image Courtesy of Suzie Dod Thomas Author and activist Piri Thomas became one of the first Americans of Puerto Rican descent to win literary acclaim when he published his 1967 memoir Down These Mean Streets. Born Juan Pedro Tomas to Cuban and Puerto Rican parents … Read More … Read MorePiri Thomas (1928-2011)
Freeman Roberson Bosley, Jr., is the first African American Mayor of St. Louis, Missouri. Bosley was born in St. Louis on July 20, 1954, the son of Freeman Roberson and Marjorie Bosley. His father, a long-time alderman in St. Louis, unsuccessfully ran for mayor in … Read More … Read MoreFreeman Roberson Bosley Jr. (1954- )
