The New Year’s Day March, the first major civil rights demonstration in South Carolina, was a 1,000-person march that protested segregated facilities at the Greenville, South Carolina Municipal Airport (Now Greenville Downtown Airport) on January 1, 1960. The march was prompted by Jackie Robinson and … Read MoreNew Year’s Day March, Greenville, South Carolina (1960)
Frank S. Greene, Jr. is an inventor, scientist, venture capitalist investor, educator, and the first African American to graduate from the Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps. He is also responsible for developing the world’s fastest microchip in the 1960s. Greene was born on October … Read MoreFrank S. Greene, Jr. (1938-2009)
Captain Theresa Mae Claiborne was the first African American woman to become a U.S. Air Force pilot. Capt. Claiborne referenced the historic Tuskegee Airmen for paving her way to becoming the first Black woman pilot in the Air Force. Theresa Mae Claiborne was born May … Read MoreTheresa M. Claiborne (1959- )
Former University President Ivory Vance Nelson was born on June 11th, 1934 in Curtiss, Louisiana. Not much is available about Nelson’s youth. He graduated from Booker T. Washington High School in Curtiss in 1951 at the age of 16 and then enlisted in the U.S. … Read MoreIvory V. Nelson (1934- )
Tuskegee Airman Charles McGee is a retired fighter pilot whose legendary career spans three wars and four hundred and nine combat missions. McGee was born on December 7, 1919, to Lewis Allen and Ruth Elizabeth (Lewis) in Cleveland, Ohio. His father’s position as a minister, … Read MoreCharles Edward McGee (1919- )
Project 100,000 was a program devised by the U.S. Department of Defense in 1966 to ease recruitment standards for the United States Army. While the project was ostensibly promoted to allow inner city youth and poor young men from rural areas to join the military … Read MoreProject 100,000 (1966-1971)
St. Louis, Missouri native Wendell Oliver Pruitt, a pioneering pilot of the 15th Air Force, was born to Elijah and Melanie Pruitt on June 20, 1920. Pruitt graduated from Sumner High School, briefly attended Stowe Teachers College (now Harris-Stowe State University), and later transferred to … Read MoreWendell Oliver Pruitt (1920-1945)
Franklin D. Burgess’s remarkable life as a star basketball player at Gonzaga University and a Federal Judge in Western Washington earned him the description “a legend on two courts.” Franklin Burgess was born on March 9, 1935 in Eudora, Arkansas. Raised with seven siblings, he … Read MoreFranklin D. Burgess (1935-2010)
