Jacques Roumain (Born Jean-Baptiste Roumain) was a Haitian author, poet, novelist, essayist, political activist, and diplomat born on June 4, 1907. He was one of the more famous twentieth century Haitian intellectuals. Jacques Roumain was born in Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital. He was the first … Read MoreJean Baptiste Roumain (Jacques) / Roumain, Jacques (1907-1944)
Henrietta Vinton Davis was an American elocutionist, dramatist, and impersonator. She was also considered to be the physical, intellectual, and spiritual link between the abolitionist movement of the Frederick Douglass era and the African Redemption Movement of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities … Read MoreHenrietta Vinton Davis (1860-1941)
William Richard Tolbert Jr. was the twentieth president of Liberia from 1971 to 1980, when he was killed in a coup led by then Liberian Army Sergeant Samuel Doe. Tolbert was trained as a civil servant when he entered Liberia’s House of Representatives in 1943 … Read MoreWilliam Richard Tolbert Jr. (1913-1980)
In 1977 Ethiopia and Somalia engaged in a brief territory conflict over the Ogaden region situated between and claimed by both nations. This conflict however held significance greater than most territorial disputes because Ethiopia was backed by the Soviet Union and Somalia was supported by … Read MoreEthiopian-Somali War Over the Ogaden Region (1977–1978)
“Image Ownership: York Minster” In 2005, John Tucker Mugabi Sentamu was installed as the Anglican Church’s Archbishop of York. Sentamu was born on June 10, 1949, the sixth of 13 children of Rev. John and Ruth Walakira in a village outside Kampala, Uganda. Taught by … Read MoreJohn Sentamu (1949- )
“Image Ownership: Public Domain” Concert pianist, composer, and music conservatory director José Manuel Jiménez Berroa was born on December 7, 1855, into a musical family in Trinidad, Cuba, a city on the central coast known for its mainly African-descended population, sugar mills, and tobacco production. … Read MoreJosé Manuel Jiménez Berroa (1855–1917)
Prominent Virginia journalist Ray Boone Sr. was born February 2, 1938, in Suffolk, Virginia. His parents, foreign-born Japanese father, Tsujiro Miyanski, and mother, Leathia M. Boone, of mixed African and Native American descent, were banned from marrying in Virginia because of their different races. Yet … Read MoreRaymond Harold/ “Ray” Boone Sr. (1938-2014)
“Image Ownership: Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times” Leo Antony “Tony” Gleaton was an African American photographer, scholar, and artist who is best known for his photographic images capturing and documenting the African influence in the American West and Central and South America. Gleaton, the youngest son … Read MoreTony Gleaton (1948-2015)
Ambassador Bisa Williams was a career member of the Foreign Service of the United States Department of State. She was nominated by President Barack Obama in 2010 to serve as the U.S. ambassador to the Republic of Niger. After Senate confirmation, she headed the U.S. … Read MoreBisa Williams (1954- )
Robert Perry was born in Durham, North Carolina in 1945. He graduated from Hillside High School in that city in 1963. During his time in high school, Perry played in the marching band, was a member of the Honor Society, and served as president of … Read MoreRobert C. Perry (1945- )
