James B. McMillan was the first black dentist in Nevada. In the 1960s, he successfully fought against segregation in Las Vegas. McMillan was born on January 14, 1917, in Aberdeen, Mississippi, the son of James Milton McMillan and Rosalie Gay. McMillan’s father died when he was one year old, and he … Read MoreJames B. McMillan (1917-1999)
Dentist and civil rights leader Daniel A. Collins was born in Darlington, South Carolina, on June 11, 1916. His father ran a heavy equipment company, and his mother was a school principal and an ordained minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Following high school … Read MoreDaniel A. Collins (1916-2007)
“Image Courtesy of the Los Angeles Public Library” Dentist and civil rights leader Christopher L. Taylor was born in Wilson, North Carolina, to Russell Buxton Taylor and Viola Gaither on December 21, 1923. Taylor served in the United States Army in World War II. In … Read MoreChristopher L. Taylor (1923–1995)
Civil rights activist, dentist, book, and African art collector Jack Johnson Kimbrough was born in Lexington, Mississippi, on July 26, 1908, to Samuel G. Kimbrough, a blacksmith, and Mary (Hoover) Kimbrough. Fearing violence from the Ku Klux Klan in 1915, the family fled Mississippi with … Read MoreJack J. Kimbrough (1908–1992)
Ida Gray Nelson Rollins, the first African American female dentist, was born in Clarksville, Tennessee, on March 4, 1867. She became an orphan when her mother, Jennie Gray, died in her early teens. Rollins’ white father, whose name is unknown, played no role in her … Read MoreIda Gray Nelson Rollins (1867-1953)
H. Claude Hudson was an important civil rights and business leader in two different cities: Shreveport, Louisiana, and Los Angeles. Hudson was born in Louisiana in 1886. He studied at Wiley College, in Marshall, Texas, and earned a degree from the dentistry school at Howard … Read MoreH. Claude Hudson (1886-1989)
John Alexander Somerville emigrated to the United States from Jamaica around 1900. He and his wife, Vada Watson Somerville, were both graduates of the University of Southern California School of Dentistry. Graduating with honors in 1907, he was the first black graduate, and his wife … Read MoreJohn Alexander Somerville (1882-1973)
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)
