Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church (Bethel A.M.E.), Baltimore lays claim to the designation as the oldest independent continuously operating African American church in the state of Maryland tracing its origins back to 1785 when a group of African Americans met at the Strawberry Alley meetinghouse. This is one of … Read MoreBethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, Baltimore, Maryland (1785- )
Edward B. Henderson (Right) with Washington, D.C. Basketball Teach Featuring Charles Drew (middle foreground) “Image Ownership: Public Domain” Sports historian, educator, administrator, coach, athlete, and civil rights activist, Dr. Edwin Bancroft Henderson was a pioneer promoter of African American involvement in sports and physical education. … Read MoreEdwin Bancroft Henderson (1883-1977)
In 1946, U.S. Army Sergeant Isaac Woodard challenged a Greyhound Bus driver while traveling from Georgia to North Carolina after being discharged from service in World War II. Police officers who met him at the next stop brutally attacked him and left him permanently blinded. … Read MoreIsaac Woodard (1919-1992)
Image Ownership: Public Domain Clilan (C.B.) Powell, longtime owner of the Amsterdam News, was born in 1894 to former Virginia slaves. Very little is known about his childhood. He received his medical degree in 1920 from Howard University School of Medicine and began his career … Read MoreC. B. Powell (1894-1977)
Image Ownership: Public Domain Nathan Francis Mossell was an African American doctor who helped establish the first black hospital in Philadelphia. Mossell, the son of Aaron and Eliza Bowers Mossell, was born on July 27, 1856 in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada but grew up in … Read MoreNathan Francis Mossell (1856-1946)
George Marke, Prince Kojo Tovalou-Houenou, and Marcus Garvey, 1924 Image Ownership: Public Domain The Ligue Universelle pour la Défense de la Race Noire (LUDRN) was a Pan-African association created on April 30, 1924, by Kojo Tovalou Houénou, known as Tovalou, descendant of the last king … Read MoreLigue Universelle pour la Défense de la Race Noire (1924)
Lani Guinier was the first black woman professor to be tenured at Harvard Law School. Her father, Ewart Guinier, was the first director of Harvard’s African American Studies program. She was better known, however, as a controversial nominee for assistant attorney general during the Clinton … Read MoreLani Guinier (1950- )
Charles Vernon Johnson was an influential member of the Seattle African American community from the moment he moved out west in 1954 to attend law school at the University of Washington. Johnson, originally from Little Rock, Arkansas, was one of a few black graduate students … Read MoreCharles V. Johnson (1928- )
Image Ownership: Public Domain Dr. Lawrence Aaron Nixon was born in Marshall, Texas and graduated from Wiley College (l902) and Meharry Medical College (l906). He began his medical practice in Cameron, Texas but moved to El Paso in l909. In l9l0, he was joined in … Read MoreLawrence A. Nixon (1883-1966)
The League of Struggle for Negro Rights (LSNR) was the primary civil rights organization of the American Communist Party (CP) during the early-to-mid 1930s. Founded in St. Louis in 1930 after the dissolution of the American Negro Labor Congress, the group established regional branches throughout … Read MoreLeague of Struggle for Negro Rights (1930-1936)