Wentworth Cheswell was a teacher, auditor, assessor, selectman, and Justice of the Peace in New Hampshire. When he was elected town Constable of Newmarket, New Hampshire in 1768, he became the second person of African ancestry, after Mathias de Sousa of the Maryland colony, to … Read MoreWentworth Cheswell (1746-1817)
Michael Vincent Drake, a physician and college administrator, became president of two major American universities. Born on July 9, 1951 in New York City, Drake grew up in Englewood, New Jersey and Sacramento, California. His parents Carl Everett Drake, a psychiatrist who had once been … Read MoreMichael Vincent Drake (1951- )
Albert Turner Reid, born in Hampton, Virginia, November 13, 1927, the son of William Thaddeus Reid and Mae Elaine Beamon Reid, was a renowned mathematician who earned his bachelor’s degree at Iowa State University in 1949. From 1950 to 1953, he studied probability and statistics at the University of … Read MoreAlbert T. Bharucha-Reid (1927-1985)
Danny Lyon Scarborough made his mark in the world in two arenas, as an innovative, Emmy Award-winning choreographer/dancer and as one of the first well-known African Americans to go public about having AIDS. Born on July 27, 1947, he grew up on a farm near Wake Forest, North … Read MoreDanny Scarborough (1947-1989)
Lucy Craft Laney, educator, school founder, and civil rights activist, was born in Georgia on April 13, 1854, in Macon, Georgia to free parents Louisa and David Laney. David Laney, a Presbyterian minister and skilled carpenter, had purchased his freedom approximately twenty years before Lucy Laney’s birth. He purchased … Read MoreLucy Craft Laney (1854-1933)
Image Ownership: Public domain Effie Waller was an early twentieth-century poet known for her books of poetry, Songs of the Months (1904), Rhymes from the Cumberland (1909), and Rosemary and Pansies (1909). Waller was born in Pike County, Kentucky, on January 6, 1879, to parents … Read MoreEffie Waller (1879-1960)
Image Ownership: Avi Loud/DomeCare Solutions Jonathan Moore, teacher, musician, entrepreneur, activist, and youth advocate, was born to Gwendolyn Jones and Jonny Moore in Seattle, Washington, on April 21, 1969. As a student at Roosevelt High School in the 1980s, Moore rented rooms at the Seattle … Read MoreJonathan Moore (1969-2017)
Image Ownership: Public domain Brazilian political activist Beatriz Nascimento was born on July 12, 1942, to Rubina Pereira do Nascimento and Francisco Xavier de Nascimento in Aracaju, capital of the Northeast Brazilian state of Sergipe. She migrated with her family, including ten brothers to Rio … Read MoreBeatriz Nascimento (1942-1995)
Image Ownership: Public domain Bernice Mathews is a small business owner and the director of the nursing program at Truckee Meadows Community College in Reno, Nevada. She is best known as a former Democratic member of the Nevada State Senate. Mathews was born on November … Read MoreBernice Mathews (1933- )
“Image Ownership: Fair Use” Marcus Foster was an educator who gained national prominence for educational excellence while serving as a principal in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and as the first black superintendent of the Oakland Unified School District in California. Known as a titan in the areas … Read MoreMarcus A. Foster (1923–1973)
