Colin Powell was a retired four-star United States Army General who was the first African American to serve as National Security Advisor, Chairman of the Joints Chief of Staff, and Secretary of State. Colin Powell was born on April 5, 1937, in the Bronx, New … Read MoreColin Powell (1937-2021)
Angelo Herndon was the defendant in one of the most publicized and notorious legal cases of the 1930s. In 1932, nineteen-year-old Herndon was arrested under an obscure 19th century servile insurrection law for attempting to organize a peaceful demonstration of unemployed workers in Atlanta. Largely … Read MoreAngelo Herndon (1913-?)
Eldrick “Tiger” Woods was born on December 30, 1975 in Cypress, California to parents Earl and Kultida Woods. His mother was a native of Thailand. Woods was given the nickname Tiger after a Vietnamese soldier and friend of his father’s. He grew up watching his … Read MoreEldrick “Tiger” Woods (1975- )
A leading intellectual and activist of the post-WWII period, Alphaeus Hunton Jr. was the executive director of the Council on African Affairs (CAA) and editor of the CAA’s publication, New Africa, from 1943 through the organization’s dissolution in 1955. In this capacity, Hunton did more … Read MoreWilliam Alphaeus Hunton Jr. (1903-1970)
Jazz musician Wynton Marsalis was born on October 18, 1961 in New Orleans, Louisiana to parents Ellis and Dolores Marsalis. At an early age Marsalis exhibited a passion for music. By age eight, he was already performing traditional New Orleans music in his local church … Read MoreWynton Marsalis (1961- )
Benjamin S. Carson, neurosurgeon and Republican Presidential Candidate in 2016, was born on September 18, 1951 in Detroit, Michigan. Carson was raised in a single parent home when his father deserted the family in 1959 when he was eight years old, leaving his mother, Sonya, and his older … Read MoreBenjamin S. Carson (1951- )
Oscar Micheaux was the quintessential self-made man. Novelist, film-maker and relentless self-promoter, Micheaux was born on a farm near Murphysboro, Illinois. He worked briefly as a Pullman porter and then in 1904 homesteaded nearly 500 acres of land near the Rosebud Sioux Indian Reservation in … Read MoreOscar Micheaux (1884-1951)
Elijah McCoy, one of the two most prolific black inventors of the 19th Century (the other was Granville T. Woods), was born on May 2, 1843 in Colchester, Ontario, Canada to runaway slave parents who used the Underground Railroad to escape. Once the McCoy family … Read MoreElijah McCoy (1843-1929)
Patrick Healy was one of the successful Healy siblings of the early 19th century who openly acknowledged being of part African or black ancestry. Known as the first American of acknowledged African descent to earn a doctorate, Patrick Healy was also the first African American … Read MorePatrick Healy (1834-1910)
