The Negro Public Library (later the Negro Branch of the Nashville Public Library) operated for over thirty years as a segregated library facility in Nashville, Tennessee. It was the city’s first public library for African Americans and one of only a dozen segregated public libraries … Read MoreNegro Public Library, Nashville, Tennessee (1916-1949)
The Colored Carnegie Library was a segregated branch of the Houston Lyceum and Carnegie Library (later the Houston Public Library). It opened in 1913 in Houston’s Fourth Ward and was one of the first public libraries for African-Americans west of the Mississippi River. It was … Read MoreColored Carnegie Library, Houston, Texas (1913-1961)
The Cherry Street Library was a segregated branch of the Evansville Public Library (now Evansville Vanderburgh Public Library) located at 515 Cherry Street in Evansville, Indiana. It was the first free public library built north of the Ohio River exclusively for African Americans and one … Read MoreCherry Street Library, Evansville, Indiana (1914-1955)
Marcus Samuelsson is an Ethiopian-Swedish chef and restaurateur. Samuelsson was born Kassahun Tsegie on January 25, 1973, in Ethiopia. His father was President of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church. His unnamed mother died during the Ethiopian tuberculosis epidemic of 1974. Samuelsson and his sister, Fantaye, … Read MoreMarcus Samuelsson (1973- )
James Victor Scott, born July 17, 1925, in Cleveland, Ohio to Arthur and Justine Stanard Scott, was a Jazz vocalist best known as “Little” Jimmy Scott. Due to a rare genetic condition (Kallmann’s syndrome), Scott sang with an unusually high contralto voice. The condition also … Read MoreJimmy Scott (1925-2014)
Marie Louise Anderson Greenwood was the first African American teacher to obtain tenure in the state of Colorado. Greenwood was born in Los Angeles, California on November 24, 1912 to Joseph Anderson who worked as a railroad chef, and Sarah Garrett Anderson, a laundress. At … Read MoreMarie Louise Greenwood (1912- )
The Tougaloo Nine were nine students who, in 1961 while undergraduates at Tougaloo College, staged sit-ins at the all-white Jackson Main Library in Jackson, Mississippi. Prior to the sit-ins, African Americans were prohibited from using the city’s main library. The Nine—Meredith Coleman Anding Jr., James … Read MoreThe Tougaloo Nine (1961)
Donald Payne Jr. has been the U.S Representative for New Jersey’s 10th congressional district since 2010, winning elected to a seat previously held by his father, Donald Payne Sr. Payne was born on December 17, 1958 in Newark, New Jersey to Donald and Hazel (Johnson) … Read MoreDonald Milton Payne Jr. (1958- )
James E. Walton, longtime professor of English at California State University, Fresno, was born on September 13, 1944 in Bessemer, Alabama to Willie Walton, Sr. and Mary Woods Cutts. Walton attended a two-room schoolhouse in Alabama. At age three, his grandmother taught him to read … Read MoreJames E. Walton (1944-2019)
Janet Mock is an African American, Hawaiian, and Transgendered person. She was born on March 3, 1983 in Honolulu, Hawaii and raised there and in Oakland, California and Dallas, Texas as Charles Mock III. Her father is Charles Mock II and her mother is Elizabeth … Read MoreJanet Mock (1983- )