Ophelia DeVore Mitchell was an American businesswoman, publisher, and one of the first African American models in the United States. In 1946, she helped establish the Grace Del Marco Agency, one of the first modeling agencies in the nation. DeVore was born on August 12, … Read MoreOphelia DeVore Mitchell (1922-2014)
Charles A. Davis was a journalist, founder of one of Chicago’s first African-American-owned public relations agencies, commercial real estate developer, and noted civic and social leader. Davis was born on September 29, 1922, in Mobile, Alabama, the fourth of five children of Robert and Clara … Read MoreCharles A. Davis (1922–2016)
Camille J. Billops, artist, filmmaker, archivist, and professor, was born on August 12, 1933, in Los Angeles. Her parents were Alma Gilmore and Lucius Billops, and she has one sister, Billie. She married James V. Hatch, a professor of theater at the University of California, … Read MoreCamille Billops (1933-2019)
Dean P. Baquet is primarily known as a Pulitzer Prize winner in journalism and the first African American executive editor of the New York Times. Baquet was born on September 21, 1956 in New Orleans, Louisiana, into a middle class family which included four other … Read MoreDean P. Baquet (1956- )
Freddye Scarborough Henderson, entrepreneur, columnist, and educator, was born on February 18, 1917 in Franklinton, Louisiana. She was educated in her hometown and graduated valedictorian from Booker T. Washington High School in Franklinton. In 1937, Scarborough earned a B.S. in home economics from Southern University. … Read MoreFreddye Scarborough Henderson (1917-2007)
Barbara Hillary is the first African American woman on record to reach both the North and South Poles. Born in New York City, New York on June 12, 1931 to Viola Jones Hillary and raised in Harlem, Hillary attended the New School University in New … Read MoreBarbara Hillary (1931- )
Founding publisher of the Los Angeles based African-American newspaper, the Sentinel, Leon H. Washington Jr. was born in Kansas City, Kansas on April 15, 1907. Washington, along with his two other siblings, was born to his parents, Leon and Blanche Washington. Young Washington spent much … Read MoreLeon H. Washington Jr. (1907-1974)
William Alexander Scott II, the founder of the Atlanta Daily World newspaper, was born in 1902 in Edwards, Mississippi. Scott, who was educated at Morehouse College around World War I, initially began publishing a business directory in Atlanta. However, he was interested in encouraging conversation … Read MoreW.A. Scott & C.A. Scott Atlanta Daily World (1928- )
Gwendolyn Bennett a poet, author, educator, journalist and graphic artist, was born July 8, 1902 in Giddings, Texas, to Joshua and Maime Bennett. Her parents worked as teachers in the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Gwendolyn’s family moved to Washington, D.C. in 1906 when she was … Read MoreGwendolyn Bennett (1902-1981)
In 1961, Margaret Burroughs and her husband, Charles Burroughs founded the Ebony Museum of Chicago, later called the DuSable Museum of African American History. The DuSable is the oldest museum of its type in the United States. Margaret Burroughs was born Margaret Taylor on November … Read MoreMargaret Burroughs (1917-2010 )