Anna Julia Haywood Cooper was a writer, teacher, and activist who championed education for African Americans and women. Born into bondage in 1858 in Raleigh, North Carolina, she was the daughter of an enslaved woman, Hannah Stanley, and her owner, George Washington Haywood. In 1867, … Read MoreAnna Julia Haywood Cooper (1858-1964)
Born July 28, 1914, in Los Angeles, California, Woody Strode (Woodrow Wilson Woolwine Strode) was first of the star football athletes to become a successful film actor. He and Kenny Washington integrated the National Football League (NFL), and Strode played for the Los Angeles Rams … Read MoreWoody Strode (1914-1994)
Olympic athlete Willie Samuel Steele was born in El Centro, California on July 14, 1923. At age 4 his family moved to San Diego where he graduated from Herbert Hoover High School in 1940. While attending San Jose State University he was drafted into the … Read MoreWillie S. Steele (1923-1989)
William J. Seymour was born in Centerville, Louisiana, to former slaves Simon and Phillis Seymour, who raised him in the Baptist church. While living in Cincinnati, Ohio, he was influenced by holiness teachings, and then he moved to Houston, Texas, where he heard Charles Fox … Read MoreWilliam J. Seymour (1870-1922)
Wellington Webb was born in Chicago in 1941. He came to Denver at a very early age and before entering politics he was a forklift operator. Webb’s public service career began in 1972 when he was elected to the Colorado House of Representatives. In 1977, … Read MoreWellington E. Webb (1941- )
William Monroe Trotter was a major civil rights activist in the early twentieth century, known primarily for launching the first major challenge to the political dominance of Tuskegee Institute founder Booker T. Washington and as an inspiration for the formation of the National Association for the … Read MoreWilliam Monroe Trotter (1872-1934)
William Levi Dawson was an African American composer, choir director, and professor specializing in black religious folk music. He was born on September 26, 1899, in Anniston, Alabama to Eliza Starkey and George Dawson, the first of their seven children. His father, a former slave, … Read MoreWilliam Levi Dawson (1898-1990)
One of the original Greensboro four who took part in the Woolworth sit-ins, David Leinail Richmond is often described by those who were closest to him as “gentle, intelligent, generous to a fault, and able to take a stand.” He was born in Greensboro and … Read MoreDavid Leinail Richmond (1941-1990)
One of hip-hop culture’s most influential pioneers, Afrika Bambaataa was the first to articulate an ideology for the emerging youth culture, using the music to illustrate hip-hop’s expansive potential as a global movement. As a DJ and recording artist, Bambaataa embraced every musical genre to … Read MoreAfrika Bambaataa (1957- )
Sociologist Walter L. Wallace was born in Washington, D.C. on August 21, 1927. Educated at Columbia University (B.A., 1954) Atlanta University (M.A., 1955) and the University of Chicago (Ph.D., 1963), he was an instructor at Atlanta University and Spelman College between 1955 and 1957. From … Read MoreWalter L. Wallace (1927- )
