Thomas Nelson Baker Sr. was the first African American to receive a Ph.D. in philosophy. He was a writer, orator, ethicist, and advocate for a positive black cultural identity. Baker was born a slave on August 11, 1860 to Thomas Chadwick and Edith Nottingham Baker … Read MoreThomas Nelson Baker Sr. (1860-1940)
William Thomas Fontaine taught philosophy at Lincoln University, Southern University, Morgan State College, and for twenty years at the University of Pennsylvania. He was born in Chester Pennsylvania on December 2, 1909, the son of steelworker William Charles Fontaine and Mary Elizabeth Boyer. At age … Read MoreWilliam Thomas Fontaine (1909-1968)
A pioneer playwright and moralistic philosopher of constructive thinking, Garland Anderson was the first African American known to have a serious full-length drama produced on Broadway in New York. Active in the theatre for over 10 years during the 1920s and 1930s, he achieved national … Read MoreGarland Anderson (1886-1939)
African American philosopher Charles Leander Hill was born on July 28 1906 in Urbana Ohio. Hill was one of seven children born to David Leander and Karen (Andrews) Hill. Well respected in the Urbana community, the family lived on a street which was named after … Read MoreCharles Leander Hill (1906-1956)
Ernest William Chambers, Africana intellectual, has lived in the semi-segregated community of North Omaha, Nebraska for his entire life. A community activist in the 1960s, Chambers rode into office in the Nebraska State Legislature on the crest of new-black electoral power in 1970. As a … Read MoreErnest William Chambers (1937- )
