"Image Ownership: Public Domain" Dr. Leonard Hall O’Connell Spearman was the U.S. Ambassador to Rwanda and Lesotho. A native of Tallahassee, Florida, Spearman was born July 8, 1929. In 1947 Spearman graduated from Florida A&M College (now Florida A&M University), in Tallahassee, Florida, with a … Read MoreLeonard H.O. Spearman (1929-2008)
"Image Ownership: Public Domain" George Duke was a musician who covered a number of genres including bebop, R&B, jazz fusion, funk, and alternative rock. As performer, arranger, composer, producer, and educator for five decades, he worked with a wide variety of performers and among his … Read MoreGeorge Duke (1946-2013)
Image Ownership: Public Domain Korla Pandit, the first African American to have his own television show, was a composer, organist and pianist who starred in TV’s first all-music series. He was known as the godfather of “Exotica,” a musical genre that became popular in the … Read MoreKorla Pandit (1921-1998) (aka Redd, John Roland, aka Rolando, Juan)
Image Ownership: Public Domain Harold “Hal” Jackson, legendary broadcaster, radio station owner, and philanthropist was born November 3, 1915 in Charleston, South Carolina to Eugene and Laura Jackson. Eugene Jackson owned a successful tailor shop in Charleston allowing the family to live in a comfortable … Read MoreHal Jackson (1915-2012 )
Image Ownership: Public Domain Educator, newspaper publisher and politician John Quincy Adams is best known as the editor of the Western Appeal/The Appeal of St. Paul, Minnesota. He held the position from 1886 to 1922. John Quincy Adams was born free in Louisville, Kentucky, on … Read MoreJohn Quincy [“J. Q.”] Adams (1848-1922)
William Attaway, writer and composer, was born in Greenville, Mississippi. His mother, Florence Parry Attaway, worked as a teacher and his father, William Alexander Attaway, was a doctor who helped create the National Negro Insurance Association. In the 1910s, the family moved to Chicago, Illinois. … Read MoreWilliam Attaway (1911-1986)
Powell Lindsay, actor, director, playwright, and producer, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He attended Virginia Union University as well as the Yale University School of Drama. At Yale, Lindsay became frustrated by the limited and often stereotypical African American roles presented by the School of … Read MorePowell Lindsay (1905-1987)
The Miami Riot of 1980 was the first major race riot since the late 1960s. In December 1979, a number of white Miami-Dade (Florida) police officers were involved in a high-speed chase involving black motorist Arthur McDuffie. Police reports said that the chase ended when … Read MoreMiami (Liberty City) Riot, 1980
Image Courtesy of Raphael Taliaferro Ray Taliaferro, the first black talk show host on a major American radio station, was born on February 7, 1939 and grew up in the Hunters Point district of San Francisco. His talk radio career began in 1967 at San … Read MoreRaphael “Ray” Taliaferro ( 1939-2018)
Wapato and the Yakima River Valley Image Ownership: Public Domain Around 10 P.M. on Saturday, July 9, 1938, a mob (estimated by local paper to be two hundred strong) of white residents of Wapato, a small town in the Yakima Valley region of Washington State, … Read MoreThe Wapato Race Riot, 1938
