James Earl Chaney was a civil rights activist and a member of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). On June 21, 1964, Chaney, along with CORE members Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner, were murdered by members of the Ku Klux Klan in Philadelphia, Mississippi. Chaney … Read MoreJames Earl Chaney (1943-1964)
Kendrick Meek, former highway patrolman, Florida state representative, and state senator, served in the United States House of Representatives as a Democratic representative from Florida’s 17th District from 2003 to 2011. Meek was born on September 6, 1966 in Miami, Florida. He is the youngest of three children of Harold and former … Read MoreKendrick Meek (1966- )
Vada Somerville was the first African American female dentist educated at the University of Southern California School of dentistry, and the second African American graduate in the university’s history. Graduating in 1918, Somerville was the only African American student in her class of eighty-eight graduates. … Read MoreVada Watson Somerville (1885-1972)
The self-trained historian, educator, and journalist Drusilla Dunjee Houston was born in Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia on January 20, 1876. Her parents were Rev. John William and Lydia Taylor Dunjee. The couple had nine children but only three including Drucilla would survive to adulthood. Rev. … Read MoreDrusilla Dunjee Houston (1876-1941)
One of the original Greensboro Four who took part in the Woolworth sit-ins. It is reported that as a nine-year-old he boasted to friends that he would “one day drink from the white people’s fountains and eat at their lunch counters.” Blair was the most … Read MoreJibreel Khazan/Ezell Blair, Jr. (1941- )
Thurgood Marshall was an American civil rights activist with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the first African American to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States. He is remembered as a lawyer who had one of the … Read MoreThurgood Marshall (1908-1993)
T. Thomas Fortune—African American journalist, editor, and writer—was born into slavery on October 3, 1856 to Sarah Jane and Emanuel Fortune. Raised in Marianna, Florida, as a child he witnessed the politically-motivated violence of the Ku Klux Klan. Despite minimal formal education, Fortune worked in … Read MoreT. Thomas Fortune (1856-1928)
