George Lewis Ruffin was born December 16, 1834 in Richmond, Virginia, the son of free blacks. He was educated in Boston, Massachusetts and soon became a force in the city’s civic leadership. After marrying Josephine St. Pierre, Mr. Ruffin supported his family by working as … Read MoreGeorge Lewis Ruffin (1834-1886)
Prominent civil rights attorney Hayzel B. Daniels earned his B.S. in Social Sciences in 1939 and an M.A. in Education in 1941 from the University of Arizona. He taught at Fort Huachuca, Arizona where his father was stationed with the 10th Cavalry. Daniels served in … Read MoreHayzel B. Daniels (1913-1992)
Cora Mae Brown was part of a generation of African American women who translated their community work into political struggle during the first half of the twentieth century. Born on April 19, 1914 in Bessemer, Alabama, Brown’s family migrated to Detroit, Michigan when she was … Read MoreCora Mae Brown (1914-1972)
Charles Hamilton Houston, a renowned civil rights attorney, is widely recognized as the architect of the civil rights strategy that led to the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1954 decision, Brown v. Board of Education. He was also a mentor to Thurgood Marshall who successfully litigated the … Read MoreCharles Hamilton Houston (1895-1950)
Charles Moorehead Stokes, one of three sons of Rev. Norris Jefferson Stokes and Myrtle Garner Stokes, was born on February 1, 1903 in Pratt, Kansas. He graduated from the University of Kansas Law School in 1931 and soon after opened his law practice in Pratt … Read MoreCharles Moorehead Stokes (1903-1996)
Civil rights activist, ambassador of interracial goodwill, editor and publisher of the (Portland) Advocate, Oregon’s first African American female to practice law — Beatrice Morrow Cannady spent nearly 25 years working for equal rights for Oregon’s two thousand black citizens. Born in 1889 in Littig, … Read MoreBeatrice Hulon Morrow Cannady (1889-1974)
Raymond Pace Alexander, a prominent civil rights activist, jurist, and Harvard-trained attorney was born on October 19, 1897 in Philadelphia to a family of seven, His father, Hillard Boone Alexander, and his mother, Virginia Pace, both were former slaves who migrated to Philadelphia from Virginia … Read MoreRaymond Pace Alexander (1897-1974)
Born in Wilmington, Delaware in 1823, Mary Ann Shadd was a teacher, journalist, and outspoken leader of the Canadian emigration movement during the 1850s. Shadd grew up in an abolitionist household. She was the eldest child of Abraham Doras Shadd, a prosperous shoemaker and veteran … Read MoreMary Ann Shadd Cary (1823-1893)
George H. White served as a member of the fifty-fifth and fifty-sixth United States Congresses (March 4, 1897-March 3, 1901) from North Carolina’s Second Congressional District during what historian Rayford Logan has termed the nadir in race relations for the post-Reconstruction South. Born in Rosindale, … Read MoreGeorge Henry White (1852-1918)
A major figure in Harlem community politics and the Communist Party during the 1930s and 1940s, Benjamin Davis, Jr. was born into a prominent African American family in Atlanta, Georgia in 1903. He migrated north to Massachusetts to attend college at Amherst, where he was … Read MoreBenjamin Davis, Jr. (1903-1964)
