A civil rights leader, antiwar activist, and Pan-African revolutionary, Stokely Carmichael is best known for popularizing the slogan “Black Power,” which in the mid 1960s galvanized a movement toward more militant and separatist assertions of black identity, nationalism, and empowerment and away from the liberal, … Read MoreStokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture) (1941-1998)
H. Rap Brown succeeded Stokely Carmichael as chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and was a prominent figure in the Black Panther Party. A leading proponent of Black Power and a polarizing media icon, Brown symbolized both the power and the dangers—for white Americans and for radical activists themselves—of the civil rights movement’s new … Read MoreHubert Brown (H. Rap) /Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin (1943- )
Image Ownership: Public domain The first African American pilot hired by a commercial passenger airline carrier owed his achievement to Marlon D. Green who fought a six-year court battle that opened the industry to minority-race aviators. Born on June 6, 1929 in El Dorado, Arkansas, … Read MoreMarlon DeWitt Green (1929-2009)
Image Ownership: Public domain Gordon Hawkins was born in Clinton, Maryland, in 1959, into a family with six older brothers and sisters. He graduated from the University of Maryland’s School of Music. He is a baritone opera singer and considered one of the very best … Read MoreGordon Hawkins (1959- )
"Image Courtesy of the Dawson Family" Daisy Tibbs Dawson, a Seattle, Washington peace activist and educator, is the only African American to be memorialized in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum in Hiroshima, Japan. Tibbs was born in Toney, Alabama on July 27, 1924 to Calvin … Read MoreDaisy Lee Tibbs Dawson (1924-2013)
The Wormley House, ca. 1884 "Image Ownership: Public Domain" Just one block away from President’s Square, now Lafayette Square, in Washington, D.C. stood the Wormley House, one of the most prominent private hotels and social clubs of its time, and the only one owned by … Read MoreWormley House (1871–1893)
Azuchi Castle, Home of Yasuke "Image Ownership: Public Domain" Many particulars regarding the birth, career, and death of the man of apparent African descent known as Yasuke are cloaked in mystery. The few Portuguese and Japanese sources that mention his brief presence in Japan and … Read MoreYasuke (1555?- ?)
The Symbionese Liberation Army Self-Portrait, 1973 "Image Ownership: Public Domain" Coming from the biological term symbiosis, meaning the interdependence of different species, the Symbionese Liberation Army was a radical leftist revolutionary organization that sought to unify all left-wing struggles under one banner. The Berkeley, California-formed … Read MoreThe Symbionese Liberation Army (1973–1975)
"Image Ownership: Public Domain" Edward A. Carter, Jr. was a career noncommissioned officer for the United States Army and one of the only African American recipients of the Medal of Honor during World War II. Carter was born May 26, 1916, in Los Angeles, California … Read MoreJr. Edward A. Carter (1916–1963)
92nd Infantry Division in Combat in Italy, 1944 Image Courtesy of the U.S. Department of Defense The 92nd Infantry Division, a military unit of approximately fifteen thousand officers and men, was one of only two all-black divisions to fight in the United States Army in … Read More92nd Infantry Division (1917–1919, 1942–1945)