Queen Nandi was a South African Zulu Queen and mother to Shaka Zulu. She was born Nandi Ndlovukazi kaBhebe in Melmoth, a small town in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa in the 1760s. The word Nandi means The Sweet One. Her father, Bhebhe, was a minor chief. … Read MoreQueen Nandi (1766-1827)
Prolific David Drake, also known as Dave the Potter, was an enslaved artist born on a plantation in North Carolina in 1801. He toiled the soil and labored on several plantations and, throughout his lifetime, was sold or traded by a number of plantation owners. … Read MoreDavid Drake (ca. 1801-1874)
Robert Jones Abele was one of six founding members of Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity, the oldest African American Greek Letter Fraternity in the United States. The five others were Henry Minton, Algernon Jackson, Edwin Howard, Eugene Theodore Hinson, and Richard John Warrick, Jr. Abele was … Read MoreRobert Jones Abele (1875-1929)
Born on December 29, 1880, Richard John Warrick Jr. was one of six founding members of Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity, the oldest African American Greek Letter Fraternity in the nation. The others were Henry Minton, Algernon Jackson, Edwin Howard, Robert Jones Abele, and Eugene Hinson. … Read MoreRichard John Warrick, Jr. (1880-1957)
Eugene T. Hinson was one of six founders of Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity, the oldest African American Greek Letter Fraternity in the United States. The others were Henry Minton, Algernon Jackson, Edwin Howard, Richard Warrick, and Robert Jones Abele. Eugene T. Hinson was born in … Read MoreEugene T. Hinson (1873-1960)
Dr. John Bowman (“J.B.”) Banks was the first Black physician to practice medicine in Natchez, Mississippi. He recruited Dr. Albert Woods Dumas, the second Black physician to practice in the city. Together with four other businessmen, they founded an African American bank in Natchez called … Read MoreJohn Bowman Banks (1862-1911)
Justin Holland, guitarist, pianist, flutist, composer, and civil-rights activist, was born on July 26, 1819, to Exum Holland, a free Black farmer in Norfolk, Virginia. He had two brothers and five sisters. He demonstrated considerable talent when he was eight by using a small book … Read MoreJustin Holland (1819-1887)
In 2023, New York City’s Landmarks Preservation Commission voted to designate the former “Colored School No. 4” a protected landmark from demolition or significant alterations, preserving its architectural and historic features. Eric Leroy Adams, the 110th mayor of New York City since 2022, designated $6 … Read MoreColored School No. 4 (1849-1894)
Richard Allen Tucker, born on February 13, 1850, was an ordained minister, educator, and poet. He was the son of Reverend Lewis Tucker, the first African-American ordained Baptist minister in the City and Elizabeth “Betsey” Hunter, a seamstress. Richard’s parents were free Blacks before the … Read MoreRichard Allen Tucker (1850-1924)
Pauline Powell Burns was a pianist and a painter who was most well known for her early art exhibitions in California in the 1890s. Powell was born in Oakland, California in 1872, to Josephine Turner, a schoolteacher and domestic worker, and William W. Powell, a … Read MorePauline Powell Burns (1872-1912)
