Formerly The Penn School, The Penn Center is an African American cultural and educational center located on St. Helena Island, South Carolina. In 1862 during the second year of the Civil War, the U.S. Navy captured the island from Confederate forces. With that capture, 32,530 … Read MoreThe Penn Center (1862- )
Benjamin W. Arnett was an African American administrator, minister, and politician. He was born a free man in Brownsville, Fayette County, Pennsylvania, on March 6, 1838. The grandson of Samuel and Mary Louise Arnett, he was half African American, three-eighths Scottish, one-sixteenth Native American, and … Read MoreBishop Benjamin William Arnett (1838–1906)
Fort Worth educator Hazel Bernice Harvey Peace was born on August 4, 1903, in Waco, Texas, to Allen H. and Georgia Mason Harvey. Peace graduated from the Fort Worth Colored High School (later I. M. Terrell High School) in Fort Worth in 1919. She obtained … Read MoreHazel Harvey Peace (1903-2008)
Louise McKinney (née Jones) was an African-American educator, human rights advocate, philanthropist, business woman, community activist, and patron of the arts. She was a long-established galvanizing force of civic life in Seattle and in the State of Washington. Born Louise Jones on July 12, 1920 … Read MoreLouise Jones McKinney (1930-2012)
Dr. Dawn Mason is a former Washington State Representative for the 37th District, an adjunct professor for writing, a former member of the Board of Visitors at Antioch University Seattle, and a Vision and Planning Team Member for Cultural Reconnection (USA and Kenya). Mason was … Read MoreDawn Mason (1945- )
Acclaimed African writer Bessie Head was born on July 6, 1937, at Fort Napier Mental Institution in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. Her mother, Bessie Amelia Emery (from the wealthy South African Birch family) had suffered from mental illness and was confined there at the time. Bessie … Read MoreBessie Head (1937-1986)
Geoffrey Canada is an educator and social activist who has dedicated much of his life to reforming the educational system in Harlem, New York in order to provide poor and disadvantaged children the skills they need to attend colleges and universities. Canada was born on … Read MoreGeoffrey Canada (1952- )
At the time of her death in 1846, Dinah Whipple was the revered teacher of African American children in Portsmouth, New Hampshire but she was identified more prominently, at least according to the local white newspaper editor, as the widow of Prince Whipple. Prince had … Read MoreDinah Whipple (ca. 1760-1846)
Marita Odette Bonner (Occomy) was an African American writer, essayist, and playwright associated with the Harlem Renaissance Era. Born on June 16, 1899 to Joseph Andrew and Anne Noel Bonner in Boston, Massachusetts, she and her three siblings grew up in Brookline, a suburb of … Read MoreMarita Odette Bonner (1899-1971)
Born on April 17, 1912 as the youngest of twelve children in Culloden, Georgia, Jo Ann Robinson would become a successful educator and famous civil rights activist. After graduating from Fort Valley State College in 1934, she became a public school teacher in Macon, Georgia … Read MoreJo Ann Robinson (1912-1992)
