Composer, librettist, saxophonist Anthony Braxton was born on June 4, 1945, in Chicago, Illinois, to Clarence Dunbar Braxton, Sr., from Greenville, Mississippi, and Julia Samuels Braxton from Tulsa, Oklahoma. Braxton had three brothers. Braxton grew up in Chicago and from 1959 to 1963, he attended … Read MoreAnthony Braxton (1945- )
1960s R&B singer Gene Chandler was born Eugene Drake Dixon on July 6, 1937, in Chicago, Illinois. He had one brother, Richard Dixon, a member of the Dukays, R&B group. Before graduating from Englewood High School in Chicago in 1955, Chandler formed the doo-wop vocal … Read MoreGene Chandler (1937- )
Curtis DuBois Fuller was a renowned Jazz trombonist whose career spanned over 68 years as a musician, composer, and educator. His musical genre was steeped in hard-bop jazz with the driving force of blues and gospel. Curtis DuBois Fuller was born on December 15, 1932 … Read MoreCurtis DuBois Fuller (1932-2021)
Tuskegee Airman Rudolph “Val” Archer was born in Woodlawn, a South Side neighborhood in Chicago, Illinois on April 13, 1929 to Osborn Archer, railroad laborer, and artist and homemaker Ruth Luella Seay. Ruth Archer passed away when Rudolph was twelve, and he began to deliver … Read MoreRudolph “Val” Archer (1929-2020)
In 1941 the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), the construction agent for the War Department, maintained construction battalions that were deemed less valuable than units in other Army branches. Coupling this practice with the racial beliefs dominant in the Jim Crow South, it … Read MoreThe 97th Engineering Regiment (1941-1948)
With a small cadre of white officers and Black NCOs, the segregated 93rd Engineer Battalion (600 men) was activated on February 10, 1941 and quartered in an undesirable mud-filled rear corner of Camp Livingston, Louisiana. Most of the enlisted men were from Mississippi and Louisiana. … Read MoreThe 93rd Engineer Regiment (1941-1945)
Gregory Dimitri Gadson is a retired United States Army colonel, motivational speaker, actor, and business owner. Gadson was born on February 19, 1966, in Chesapeake, Virginia. He attended Indian River High School, where he was a standout football player. Gadson graduated in 1985 then attended … Read MoreGregory D. Gadson (1966- )
Psychiatrist Dr. Oscar Clement Allen was born in Baltimore, Maryland on May 21, 1921. The eldest of four siblings, Allen was reared in Gloucester, Virginia. His parents were John T. Allen, a farmer, and Bertha Frazier Allen, a homemaker. Allen attended the racially segregated Woodville … Read MoreOscar Clement Allen (1921-2004)
Conductor, clarinetist, and composer W. Rudolph Dunbar was born on November 26, 1907, in Nabaclis, Guyana. At the age of nine, his musical genius apparent, he was invited to serve as a clarinetist in the British Guiana Militia Band. After a brief apprenticeship for stellar … Read MoreW. Rudolph Dunbar (1907-1988)
Frank Calvin Mann was an engineer and designer who worked with entrepreneur and industrialist Howard R. Hughes on projects that included the Spruce Goose, at the time the largest airplane ever built. Mann was born on November 22, 1908 in Houston, Texas. Mann first displayed … Read MoreFrank Calvin Mann (1908-1992)
