Rufus Early Clement was an educator and administrator who served as president of Atlanta University Center, a consortium of historically black colleges, from 1937 to 1967. Clement was born on June 26, 1900, in Salisbury, North Carolina, to Emma Williams and George Clinton Clement, Bishop … Read MoreRufus Early Clement (1900-1967)
Gilbert Edward Noble was a pianist, producer, professor, news anchor, television host, and documentarian. His entry into media was largely due to the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements. Born in Harlem, New York on February 22, 1932 to Jamaican parents Iris Villiers Noble, a … Read MoreGil Noble (1932-2012)
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)
José Celso Barbosa Alcalá, a physician, polemicist, professor, politician, and publisher, was born on July 27, 1857 in Bayamón, Puerto Rico to Carmen Alcalá and Hermógenes Barbosa, a brick mason and San Antonio sugar mill overseer. Barbosa’s life traversed significant periods: Spanish colonization; Grito de … Read MoreJosé Barbosa (1857-1921)
Imari Obadele, black power activist, reparations advocate, and college professor, is best known as co-founder of the Republic of New Afrika. Obadele was born Richard Bullock Henry on May 2, 1930 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His homemaker mother, Vera N. Robinson Henry, and his father, Walter … Read MoreImari Abubakari Obadele, I (1930-2010)
Carrie Mae Weems is an internationally renowned artist, best known for her work in photography. Weems has also used fabric, text, audio and digital images as mediums in her work. For over thirty-five years, Weems has developed a complex contemporary ongoing dialogue addressing issues of … Read MoreCarrie Mae Weems (1953- )
A professor, poet, and playwright of English, Dutch, and African descent, Derek Walcott was a 1981 MacArthur Foundation “Genius” grant recipient who received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1992. Born on January 23, 1930 to Warwick, a civil servant, and Alix Maarlin Walcott, an … Read MoreDerek Walcott (1930-2017)
Angella Ferguson is best known as a medical researcher. Her pioneering research focused on the development of the sickle cell disease among African American infants. Eventually, she developed a blood test to detect sickle cell at birth and this test became standard for forty U.S. … Read MoreAngella Dorothea Ferguson (1925- )
Born October 26, 1935 in Sumter, South Carolina, Gloria Conyers Hewitt grew up persistent. Her father, Emmett C. Conyers, and her mother, Crenella Conyers, thought that their children should attend college as they believed that was the only opportunity for improvement for African Americans. While … Read MoreGloria Conyers Hewitt (1935- )
James E. Walton, longtime professor of English at California State University, Fresno, was born on September 13, 1944 in Bessemer, Alabama to Willie Walton, Sr. and Mary Woods Cutts. Walton attended a two-room schoolhouse in Alabama. At age three, his grandmother taught him to read … Read MoreJames E. Walton (1944-2019)
