Longtime civil rights organizer and later U.S. Ambassador, Franklin Hall Williams was born on October 22, 1917, in Flushing, New York. His mother died in 1919. Williams was raised by his maternal grandparents. He graduated from Lincoln University in Chester County, Pennsylvania in 1941. After … Read MoreFranklin Hall Williams (1917-1990)
“Image Ownership: Public Domain” Black Power advocate Nathan Wright, Jr. was born on August 5, 1923 in Shreveport, Louisiana. He and his brother and sisters grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio. Wright attended St. Augustine’s College in Raleigh, North Carolina, in 1941 and 1942 and then … Read MoreNathan Wright Jr. (1923-2005)
Harold Jenkins was an African American entrepreneur and owner of the renowned Slim Jenkins Supper Club in Oakland, California, popular from the 1930s to the 1960s. Jenkins was born July 22, 1890, in Monroe, Louisiana and relocated to Oakland shortly after World War I, and … Read MoreHarold “Slim” Jenkins (1890-1967)
Ronald Kenneth Noble is the first African American to serve as Secretary General of the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) headquartered in Lyon, France. Born in 1956 at Fort Dix, New Jersey, Noble is the son of an African American soldier and a German mother. … Read MoreRonald Noble (1956 -)
Abram Thompson Hall, Jr., a northern journalist, forced the organization of Graham County after arriving in Nicodemus, Kansas, the first all-black community on the high plains. The county’s rapidly increasing white population objected, but Kansas Governor John Pierce St. John acknowledged the validity of Hall’s … Read MoreAbram Thompson Hall Jr. (1851-1951)
For over six decades Dr. Yusef A. Lateef was a major developer in the international improvisational musical field. A saxophone and flute virtuoso, his early success in the blues and jazz fields led him to push himself beyond educational barriers, becoming a contemporary renaissance artist … Read MoreYusef Abdel Lateef (1920-2013)
Rob Nabors was the Deputy Chief of Staff to U.S. President Barack Obama. Previously, Nabors served as the Director of Legislative Affairs in the Obama Administration, as Deputy Director of the Office of Management and Budget, and as Senior Advisor to former Chief of Staff … Read MoreRob Nabors (1971- )
Jeh (pronounced “Jay”) Charles Johnson, a civil and criminal trial lawyer, was the U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security. Johnson received his B.A. from Morehouse College in 1979 and obtained his J.D. from Columbia University in 1982. Nominated by President Barack Obama in October 2013, and … Read MoreJeh C. Johnson (1957- )
Bishop William Paul Quinn was the fourth Bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church. He was instrumental in establishing several AME churches in U.S. midwestern states during the pre-Civil War period. His work for the Black Methodist community was highly regarded. That work included … Read MoreWilliam Paul Quinn (1788-1873)
Dean P. Baquet is primarily known as a Pulitzer Prize winner in journalism and the first African American executive editor of the New York Times. Baquet was born on September 21, 1956 in New Orleans, Louisiana, into a middle class family which included four other … Read MoreDean P. Baquet (1956- )
