Charles Vernon Johnson was an influential member of the Seattle African American community from the moment he moved out west in 1954 to attend law school at the University of Washington. Johnson, originally from Little Rock, Arkansas, was one of a few black graduate students … Read MoreCharles V. Johnson (1928- )
Ben Kinchlow began life as a free black in Texas, when most African Americans were slaves. After the Texas Revolution, the new Republic legalized slavery and free African Americans were at risk of being sold back into slavery. Ben’s mother, Lizaar Moore, a half-white slave … Read MoreBen Kinchlow (1846?-1939?)
John Ralph Lyons was born February 22, 1888 in Lewistown, Mifflin County, Pennsylvania to James Levi and Harriet (Baptist) Lyons. His father was a barber and musician. He had four brothers and two sisters, and his mother died in childbirth when he was a teenager. … Read MoreJohn Ralph Lyons (1888-1941)
Josiah Henson was born into slavery on June 15, 1789 in Charles County, Maryland. As a young boy he witnessed slavery’s cruelties inflicted on his immediate family. Young Henson watched his father receive fifty lashes for standing up to a slave owner and then witnessed … Read MoreJosiah Henson (1789-1883)
On May 8, 2009, Ronald Cordell Sims became the Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Sims now second-in-command of the federal agency will oversee day-to-day operations of the Department which has an annual budget of $39 billion and some 8,500 employees. … Read MoreRonald Cordell Sims (1948- )
Oliver Toussaint Jackson was an example of 19th Century western African American entrepreneurship. Jackson created a restaurant, a farm and a laundry service. His most ambitious venture was the establishment of Dearfield, Colorado, an agricultural colony for African Americans about 70 miles northeast of Denver. … Read MoreOliver Toussaint Jackson (1862–1948)
Edward Wilmot Blyden, widely known as the father of Pan-Africanism, was born on August 3, 1832 in Saint Thomas, in what are now the U.S Virgin Islands. Blyden was the third of seven children and was born to Romeo and Judith Blyden, a tailor and … Read MoreEdward Wilmot Blyden (1832-1912)
John Wesley Blassingame was one of the preeminent scholars in the study of enslaved African Americans. His early monographs The Slave Community (1972) and Black New Orleans, 1860-1880 (1973) shattered racist and stereotypical portrayals of African American life by using testimony and evidence left by … Read MoreJohn W. Blassingame (1940-2000)
Kurt L. Schmoke, born in Baltimore, Maryland, on December 1, 1949, came from a middle class background. His father, Murray, a civilian chemist for the U.S. Army, was a graduate of Morehouse College, and his mother, Irene was a social worker. Schmoke attended the city’s … Read MoreKurt L. Schmoke (1949- )
Charles Sidney Gilpin, an actor, singer, and vaudevillian dancer, was the most successful African American stage performer in the early 20th Century. He is best known for his portrayal of Brutus Jones in Eugene O’Neill’s The Emperor Jones. A Richmond, Virginia, native, Gilpin attended St. … Read MoreCharles Sidney Gilpin (1878-1930)
