William Robert Harvey is an educator, businessman, academic administrator, and the longest-serving tenured HBCU president in history, as the 12th president of Hampton University. Harvey was born on January 29, 1941 in Brewton, Alabama, to Mamie Claudis and Willie D. C. Harvey. He graduated from … Read MoreWilliam Robert Harvey (1941- )
Physicist George Campbell Jr. was born on December 2, 1945, in Richmond, Virginia, to Lilia and George Campbell. George’s parent divorced when he was in elementary school. Because of the disappearance of his father’s financial support and his mother’s low-paying domestic job, Campbell grew up … Read MoreGeorge Campbell Jr. (1945- )
“Image Ownership: Public Domain” Hamilton Hatter, educator and inventor, was the first principal of Bluefield Colored Institute in Bluefield, West Virginia. Hatter was born enslaved on April 24, 1856, in Jefferson County, Virginia, which became part of West Virginia in 1863. His parents Frank and … Read MoreHamilton Hatter (1856-1942)
Anderson Ruffin Abbott, Canada’s first black doctor, was born April 7, 1837 in Toronto, Ontario. He was the son of free black property owners William Ruffin Abbott and his wife Ellen (Toyer) Abbott who left Alabama after their store had been destroyed. They settled briefly … Read MoreAnderson Ruffin Abbott (1837-1913)
Robert Russa Moton was born in 1867 on the William Vaughan Plantation in Prince Edward County, Virginia. Moton attended the local freedman’s school and eventually went on to college at the Hampton Institute (now called Hampton University). At Hampton Institute, Moton distinguished himself academically and … Read MoreRobert R. Moton (1867-1940)
Born Lottie Hawkins in Henderson, North Carolina, in 1883, her family moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, early in her childhood to avoid racial discrimination in their home state. In Cambridge, she attended Allston Grammar School, Cambridge English High School and Salem State Normal School in Salem, … Read MoreCharlotte Eugenia Hawkins Brown (1883-1961)
Patrick Healy was one of the successful Healy siblings of the early 19th century who openly acknowledged being of part African or black ancestry. Known as the first American of acknowledged African descent to earn a doctorate, Patrick Healy was also the first African American … Read MorePatrick Healy (1834-1910)
