Dr. Leith Patricia Mullings is an anthropologist, author, and professor. She is one of triplets with Pauline Mullings and Sandra Mullings born on April 8, 1945 in Mandeville, Jamaica to Hubert Waite and Lillieth (Gayle) Mullings. She is the widow (m. 1996) of William Manning … Read MoreLeith P. Mullings (1945- )
Francis Williams is reputed to be the first person of African ancestry to graduate from Cambridge University. Williams was born around 1702 to John and Dorothy Williams, a free African couple in Jamaica. John Williams had been manumitted by the will of his former master. … Read MoreFrancis Williams (Jamaica) (1700-1770)
James E. Walton, longtime professor of English at California State University, Fresno, was born on September 13, 1944 in Bessemer, Alabama to Willie Walton, Sr. and Mary Woods Cutts. Walton attended a two-room schoolhouse in Alabama. At age three, his grandmother taught him to read … Read MoreJames E. Walton (1944-2019)
Although persons of African ancestry had resided in Great Britain since the time of the Roman conquest, their numbers and influence increased dramatically in the years immediately after World War II. On June 22, 1948 the HMT Empire Windrush, carrying over a thousand passengers, docked … Read MoreThe Windrush Generation (1948- )
On August 4, 1914, Britain joined the Great War. The First World War, 1914-1918, is usually viewed as a predominantly white European conflict. In fact, many Africans, Asians, black Britons, and Caribbeans fought for the British Empire. At the beginning of the war, the British War Office, however, was reluctant to allow blacks to enlist … Read MoreBritish West Indian Regiment (BWIR) (1915-1918)
Born in Jamaica in 1935, Dorrel Dixon began weightlifting in his teens which slowly became his introduction into the realm of athletics. Through weightlifting, Dixon widened his physical stature. His physique and strength led him to win his first accolade as Mr. Jamaica in 1954. Later in the … Read MoreDory Dixon (1935- )
Marvin Rees, mayor of Bristol, England, population 454,000, is the person of African descent who currently leads the largest city in Europe. Born in April 1972, he and his younger sister were raised in Lawrence Weston and Eastern, two of the poorer wards in the city, by his single mother, Janet … Read MoreMarvin Johnathan Rees (1972- )
Lewis Morrison was one of the most prominent stage actors of his time. He was best known worldwide for his portrayal of “Mephistopheles” in Faust. He was also the first black Jewish officer to serve during the Civil War. Lewis Morrison was born in Kingston, … Read MoreMorris W. Morris/ Lewis Morrison (1845-1906)
Astronomer Gibor S. Basri was born in May 3, 1951 in New York City, New York, the eldest son of Saul A. Basri, an Iraqi Jewish immigrant from Iraq and physics professor, and the former Phyllis Claire Whyte, a Jamaican-born African American dance and ballet instructor. Though he experienced … Read MoreGibor Saul Basri (1951- )
The Creole Case was the result of an American slave revolt in November 1841 on board the Creole, a ship involved in the United States coastwise slave trade. As a consequence of the revolt, 128 enslaved people won their freedom in the Bahamas, then a British possession. Because of the number of people … Read MoreThe Creole Case (1841)
