Pearl Primus, dancer and choreographer, was born on November 29th, 1919, in Trinidad. Her parents, Edward and Emily Primus, immigrated to the United States in 1921 when Pearl was still a small child. Primus was raised in New York City, and in 1940 received her … Read MorePearl Primus (1919-1994)
Mervyn Malcolm Dymally, an African American politician from Los Angeles, California who has served in the California Assembly, the State Senate and as a U.S. Congressman. He is also the first African American Lt. Governor of California. Dymally is now once again in the California … Read MoreMervyn Dymally (1923- )
With the birth name of Claudia Cumberbatch, Claudia Jones was born on February 21, 1915 in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad. Her family migrated to the United States in 1924 and became residents of Harlem, New York. Claudia’s mother was a garment worker and due to the effects … Read MoreClaudia Jones (1915-1964)
Edward Lancelot Miles, the Bloedel Professor Emeritus of Marine and Public Affairs at the University of Washington, Seattle, was a pioneer scientist in examining and establishing international environmental policy, particularly in the area of global climate change. He was born on December, 12, 1939 in Trinidad, … Read MoreEdward L. Miles (1939-2016)
Born in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, to a middle-class family, Oliver Cromwell Cox was one of nine children of Virginia Blake and William Raphael Cox. Influenced by his father, who was determined that his children further their education, Oliver traveled to the United States at the age … Read MoreOliver Cromwell Cox (1901-1974)
Hubert Fauntleroy Julian, nicknamed the Black Eagle, was born in Trinidad on January 5th, 1897. In 1922, when he was 25 years old, he flew over parades in support of Marcus Garvey. He subsequently took flying lessons from Air Service, Inc., and purchased a plane … Read MoreHubert Fauntleroy Julian (1897-1983)
Hazel Scott was born on June 11, 1920, in Port of Spain, Trinidad. In 1924, Scott and her parents migrated to Harlem, New York, where Hazel, a musical prodigy, studied classical piano with Paul Wagner, a Juilliard professor. In the late 1930s and early 1940s, … Read MoreHazel Scott (1920-1981)
A journalist, radical activist, and theoretician, George Padmore did more than perhaps any other single individual to shape the theory and discourse of Pan-African anti-imperialism in the first half of the twentieth century. Born Malcolm Nurse in Trinidad in 1901, Padmore moved to the United … Read MoreGeorge Padmore (1901-1959)
Trinidad-born dental surgeon and Spanish Civil War veteran Arnold Donawa was born in December 1895 in Trinidad. Very little is known about his childhood there, but by the early 1920s, he was living in the United States and earned his D.D.S. from Howard University in … Read MoreArnold Bennett Donawa (1895-1966)
