Z. Alexander Looby was among the small cadre of African American lawyers who began practicing in the southern United States during the 1920s and 1930s. Often considered the “second generation of black attorneys,” these lawyers followed the first cadre of African Americans who began practicing … Read MoreZ. Alexander Looby (1899-1972)
In the following article, James A. Banks, the Kerry and Linda Killinger Professor and Director of the Center for Multicultural Education at the University of Washington, Seattle, describes his Arkansas community’s reaction to the U.S. Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education decision when it … Read MoreRemembering Brown: Silence, Loss, Rage, and Hope, 1954
Following the momentum of student-led sit-ins in Greensboro, North Carolina and Nashville, Tennesssee in early 1960, an interracial group of activists, led by Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) Executive Director James Farmer, decided to continue to challenge Jim Crow segregation in the South by organizing … Read MoreFreedom Rides (1961)
Freeman Roberson Bosley, Jr., is the first African American Mayor of St. Louis, Missouri. Bosley was born in St. Louis on July 20, 1954, the son of Freeman Roberson and Marjorie Bosley. His father, a long-time alderman in St. Louis, unsuccessfully ran for mayor in … Read MoreFreeman Roberson Bosley Jr. (1954- )
Born in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1941, Ernest Gideon Green was no stranger to the Civil Rights Movement as his mother was a NAACP member and took part in protests against unequal pay between whites and blacks. Partly inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. … Read MoreErnest G. Green (1941- )
On Thursday March 31 and Friday April 1, 1966, thousands of Seattle Public School students boycotted schools in the Central District, Seattle Washington’s African American community, to protest the de facto segregation that they believed was racially discriminatory. The students and their leaders felt that … Read MoreSeattle School Boycott (1966)
Prominent social and civic leader in African American Seattle, Washington, Meredith Mathews was born in Thomaston, Georgia on September 14, 1919. He attended public schools in Georgia and then moved to Ohio for college. He received his Bachelor of Science degree from Wilberforce University in … Read MoreMeredith Mathews (1919-1992)
Lulu Belle Madison White, civil rights activist in the 1940s and 1950s, devoted most of her adult life to the struggle against Jim Crow in Texas. She campaigned for the right to vote, for equal pay for equal work, and for desegregation of public facilities. … Read MoreLulu B.White (1900-1957)
Dr. Lincoln J. Ragsdale, Sr. was a leading activist in the battle for civil rights in Arizona. After graduating from Tuskegee flying school in Alabama in 1945, he relocated to Luke Air Field in Litchfield Park, Arizona, becoming one of the first black pilots to … Read MoreLincoln J. Ragsdale Sr. (1926-1995)
In this constitutional case, the U.S. Supreme Court, composed entirely of Bok Guey (whites), adjudged Hon Yen (Chinese) to be in the same social classification as Lo Mok (blacks). The Supreme Court’s decision permitted the state of Mississippi to define Martha Lum as a member … Read MoreGong Lum v. Rice (1927)
