Jesse Gray is best known for his leading the Harlem Tenant Council in the 1960s. Born May 14, 1923 in Junica, outside Baton Rouge, Louisiana to parents Samuel Gray and Lottie Clarke, Gray had nine other siblings. He attended Xavier College, an all-black catholic college … Read MoreJesse Gray (1923-1988)
John Raymond Jones, also known as the Harlem Fox, was a Harlem politician and the first African American to lead New York City, New York’s Tammany Hall. Jones was born on November 19, 1899, in Charlotte Amalie on the island of St. Thomas. At the … Read MoreJohn Raymond Jones (1899–1991)
Politician and immigrant and women’s rights advocate Mercedes Lourdes Frias was born in the municipality of San Antonio de Guerra, Dominican Republic, on October 28, 1962. The daughter of a stevedore and a washerwoman, she earned her degree in geography at the Autonomous University of … Read MoreMercedes Frias (1962- )
Paul Bogle led the last large scale armed Jamaican rebellion for voting rights and an end to legal discrimination and economic oppression against African Jamaicans. Because of his efforts Bogle was recognized as a national hero in Jamaica in 1969. His face appears on the … Read MorePaul Bogle (1822-1865)
Educator, civil rights activist, writer, suffragist, and political organizer, Addie Waites Hunton was born in Norfolk, Virginia on June 11, 1866, to Jesse and Adeline Waites. After her mother died when she was very young, she moved to Boston, Massachusetts to live with her maternal … Read MoreAddie Waites Hunton (1866-1943)
Harry Thuku, one of the pioneers of African nationalism in Kenya, was born in the Kambui region of the British colony in 1895. In 1907, the Gospel Missionary Society build a mission center in Kambui, employing Thuku as a herd boy and houseboy. During his … Read MoreHarry Thuku (1895-1970)
