Charles “Chuck” Stone, Jr., pioneering African American newspaper columnist, editor, author, and professor was born on July 21, 1924 to Charles and Madeline Stone in St. Louis, Missouri. Soon after, the family moved to Connecticut where Stone’s mother worked for the Hartford Board of Education … Read MoreCharles Sumner “Chuck” Stone, Jr. (1924-2014)
In the following article longtime BlackPast.org contributor and San Diego State University Librarian Robert Fikes discusses African American emigrants to and visitors in Italy. Since the 1850s, African Americans have gone to Italy as tourists, students, soldiers, writers, musicians, opera singers, social activists, and actors. … Read MoreThe African American Experience in Italy, 1852 to 2013
Tuskegee Airman Howard Adolphus Wooten was born on April 20, 1920 in Lovelady, Texas to parents Johnnie C. Morris Wooten and Howard L. Wooten. His father was the principal of the “colored school” in Lovelady, a town 100 miles north of Houston, and his mother … Read MoreHoward A. Wooten (1920-1948)
Pioneering African-American Aviators Featuring the Tuskegee Airmen of Arkansas is a study of little known black women and men who participated in the first four decades of U.S. aviation history. The book began originally in 2006 as a biography of Milton Pitts Crenchaw, a native … Read MoreArkansas Pioneers in Flight: African Americans in Aviation from the Natural State, 1932 to 1953.
Lee Andrew Archer Jr., Tuskegee Airman in World War II, was born on September 6, 1919 in Yonkers, New York. His father was Lee Archer, Sr. and his mother was May Piper Archer. He was raised in Harlem and attended New York City’s Dewitt Clinton High … Read MoreLee Archer (1919-2010)
Milton Crenchaw was a flight instructor and one of the original Tuskegee Airman. He was the first African American from Arkansas to receive training from the federal government to become a civilian licensed pilot. Milton Pitts Crenchaw was born on January 13, 1919, in Little … Read MoreMilton Pitts Crenchaw (1919-2015)
Percy Sutton, attorney, politician, civil rights activist, and businessman, was born on November 24, 1920, in San Antonio, Texas to school teachers Samuel and Lillian Sutton. Percy Sutton attended Prairie View A&M University, Tuskegee Institute, and Hampton Institute. In 1942, Sutton joined the military. He … Read MorePercy Sutton (1920-2009)
Benjamin O. Davis, Jr. followed in the footsteps of his trail blazing father as the first black general in the U.S. Air Force. He was born in Washington, D.C. on December 18, 1912, fully committed to a military career. He entered West Point Military Academy … Read MoreBenjamin O. Davis Jr. (1912-2002)
Born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama on May 25, 1918, Coleman Young arrived in Detroit, Michigan with his family when he was five. The Colemans settled in the working class neighborhood of Black Bottom (East Detroit), where his father operated a dry cleaning business and his mother … Read MoreColeman A. Young (1918-1997)
