Alexander Thomas Augusta was the highest-ranking black officer in the Union Army during the Civil War. He was also the first African American head of a hospital (Freedmen’s Hospital) and the first black professor of medicine (Howard University in Washington, D.C.). Augusta was born in … Read MoreAlexander T. Augusta (1825-1890)
Omar Ibn Said, also known as “Uncle Moreau” was unusual among enslaved people in the antebellum United States in that before he was captured he was highly educated and could read and write fluently at a time when most African slaves were illiterate. Said’s autobiography … Read MoreOmar Ibn Said (1770-1864)
Jefferson Lewis Edmonds was a prominent newspaper editor and political activist in late 19th Century Los Angeles. Edmonds was born a slave and worked for 20 years in tobacco and cotton fields in antebellum Virginia. Once freed in 1865 Edmonds relocated to Crawfordsville, Mississippi in … Read MoreJefferson L. Edmonds (1845-1914)
Frank Silvera was an important 20th Century actor, director, producer, and teacher. Born on July 24, 1914 in Kingston, Jamaica, he grew up in Boston, Massachusetts and went on to study law at Northeastern University Law School. He later attended Boston University, Old Vic School, … Read MoreFrank Silvera (1914-1970)
Chinua Achebe of Nigeria was one of the most famous 20th Century African writers. He published his first novel Things Fall Apart in 1958 and has since published four more novels and a series of short stories, essays, and other literature. Much of Achebe’s work … Read MoreChinua Achebe (1930-2013)
Charles McArthur Taylor, born on January 28, 1948, in Arthington, Liberia, served as the president of Liberia from August 2, 1997, to August 11, 2003. Born to Nelson and Bernice Taylor, his mother was part of the Gola tribe, and his father was claimed to … Read MoreCharles M. Taylor (1948- )
Joseph James was president of San Francisco National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). In 1944 he won a successful lawsuit, James v. Marinship Corporation which prohibited the Boilermakers union from discriminating against black workers in California. James and his wife, Alberta, came … Read MoreJoseph James (?-?)
Known as the Primer Libertador de America or “first liberator of the Americas,” Gaspar Yanga led one of colonial Mexico’s first successful slave uprisings and would go on to establish one of the Americas earliest free black settlements. Rumored to be of royal lineage from … Read MoreGaspar Yanga (c. 1545- ?)
Osborne Perry Anderson was one of the five African American men to accompany John Brown in the raid on the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia) in October 1859. Anderson was a free-born abolitionist, born in West Fallow Field, Pennsylvania on July … Read MoreOsborne P. Anderson (1830-1872)
Lieutenant General Julius Wesley Becton Jr. was born on June 29, 1926 to Julius and Rose Becton in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. His father worked as a janitor in their apartment building. His mother was a housekeeper and laundress. In December 1943, Julius Becton joined the … Read MoreJulius W. Becton Jr. (1926- )
