“Hill” Harper is an actor, author, and lawyer, best known for his roles on television shows CSI:NY and The Good Doctor. Harper was born in Iowa City, Iowa on May 17, 1966. His father, Harry D. Harper, II, is a psychiatrist and his mother, Marilyn … Read MoreFrancis Eugene “Hill” Harper (1966- )
Eliza Lee was one of the most esteemed cooks in antebellum Charleston who ran not only a prestigious catering business but, with her husband, owned and operated five restaurant/ hotels throughout the city. Lee’s mother was Sally Seymour, a former slave manumitted by her enslaver … Read MoreEliza Seymour Lee (1800-c. 1874)
Sally Seymour of Charleston, South Carolina built a business empire out of her pastry shop by providing haute cuisine for the city’s most prestigious citizens. She also profited by training and then selling enslaved cooks. Born into slavery, Seymour was the cook and sexual partner … Read MoreSally Seymour (?-1824)
Though overshadowed by and having received far less publicity than fabled Pearl Harbor hero Dorie Miller, Alonzo Alexander Swann Jr. performed similar action in the Pacific Theater and his all-black Navy gun crew. Their brave accomplishment and awful sacrifice would have gone relatively unnoticed had … Read MoreAlonzo Alexander Swann, Jr. (1925-2007)
Dr. John Baldwin West was one of a handful of African American pulp detective fiction writers. In the 1950s his books were described by critics as white life novels, placing him in a category with better-known writers such as Willard Motley, William Gardner Smith, and … Read MoreJohn Baldwin West (1905-1960)
One of the most prominent government ministers in Singapore in the 1950s was Mak Pak Shee whose “very dark” skin tone did not seem to retard his other careers as doctor and businessman. Often said to have been of part Chinese, part Indian ancestry, it … Read MoreMak Pak Shee (1916- ?)
Emmanuel Lewis is an actor and singer, best known for his role in the 1980s sitcom Webster. Lewis was born on March 9, 1971, in Brooklyn, New York. His parents divorced when he was two years old, and he and his siblings were raised by … Read MoreEmmanuel Lewis (1971- )
Zula Swanson, an enterprising business owner and real estate developer, became one of the largest landowners in the state of Alaska. Swanson was born in Jackson Gap, Alabama in 1891. Little is known of her early life except that she worked on a cotton plantation, … Read MoreZula Swanson (1891-1973)
Chief Festus Samuel Okotie-Eboh, one of the Founding Fathers of the Republic of Nigeria, was born on July 18, 1912 in the city of Warri to an Itsekiri Prince, Okotie Eboh of Jakpa. His mother, Ekayoda Ojegba was from another ethnic group, Urhobo in Okpe … Read MoreFestus Samuel Okotie-Eboh (1912-1966)
George Speck, later known as George Crum and long thought to be the inventor of the potato chip, was born on July 15, 1824 in Saratoga Country, New York to parents Abraham Speck, an African American, and Diana Tull, a Native American of the Huron … Read MoreGeorge Crum (1824-1914)
