Clayton D. Russell was an important religious and political leader in the African American community in Los Angeles in the middle of the twentieth century. For much of his life Russell was associated with the People’s Independent Church of Christ, one of the largest congregations … Read MoreClayton D. Russell (1910-1981)
Chester Himes was an important writer of fiction and autobiography. Although Himes’s most widely read novels were detective stories set in Harlem, his first two published novels reflected his experiences in Los Angeles, where he lived from 1940 until 1944. Himes was born in Jefferson … Read MoreChester Himes (1909-1984)
Charles Moorehead Stokes, one of three sons of Rev. Norris Jefferson Stokes and Myrtle Garner Stokes, was born on February 1, 1903 in Pratt, Kansas. He graduated from the University of Kansas Law School in 1931 and soon after opened his law practice in Pratt … Read MoreCharles Moorehead Stokes (1903-1996)
Charles Bellinger, a businessman and political leader, was born in Caldwell County, Texas on April 15, 1875. From his youth on a farm he moved to Lockhart and worked in a saloon. With his savings as well as loans, he opened a saloon in San … Read MoreCharles Bellinger (1875-1937)
Carl Sims was born in Bremond, Texas. He moved to Phoenix, Arizona in 1927. Not long after migrating to Phoenix, he became a gardener and a painting contractor. Despite having only an eighth grade education, Sims would eventually work for the (Arizona) Maricopa Country Highway … Read MoreCarl Sims (1911-1974)
In the spring of 1964, before Congress passed the Economic Opportunity Act, a group of Central Area residents and friends created a comprehensive anti-poverty proposal which was presented in the autumn of 1964 at a mass meeting called by the Seattle Urban League and the … Read MoreCentral Area Motivation Program (1964- )
Denver women sponsored the formation of a Phillis Wheatley branch of the Young Women’s Christian Association in 1916, and in 1920 began sponsoring summer camps for the girls. Shortly after the turn of the century urbanites began sending their children to summer camps as a … Read MoreCamp Nizhoni (1924-1945)
An unusual incidence of interracial solidarity between blacks and Asian Americans occurred during Booker T. Washington’s visit to Seattle. In March 1913, Washington embarked on a national speaking tour in order to raise money for Tuskegee Institute, the chronically underfunded “Normal and Industrial School” in … Read MoreBooker Washington in Seattle, 1913
Dr. Blanche Sellers Lavizzo was the first African American woman pediatrician in the state of Washington. She arrived in Seattle in 1956, with her husband Dr. Philip Lavizzo, a general surgeon. They had left medical practices in New Orleans, Louisiana to pursue a better future … Read MoreBlanche Sellers Lavizzo (1925-1984)
Before 1941 about 4,000 black soldiers (and a handful of African American officers) served in the 9th and 10th Cavalry Regiments (the “Buffalo Soldiers”), two of the all-black units formed after the Civil War. Following the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941, the number of … Read MoreBlack Soldiers at Fort Huachuca, Arizona During World War II
