James E. Walton, longtime professor of English at California State University, Fresno, was born on September 13, 1944 in Bessemer, Alabama to Willie Walton, Sr. and Mary Woods Cutts. Walton attended a two-room schoolhouse in Alabama. At age three, his grandmother taught him to read … Read MoreJames E. Walton (1944-2019)
Educator and politician Lansiné Kaba was born in 1941 in the city of Kankan, Guinea when Guinea was still under French colonial rule. In Guinea, he was educated through the traditional Education system as well as Muslim teachers. He moved to France in 1956 where … Read MoreLansiné Kaba (1941- )
Théodore Chassériau was perhaps one of the most talented but less celebrated artists of the 19th century. Born on September 20, 1819 in El Limón, a provincial town in the Dominican Republic, Chassériau was the son of Benoît Chassériau, a French diplomat and bureaucrat, and … Read MoreThéodore Chassériau (1819-1856)
Hannibal Barca stands as one of the great military leaders of the pre-Christian era. He was born in Carthage (present day Tunisia) in 247 B.C.E. His father Hamilcar was the political leader of Carthage and led the city-state in the 23-year first Punic War (264-241 … Read MoreHannibal Barca (247 B.C.E.-183 B.C.E.)
Stacey Plaskett is the current delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives for the Territory of the Virgin Islands. Plaskett was born on May 13, 1966 in Kings County, Brooklyn, New York. Her parents are both from St. Croix. Her father was a New York … Read MoreStacey E. Plaskett (1966- )
Paulette Nardal was one of the founders of the Negritude intellectual movement. Nardal was born on October 12, 1896 in Saint-Pierre, Martinique, to Paul Nardal, the first black engineer in Public Works on the island, and Louise (Achille) Nardal. Paulette was the eldest of seven … Read MorePaulette Nardal (1896-1985)
On August 4, 1914, Britain joined the Great War. The First World War, 1914-1918, is usually viewed as a predominantly white European conflict. In fact, many Africans, Asians, black Britons, and Caribbeans fought for the British Empire. At the beginning of the war, the British War Office, however, was reluctant to allow blacks to enlist … Read MoreBritish West Indian Regiment (BWIR) (1915-1918)
In 1983, 25-year-old Euzhan Palcy became the first black woman to direct a film produced by a major Hollywood studio. Palcy was born in the French colony of Martinique on January 13th, 1958. Her interest in films began when she was ten as she felt an attraction towards them. At the time, … Read MoreEuzhan Palcy (1958- )
In the description of his 2015 book, African Americans Against the Bomb: Nuclear Weapons, Colonialism, and the Black Freedom Movement, historian Vincent Intondi describes the long but little-known history of black Americans in the Nuclear Disarmament Movement. His essay, which appears below, tells the compelling … Read MoreFighting For Freedom, Fighting Against the Bomb: African Americans and the Campaign for a Nuclear-Free World, 1945-
When the U.S. Army was reorganized on July 28, 1866 for peacetime service after the American Civil War, six regiments were set aside for black enlisted men. These included four infantry regiments, numbered 38th through 41st. The 25th Infantry was created during a reduction in March 1869 by … Read More25th Infantry Regiment (1866-1947)