Frank Horne was a Harlem Renaissance poet and a member of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s (FDR) “Black Cabinet.” Throughout his public career, including his years with the U.S. Housing Authority, Horne was an outspoken opponent of racial segregation in public and private housing. Horne was … Read MoreFrank Smith Horne (1899-1974)
Marcus Mosiah Garvey, one of the most influential 20th Century black nationalist and Pan-Africanist leaders, was born on August 17, 1887 in St. Ann’s Bay, Jamaica. Greatly influenced by Booker T. Washington’s autobiography Up From Slavery, Garvey began to support industrial education, economic separatism, and … Read MoreMarcus Garvey (1887-1940)
Repeatedly on Time magazine’s list of the 100 most influential people in the world, Oprah Winfrey is a television host, media mogul – in television, radio, film, and print – and philanthropist. Forbes magazine included her in its 2003 list of America’s billionaires, the first … Read MoreOprah Winfrey (1954- )
Lieutenant James A. Roston was a key organizer for the African American labor movement in Seattle in the early part of the 20th century. He was born in New Haven, Connecticut in 1864. Roston was commissioned (from the District of Columbia) as a first lieutenant … Read MoreJames A. Roston (1864-1924)
Although the facts regarding his birthplace and biological parents are inconclusive, Countee Cullen’s formative years were spent in New York City. The adopted son of Reverend Dr. Frederick A. Cullen, pastor of Salem Methodist Episcopal Church and president of the Harlem branch of the National … Read MoreCountee Cullen (1903-1946)
William Monroe Trotter was a major civil rights activist in the early twentieth century, known primarily for launching the first major challenge to the political dominance of Tuskegee Institute founder Booker T. Washington and as an inspiration for the formation of the National Association for the … Read MoreWilliam Monroe Trotter (1872-1934)
Robert C. Weaver was a noted economist and administrator. From 1966 through 1968, he was the first African American cabinet official, serving as the Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Weaver was born December 29, 1907 in Washington D.C. and raised … Read MoreRobert Clifton Weaver (1907-1997)
Born in New Orleans, Louisiana on October 9, 1929, Ernest “Dutch” Morial grew up in the city’s English and French-speaking Seventh Ward. His father was a cigar maker and his mother was a seamstress. Graduating from Xavier University, a historically black Catholic institution in 1951, … Read MoreErnest Nathan Morial (1929-1989)
Emmett Till was a fourteen year-old African American boy who was tortured and killed in Money, Mississippi in 1955 after allegedly insulting a white woman. Born in Chicago, Illinois, Till lived with his mother, Mamie Till. His father, Louis Till, died while serving in the … Read MoreEmmett Louis Till (1941-1955)
Newspaper publisher and civil rights activist Daisy Lee Gatson Bates was influential in the integration of the Little Rock Nine into Little Rock, Arkansas’s Central High School in 1957. She was born Daisy Lee Gatson on November 11, 1914, in Huttih, Arkansas. Her mother, Millie … Read MoreDaisy Lee Gatson Bates (1914-1999)
