Prathia Hall Wynn was a womanist, theologian, ethicist, and civil rights activist who has been credited with being a key inspiration for Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1963 “I Have A Dream Speech.” Hall was born on June 29, 1940 to Reverend Berkeley L. Hall and … Read MorePrathia Hall Wynn (1940-2002)
Herman Perry was the target of the “Greatest Manhunt of World War II.” In fact, there is no comparable search for a fugitive soldier in the annals of U.S. military history. Perry was born in poverty on May 16, 1922, in rural Monroe, North Carolina, … Read MoreHerman Perry (1922-1945)
The West End of Louisville, Kentucky emerged as a predominantly black neighborhood in the city during the 1830s when free blacks began buying property west of 9th Street. The area, however, was not entirely black as African Americans lived alongside Jewish, German, and Irish immigrants, … Read MoreThe West End of Louisville (ca. 1835- )
Mississippi became the mecca of the Freedom Movement in the early 1960s due to local and out-of-state activists who formed or supported grassroots efforts to gain civil rights for its black citizens. One of those local activists was Benjamin Ellery Murph. Murph was born on … Read MoreBenjamin Ellery Murph (1908-1972)
In 1954, the United States Supreme Court declared public school segregation unconstitutional in Brown v. Board of Education. One year later, the Court reiterated its ruling, calling on school districts throughout the United States to desegregate their public schools “with all deliberate speed.” While some school districts began developing … Read MoreLittle Rock Crisis, 1957
On August 6, 1945, Private First Class Malvin L. Brown was killed after falling 140 feet during a “let-down” from a tree while fighting a forest fire in the Umpqua National Forest in southern Oregon. Brown was the first smokejumper to die while fighting a … Read More555th Parachute Infantry Battalion [Triple Nickles] (1944-1947)
Dr. Emory Hestus Holmes, World War II veteran, social scientist, professor, and California civil rights leader, was born on November 17, 1924 in Birmingham, Alabama to David H. and Dora Catherine Holmes. He attended segregated schools in Alabama and, at the age of 17, joined … Read MoreEmory Hestus Holmes (1924-1995)
“Image Ownership: Public Domain” William James Raspberry, who wrote a prominent public affairs column for The Washington Post for nearly 40 years, was one of the first extensively read African American journalist commentators with a wide readership in the mainstream press. From 1995 to 2008 … Read MoreWilliam James Raspberry (1935-2012)
Claudette Colvin, a nurse’s aide and Civil Rights Movement activist, was born on September 5, 1939, in Birmingham, Alabama. Her parents were Mary Jane Gadson and C.P. Austin, but she was raised by her great-aunt and great-uncle, Mary Ann and Q.P. Colvin. Claudette Colvin and … Read MoreClaudette Colvin (1935- )
The Black Belt Republic was a proposed black autonomous state in the American Deep South proposed by African American communists and for a time endorsed by the Soviet Union and the international communist community. The Black Belt itself is a crescent shaped band of predominately … Read MoreBlack Belt Republic (1928-1934)
