Isaac Morrow, a former foreman at the Port of Tacoma, introduced the concept of on-dock intermodal shipping, which raised the port to national leadership and revolutionized the long shore industry. Morrow is a member of Tacoma’s Local No. 23 of the International Longshore and Warehouse … Read MoreIsaac Morrow (1940- )
Benjamin Bradley was the first person to develop a working model of a steam engine for a war ship. Born in Maryland around 1830 Bradley was owned by an unidentified slaveholder in Annapolis, Maryland. While living in Annapolis Bradley worked for a printing company at … Read MoreBenjamin Bradley (1830-?)
Compared at the time to his more famous colleague, Paul Robeson, and heralded by major publicity outlets of his day as one of black America’s most exceptional baritone vocalists, singer-actor Kenneth Spencer was one of the most prominent black artists of the early 20th Century. … Read MoreKenneth Spencer (1913-1964)
Charles Spurgeon Johnson, one of the leading 20th century black sociologists, was born in Bristol, Virginia on July 24, 1893. After receiving his B.A. from Virginia Union University in Richmond, he studied sociology with the noted sociologist Robert E. Park at the University of Chicago, … Read MoreCharles S. Johnson (1893-1956)
John Carlos is best known for his black-gloved fist salute on the winner’s podium (with Tommie Smith) at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City. Born on June 5, 1945, in Harlem, New York, Carlos was a promising student-athlete in high school. Following graduation, attended … Read MoreJohn Carlos (1945- )
Harry Edwards is an Emeritus Professor at the University of California at Berkeley best known for co-engineering the “Revolt of the Black Athlete” in the late 1960’s. Edwards, born in East St. Louis, Illinois in 1942, attended Fresno City College from 1959 to 1960 as … Read MoreHarry Edwards (1942- )
Ben Gross is a legendary civil rights and union activist in San Jose, California and the surrounding Silicon Valley. Gross was born and raised in McGehee, Arkansas in 1921. In Arkansas, Gross lived under Jim Crow Laws (legal segregation) and picked cotton during the Great … Read MoreBen Gross (1921- )
Ahmad Sekou Toure in Bamako Image Ownership: Public Domain Ahmed Sékou Touré, first president of Guinea, trade unionist, Pan-Africanist and authoritarian leader, was born on January 9, 1922, at Faranah, Guinea, a town on the banks of the Niger River. His parents, Alpha Touré and … Read MoreAhmed Sékou Touré (1922-1984)
John Hope Franklin, one of the nation’s leading historians, is the only African American who has served as president of both the American Historical Association (AHA) and the Organization of American Historians (OAH). Franklin was born in Rentiesville, Oklahoma on January 2, 1915 to parents … Read MoreJohn Hope Franklin (1915-2009)
David Jones Peck was the first black man to graduate from an American medical school. He was born to John C. and Sarah Peck in Carlisle, Pennsylvania around 1826. John Peck was a prominent abolitionist and minister who founded the local African Methodist Episcopal (AME) … Read MoreDavid Jones Peck (ca. 1826-1855)
