Carl Maxey grew up in an orphanage and became a leading attorney, civil rights activist, and champion of the underdog. He was adopted by a Spokane, Washington, couple immediately following his birth in Tacoma but ended up in the Spokane Children’s Home after his adoptive … Read MoreCarl Maxey (1924-1997)
Wing Chong Luke is a pioneer in Asian American politics. In 1962, at the age of 37, Luke, despite an active smear campaign, became the first person of Asian ancestry elected to public office in the Pacific Northwest and the first person of color elected … Read MoreWing Chong Luke (1925-1965)
Microbiologist James Monroe Jay was born in Fitzgerald, Georgia on September 12, 1927. Following service in the U.S. Army during World War II he earned his bachelor’s degree at Paine College (cum laude), then his master’s in 1953 and Ph.D. in bacteriology and biochemistry at … Read MoreJames M. Jay (1927-2008)
Ezzard Charles, also known as “The Cincinnati Cobra,” was a quiet, modest individual who went on to become a relatively unheralded world heavyweight champion. Born in Lawrenceville, Georgia on July 7, 1921, Ezzard moved to Cincinnati at the age of nine to live with his … Read MoreEzzard Mack Charles (1921-1975)
Lester Oliver Bankhead was among a handful of pioneering black architects in Los Angeles in the 1950s. Although he faced the racial prejudice of his time, he was able to obtain work from Hollywood celebrities, such as actor Lorne Greene of the television series Bonanza; … Read MoreLester Oliver Bankhead (1912-1997)
Born on March 1, 1913 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Ralph Waldo Ellison entered the world with a name that almost presumed for him a literary career. But his road to and in literature would be torturous. Many of the initial comforts enjoyed by Ellison vanished … Read MoreRalph Ellison (1913-1994)
Reverend J(esse) J(ames) Clow was a beloved minister and a prominent figure in the struggle for civil rights in Portland, Oregon. In 1936, Rev. Clow began a service of ministry at Portland’s Mt. Olivet Baptist Church. Mt. Olivet was the first African American Baptist Church … Read MoreJ.J .Clow (1893-1979)
Edward William Brooke III was the first African American to be elected by popular vote to the United States Senate. Brooke, an African American, Protestant Republican, won elective office in the overwhelmingly white, Catholic, Democratic state of Massachusetts and emerged as a leader in the … Read MoreEdward Brooke, III (1919-2015)
Veteran of the Spanish Civil War and World War II, Walter Garland was born in New York City on 27 November 1913. After serving in the U.S. Army for two years, he enrolled at Brooklyn College where he studied mathematics. Garland joined the Communist Party … Read MoreWalter Benjamin Stephen Garland (1913-197?)
Born as Harold George Bellanfanti Jr. on March 1, 1927, in Harlem, New York, to parents Melvine Love Bellanfanti, a Jamaican housekeeper, and Harold George Bellanfanti, Sr., of Martinique, who worked as a chef for the National Guard. Belafonte grew from being a troubled youth to … Read MoreHarry Belafonte (1927-2023)
