Edwin L. Cooper, an internationally-recognized biologist and immunologist, is credited as the founder of comparative immunology. Cooper was born on December 23, 1936 in Oakland, Texas to Ruthester Porche Cooper and Edwin Ellis Cooper. As a young child, he developed a profound interest in animals … Read MoreEdwin Lowell Cooper (1936- )
James F. Williams serves as the managing partner of the Perkins Coie office in Seattle, Washington, the largest law office in Washington State. Born and raised on a small farm in South Carolina, Williams obtained his undergraduate degree in political science with honors from The … Read MoreJames F. Williams (1963- )
Scientist Karen Elizabeth Nelson was born in Jamaica in 1950 and migrated to the United States in the 1970s. She received a Bachelor of Science in Animal Science from the University of the West Indies in Mona, Jamaica, in 1972 and a Doctor of Philosophy … Read MoreKaren Elizabeth Nelson (1950- )
Modibo Keita, the first President of Mali, was born on June 4, 1915, in Bamako-Coura, Upper Senegal and Niger (current Mali). He was the son of Daba Keita and Fatoumata Camara. His family claimed direct descent from Sundiata Keita the first ruler of the Mali … Read MoreModibo Keita (1915-1977)
Political Scientist George James Fleming was born in Bassein Triangle, Christiansted, St. Croix, Danish West Indies (now U.S. Virgin Islands) on February 15, 1904 to parents Alexander Fleming and Ernestine Jackson Fleming. His primary education began at the Moravian Day School at the Centre Mission … Read MoreG. James Fleming (1904-1990)
Dr. Kariamu Welsh was recognized as a pioneer and trailblazer of African diaspora dance, professor of dance at Temple University for 30 years before retiring in 2019, author and editor of seminal works on Afrocentricity and Black movement traditions. Welsh was born Carole Ann Welsh … Read MoreKariamu Welsh Asante (1949-2021)
Jessie Redmon Fauset, known as the “Midwife of the Harlem Renaissance,” was born in Fredericksville, Camden County, New Jersey on April 27, 1882 to Redmon and Annie Seamon Fauset. She was the seventh addition to an already large family. At a very early age Fauset … Read MoreJessie R. Fauset (1882-1961)
Harriet Washington is a prolific author and medical ethicist who wrote the 2007 National Book Critics Circle Award-winning Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present, in which she explores the medical maltreatment of Black people … Read MoreHarriet Washington (1951- )
Doxey Alphonso Lewis Alexander Wilkerson, communist, Marxist, professor, author, editor, and union leader, was born April 24, 1905 in Excelsior Springs, Missouri to Mattie L. Wilkerson of Kentucky (1884-1955) and Methodist minister Alphonso Wilkerson. A 1921 graduate of Sumner High School in Kansas City, Kansas, … Read MoreDoxey Wilkerson (1905-1993)
Lucille Boynton Skaggs Edwards, a journalist and suffragist, was the first African American woman magazine publisher in Nebraska. Edwards was born to Mary and David Skaggs in Washington, D.C. on July 23, 1875. Some documents suggest that her mother was a white Irish immigrant while … Read MoreLucille Boynton Skaggs Edwards (1875-1972)
