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), The (1915-1918)
Saartjie (Sara) Baartman was one of the first black women known to be subjugated to human sexual trafficking. She was derisively named the “Hottentot Venus” by Europeans as her body would be publicly examined and exposed inhumanly throughout the duration of her young life. Moreover. her experience … Read More(Sara) Saartjie Baartman (1789-1815)
Salif Keita is a Malian musician and singer, born in Djoliba, Mali on August 25, 1949. He claims descent from the founder of the Mandingue Empire, Sundiata Keita. His albinism (absence of melanin in his skin) influenced his youth as he was partially rejected by other children. Moreover, … Read MoreSalif Keita (1949- )
Known to his contemporaries as “The Black Napoleon,” Toussaint L’Ouverture was a former slave who rose to become the leader of the only successful slave revolt in modern history that created an independent state, the Haitian Revolution. Born into slavery on May 20, 1743 in the French colony of Saint … Read MoreToussaint L’Ouverture (1743-1803)
Image Ownership: Public domain William Chester Jordan is an author and award-winning historian of medieval Europe. Jordan was born in Chicago, Illinois, on July 4, 1948 to Johnnie Parker Jordan and Marguerite Jane Mays Jordan. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree from Ripon College in Wisconsin in 1969 and earned his doctorate from … Read MoreWilliam Chester Jordan (1948- )
Image Ownership: Public domain Yapi N’Cho Blaise Didier of Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast), often referred to as Didier Yapi, was a prolific information technology (IT) inventor/ researcher in Africa from about 1998 until his death in 2015. Yapi was born in 1976, in the Gôh … Read MoreDidier Yapi (1976-2015)
Image Ownership: Public domain French naval hero Camille Mortenol was born November 29, 1859 in Pointe-à-Pitre, the largest city in the French island colony of Guadeloupe in the Caribbean Sea, the son of former slave André Mortenol, a sailor, and his wife, Julienne Toussaint, a … Read MoreCamille Sosthène Héliodore Mortenol (1859-1930)
Vincent K. Brooks is a distinguished general in the US Army and is currently the commander of the UN Command, Combined Forces Command, and US Forces Korea. He was born on October 24, 1958, in Anchorage, Alaska, to Leo Brooks Sr., an army general, and … Read MoreVincent K. Brooks (1958- )
Image Ownership: Public domain Sophia Angeli Nelson is an author, journalist, lawyer, and political strategist. Nelson was born on January 5, 1967, in Munich, Germany, where her father served overseas in the U.S. Army. She was raised in Somerdale, New Jersey, and attended San Diego … Read MoreSophia Angeli Nelson (1967- )
Lutrelle Horne on the Sesame Street Set Image Ownership: Public domain Lutrelle Horne is a producer who worked for Children’s Television Workshop (now Sesame Shop). He was one-time Executive Vice-President of Children’s Television Workshop and Executive Producer and Director of its International Division. Horne was … Read MoreLutrelle Horne (193?- )