Concert musician Calvin Edouard Ward was born on February 10, 1925, in Atlanta, Georgia, to Effie Elizabeth Crawford Ward, a graduate of Spelman Seminary for Women and Girls. His father, Jefferson Sigman Ward, a World War I Veteran, graduated from the Haynes Institute in Augusta, Georgia. … Read MoreCalvin Edouard Ward (1925-2018)
Donald Jasper Harris is a Jamaican American economist, author, and Professor Emeritus at Stanford University in Stanford, California, since his retirement in 1998. He is now best known as the father of Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party’s Vice-Presidential Nominee. Harris joined the Stanford faculty in … Read MoreDonald Jasper Harris (1938- )
Barack Obama Sr., father of the 43rd President of the United States, was born in the Rachuonyo District, in the then British colony of Kenya, on June 18, 1936, to Onyango Obama and Habiba Akumu Nyanjango. He was raised in the Nyang’oma Kogelo village, Siaya … Read MoreBarack Hussein Obama Sr. (1936-1982)
On September 27th, 2016, Alfred Okwera Olango, aged 38, was killed in El Cajon, California by Officer Richard Gonsalves as his sister Lucy Olango watched in disbelief. His death reflected a turbulent period with multiple deaths of black people killed by police officers throughout the … Read MoreAlfred Okwera Olango (1978-2016)
Dedan Kimathi was a rebel field marshal fighting the British colonial authorities in Kenya during the Mau Mau rebellion of the 1950s. The violent rebellion remains a controversial part of Kenyan and British history. The rebellion instigated the creation of a system of detention camps … Read MoreDedan Kimathi (1920-1957)
Moneta Sleet, Jr., a Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer involved in the Civil Rights movement, was born on February 14, 1926. His parents, Ozetta Allensworth Sleet and Moneta Sleet, Sr., raised him in Owensboro, Kentucky. At a very young age, his parents gave him a small box camera, which he used to … Read MoreMoneta Sleet, Jr. (1926-1996)
Charles Sumner Kenyatta, also known as Charles 37X and Charles Morris, organized the Harlem Mau Mau Society and worked as Malcolm X’s body guard. Kenyatta was born February 20, 1921, to Ruth Davis and Charles Morris in Boston, Massachusetts. As a teen, he trained to be a dental technician, but wanted … Read MoreCharles Kenyatta (1921-2005)
The Mozambican Civil War was a 15-year conflict that occurred between May 30, 1977 and October 4, 1992 in the southern African country of Mozambique. Although ostensibly an internal civil war, the conflict was in fact a proxy war between the Soviet Union which backed the Mozambican government and the … Read MoreThe Mozambican Civil War (1977-1992)
Former Naval officer Gerald Eustis Thomas served as United States Ambassador to Guyana and Kenya. Born in Natick, Massachusetts on June 23, 1929 to Walter and Leila Thomas, President Ronald W. Reagan appointed Gerald E. Thomas to both ambassadorships. Thomas began his undergraduate studies at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln in Lincoln, Nebraska. He transferred to Harvard University … Read MoreGerald E. Thomas (1929- )
