Nina Mae McKinney, one of the first African American leading actresses in Hollywood, was born Nannie Mayme McKinney in 1913. The Lancaster, South Carolina native was reared by her great-aunt, Carrie Sanders on the Estate of Colonel LeRoy Sanders, where her family had worked for … Read MoreNina Mae McKinney (1913-1967)
By all rights Thomas Molyneux should have become recognized as the first world boxing champion from the United States. Born in 1784 to parents enslaved by a wealthy Virginian plantation owner named Molyneux, Tom, because of his size and strength, was selected to engage in … Read MoreThomas Molyneux (1784-1818)
John Roy Lynch, congressman, soldier, and author was born in Concordia Parish, Louisiana on September 10, 1847 to Patrick Lynch, an Irish immigrant and Catherine White, a slave. Lynch’s father died soon after his birth. Lynch and his mother were then traded to a plantation … Read MoreJohn Roy Lynch (1847-1939)
Florida J. Wolfe, also known as “Lady Flo,” was one of the most remarkable, resilient, albeit mysterious Black women to live in El Paso, Texas. Consort and common law wife to Irish Lord Delaval James Beresford, who owned cotton plantations and cattle ranches in Canada, … Read MoreFlorida J. Wolfe (ca. 1867-1913)
John Ralph Lyons was born February 22, 1888 in Lewistown, Mifflin County, Pennsylvania to James Levi and Harriet (Baptist) Lyons. His father was a barber and musician. He had four brothers and two sisters, and his mother died in childbirth when he was a teenager. … Read MoreJohn Ralph Lyons (1888-1941)
Born a slave in 1819 in Natchez, Mississippi, Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield had little reason to dream of the life that would eventually become her own. Because of a series of unlikely circumstances and her own relentless efforts she would eventually become known as the first … Read MoreElizabeth Taylor Greenfield (1819-1876)
Maggie Lena Mitchell was born in Richmond, Virginia on July 15, 1864. Walker’s mother, Elizabeth Draper, was an assistant cook and her father, Eccles Cuthbert, was an Irish-born newspaperman on the Van Lew estate. Her step-father, William Mitchell, was a butler on the estate. As … Read MoreMaggie Lena Walker (1864-1934)
James Augustine Healy was the first born of ten children to Michael and Mary Eliza Healy on April 6, 1830 on a cotton plantation in Georgia. Michael Healy was a former Irish soldier who immigrated to America. He became a planter after the war of … Read MoreJames Augustine Healy (1830-1900)
Muhammad Ali, arguably the most famous professional boxer in the 20th Century and the only fighter to win the heavyweight championship three times, was born Cassius Clay in 1942 in Louisville, Kentucky, to Cassius Marcellus Clay, Sr. and Odessa Grady Clay. At the age of 12 Clay began training … Read MoreMuhammad Ali (1942-2016)
Frederick Douglass was born into Maryland slavery in 1817 to a slave mother and a slave master father. Young Douglass toiled on a rural plantation and later in Baltimore’s shipyards as a caulker. Douglass, however, learned to read and soon sought out abolitionist literature that … Read MoreFrederick Douglass (1817-1895)
