Prominent educator and college president John Hope was born on August 2, 1868 in Augusta, Georgia to a bi-racial couple. His father, James Hope, was a Scottish immigrant and his mother, Mary Frances Butts, was a black woman, who had been free prior to the … Read MoreJohn Hope (1868-1936)
Renowned surgeon and pioneer in organ transplants, Samuel Lee Kountz was born on August 20, 1930 to Samuel Kountz, Sr. and Emma Montague in Lexa, Arkansas. He was raised in the town of Lexa, one of the most impoverished areas of Arkansas. Without a doctor … Read MoreSamuel Lee Kountz Jr. (1930-1981)
Vernon Jarrett was a Chicago journalist and advocate for education. Born on June 19, 1921 in Paris, Tennessee, Jarrett received his undergraduate training from Knoxville College where he was editor of the campus newspaper. He graduated from Knoxville College in 1941 and soon afterwards joined … Read MoreVernon D. Jarrett (1918-2004)
Hugh Bernard Price, civil rights activist and president of the National Urban League, was born on November 22, 1941 in Washington, DC. Raised in a middle-class home by his parents, Charlotte Schuster and Kline Price, Price became aware of racial struggles and the importance of … Read MoreHugh Price (1941 – )
Attorney and philanthropist Franklin A. Thomas was the first African American president of the Ford Foundation, the trust endowed by automobile manufacturer Henry Ford. The organization currently is the second-largest philanthropic foundation in the U.S., distributing funds for initiatives relating to democracy, poverty, and cultural … Read MoreFranklin A. Thomas (1934- )
Rev. Dr. Maynard Holbrook Jackson, Sr. carried on two family traditions: preaching and politics. The son of Alexander Stephens Jackson, a Baptist minister from New Orleans, and Odalie Alice Morse Jackson. Jackson was born into New Orleans’s Negro-Creole Society on May 3, 1894. Like his father, … Read MoreMaynard Jackson, Sr. (1894-1953)
Truman Gibson was an African American businessman, attorney, government advisor, and boxing promoter. Gibson, the son of an insurance executive, was born on January 22, 1912 in Atlanta, Georgia. A few years after he was born, Gibson’s family moved to Columbus, Ohio. Gibson graduated high … Read MoreTruman Gibson (1912-2005)
The first African American Postmaster of a major postal facility, Henry W. McGee, Sr. was born in Hillsboro, Texas, in 1910, and moved to Chicago, Illinois in 1927. McGee was the first person to rise from the ranks of letter carriers to achieve the status … Read MoreHenry Wadsworth McGee, Sr. (1910-2000)
Physician and businessman Dr. Midian Othello Bousfield was a leader in Chicago’s insurance industry. His diverse career included work in medicine and in the military, advocating for African American health care and for the training of black medical personnel. He was the first black person … Read MoreMidian Othello Bousfield (1885–1948)
Henry McKee Minton was an African American pharmacist and physician who was one of the six men who founded the first African American fraternity, Sigma Pi Phi, commonly known as The Boulé. The other five founders were Algernon Jackson, Edwin Howard, Richard Warrick, Robert Abele, … Read MoreHenry McKee Minton (1870-1946)
