Ambassador Elizabeth Davenport McKune was born on November 15, 1947 in Detroit, Michigan. She became a Foreign Service officer in 1973 and specialized in the Middle East. McKune is the daughter of West Point graduate Colonel Clarence M. Davenport, Jr. and distinguished National Institute of … Read MoreElizabeth Davenport McKune (1947- )
Gina Abercrombie-Winstanley, the first woman diplomat to lead a U.S. consulate in the gender conservative Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, also serves as the U.S. Ambassador to Malta (appointed in 2011). Gina Kay Abercrombie was born in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, where her mother was a secretary … Read MoreGina Kay Abercrombie-Winstanley (1957- )
In the following article Mediterranean Antiquities historians Carol Thomas and David Coblentz, use an African-headed Greek coin to explore the little known yet often controversially debated historical relationship between Ancient Greece and Egypt and by extension, the larger connections between Africa and Europe. Their article … Read MoreGreece and Egypt: How a Single Coin Reflects an Ancient and Enduring Relationship
Pnina Tamano-Shata, a lawyer and journalist, is the first woman of sub-Saharan African ancestry elected to the Knesset or Israeli National Parliament. Tamano-Shata was born in the Gondar region of Ethiopia to a Beta Israel (Jewish) family, the granddaughter of Kais Shato-Maharata, one of the … Read MorePnina Tamano-Shata (1981- )
Ralph Johnson Bunche, an American political scientist, renowned scholar, award-winner, and diplomat, was one of the most prominent African Americans of his era. Bunche was born on August 7, 1903 or 1904 (there is some disagreement about the year of his birth) in Detroit, Michigan. … Read MoreRalph J. Bunche (ca. 1903-1971)
Yityish “Titi” Aynaw was crowned Miss Israel on February 27, 2013. She made history when she became the first Miss Israel of African ancestry. Born in Gondar Province, Ethiopia, Aynaw arrived in Israel in March 2003 along with her older brother and grandparents at the … Read MoreYityish “Titi” Aynaw (1992- )
With the exception of the well-publicized Operation Moses, Joshua, and Solomon Airlift of 20,000 Ethiopian Jews from that war and famine ravaged nation to Israel between 1984 and 1991, few people outside the Middle East are aware of the tens of thousands of people of … Read MoreThe Black Diaspora in Israel, 1965 to 2011
In 1998 Dr. Carolyn Jefferson-Jenkins of Colorado Springs, Colorado, was elected the first African American President of the National League of Women Voters. She became the 15th President of the League in its 78-year history. After joining the League in 1982, she served as a … Read MoreCarolyn Jefferson-Jenkins (1952- )
Addisu Messele, the first person of sub-Saharan African ancestry elected to the Israeli Parliament, was born on June 16, 1961, in the Gondar region of Ethiopia to a Beta Israel (Jewish) family. As a student in the late 1970s, he became an active member of … Read MoreAddisu Messele (1961- )
Muhammad Anwar al-Sadat, third President of post-independence Egypt (governing from 1970 to 1981), was born of peasant background in the Nile Delta village of Mit Abu al-Kum on December 25, 1918. The son an Egyptian army clerk and a Sudanese housewife, Sadat was educated in … Read MoreMuhammad Anwar al-Sadat (1918-1981)
