Susana Baca, recording artist and the first Afro-Peruvian to sit as a Cabinet Minister, was born in 1944 in Chorrillos, a seaside district of Lima, Peru, to a working class family. Her father was a chauffeur and her mother worked as cook and laundress for … Read MoreSusana Baca (1944- )
In the following article University of Oregon historian Carlos Aguirre describes the self-taught poet, writer, and folklorist Nicomedes Santa Cruz, one of the understudied black intellectual leaders in Peru and Latin America. Nicomedes Santa Cruz was, without a doubt, the most important black intellectual in … Read MoreNicomedes Santa Cruz: A Black Public Intellectual in Twentieth-Century Peru
By 1921 the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) was well on its way to becoming the largest predominately black organization in the world. Marcus Garvey, the UNIA’s founder, however, already recognized W.E.B. Du Bois and the NAACP as its chief rival. In his closing night … Read More(1921) Marcus Garvey “Address to the Second UNIA Convention”
Attorney and businessman Gary D. Gayton has spent most of his adult life as a civil rights advocate for those without a representative voice, including African Americans, Native Americans, and women. He was the country’s first black Assistant U.S. Attorney, appointed to the position by … Read MoreGary D. Gayton (1933- )
In the article below, Kimberley Mangun, an assistant professor in the Department of Communication at The University of Utah, describes how she “discovered” Beatrice Morrow Cannady, an editor who spent nearly 25 years advocating civil rights in Oregon. Cannady used her Portland-based newspaper, The Advocate, … Read MoreBeatrice Morrow Cannady and the Struggle for Civil Rights in Oregon, 1912-1936
Born in New Bedford, Massachusetts on January 5, 1904, William Knox is remembered for two achievements. He was among a handful of black scientists to work on the top secret Manhattan Project, which produced the atom bomb during World War II. Following the war, he … Read MoreWilliam Jacob Knox Jr. (1904-1995)
Image Courtesy of the New York Amsterdam News (Fair Use) Former Tuskegee University president Benjamin Franklin Payton was born in 1932 in Orangeburg, South Carolina. His father, Reverend Leroy Payton, was a Baptist minister, farmer, and teacher while his mother, Sarah Mack Payton, was a … Read MoreBenjamin F. Payton (1932-2016)
PREAMBLE Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world, Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which … Read More(1948) United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Willard Carroll Smith, Jr., better known as Will Smith, actor, rap and recording artist, was born in Wynnefield, Pennsylvania on September 25, 1968. His father, Willard Carroll Smith, is a veteran of the U.S. Air Force and a refrigerator engineer, and his mother, Caroline Bright … Read MoreWill Smith/Willard Carroll Smith II (1968- )
Groove Phi Groove Social Fellowship, Incorporated, is a predominately African-American social fellowship similar to a Greek-letter fraternity, but different in its socio-historical and sub-cultural foundations. Groove was founded on October 12, 1962 on the campus of Morgan State College (now Morgan State University), a historically-black … Read MoreGroove Phi Groove Social Fellowship (1962- )
