Khalid Abdul Muhammad was an African-American activist, a one-time member of the Nation of Islam and national chairman of the New Black Panther Party. Muhammad was born Harold Moore Jr. on January 12, 1948, to Harold Moore Sr and Lottie B. Moore in Houston, Texas. … Read MoreKhalid Abdul Muhammad (1948-2001)
Image Ownership: Public domain Elton Clay Fax, a prolific African-American cartoonist, author, and illustrator, was born on October 9, 1909, in Baltimore, Maryland. His parents were Mark Oakland Fax, a clerk, and Willie Estelle Fax, a seamstress. Elton’s younger brother, Mark, was a music prodigy … Read MoreElton Fax (1909-1993)
Coming from the biological term symbiosis, meaning the interdependence of different species, the Symbionese Liberation Army was a radical leftist revolutionary organization that sought to unify all left-wing struggles under one banner. The Berkeley, California-formed group of mostly upper middle class, educated young whites, led … Read MoreThe Symbionese Liberation Army (1973-1975)
People’s Baptist Church in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, thrived for the first half of the 20th century as the state’s first and only black congregation. It served a New England coastal community where African Americans represented 4% of the population. People’s Baptist was the spiritual home … Read MorePeople’s Baptist Church, Portsmouth, New Hampshire (1873- )
Samuel (“Sammy”) Leamon Younge Jr. was a 21-year-old civil rights activist who was shot to death on January 3, 1966 when he attempted to use a whites-only restroom at a gas station in Macon County, Alabama. He was a navy veteran studying political science at … Read MoreSamuel (“Sammy”) Leamon Younge, Jr. (1944-1966)
George W. Lowther, barber, abolitionist, equal school rights activist, and Massachusetts legislator, was born a slave in Edenton, North Carolina, to Polly Lowther. His father’s identity is unknown. His mother, Polly Lowther (c.1780-1864) was an Edenton baker, the slave of wealthy planter Joseph Blount Skinner … Read MoreGeorge W. Lowther (1822-1898)
Scholar, playwright, journalist, and African nationalist, Duse Mohamad Ali was born in Alexandria, Egypt on November 24, 1866 to an Egyptian father, Ali Abdul Salam and a Sudanese mother, whose name is unknown. At a very young age Ali was sent to study in England … Read MoreDuse Mohamad Ali (1866-1945)
In the article below historian Robin Dearmon Muhammad discusses the growth of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) or the Garvey Movement in the American West, with particular emphasis on its influence in black working-class organizing in the San Francisco Bay Area after World War … Read MoreGarveyism Looks Toward the Pacific: The UNIA and Black Workers in the American West
The poet, novelist, and screenwriter Sam Greenlee was born in Chicago, Illinois on July 13, 1930 after his family recently migrated from the South to the city. Greenlee attended inner city schools in Chicago and became politically active at a very young age. He participated … Read MoreSam Greenlee (1930-2014)
John Elliott Churchville is a civil rights activist and black nationalist who founded Philadelphia’s Freedom Library Community Project, which would become the Freedom Library Day School. Born in Philadelphia in 1941, Churchville attended Simon Gratz High School, and, on graduation, began studying music education at … Read MoreJohn Churchville (1941- )
