Opera composer, librettist, composer, violinist, pedagogic, and activist Daniel Bernard Roumain was born on May 3, 1971 in Skokie, Illinois. He was reared, however, in Margate, Florida, His parents are Haitians, and he has one son, Zachary. Roumain began playing the violin at the age … Read MoreDaniel Bernard Roumain (1971- )
Charles Caldwell was a prominent Mississippi Republican during the Reconstruction era who spent his political career advocating for increased racial equality in the state. Charles Caldwell is believed to have been born in 1831, although the exact details of his birth and childhood are unknown. He was born into slavery and as … Read MoreCharles Caldwell (ca. 1831-1875)
Charles Sumner Kenyatta, also known as Charles 37X and Charles Morris, organized the Harlem Mau Mau Society and worked as Malcolm X’s bodyguard. Kenyatta was born February 20, 1921, to Ruth Davis and Charles Morris in Boston, Massachusetts. As a teen, he trained to be a dental technician, … Read MoreCharles Kenyatta (1921-2005)
Afro-German politician, human rights activist, and scholar Pierrette Herzberger-Fofana was born in Bamako, Mali, but grew up in Dakar, Senegal, the daughter of a Cape Verdean mother, Dona Joaquina Semedo-Lopès, who was Christian, and a Guinean father who was Muslim. Her early experience with nationalities and religions greatly influenced the course of her life. A … Read MorePierrette Herzberger-Fofana (1949- )
Williana “Liana” Jones Burroughs was an American teacher, radical political activist, and the first African American woman to run for elective office in New York. Burroughs was born on January 2, 1882, in Petersburg, Virginia. Her father died in 1886 when Williana was just four … Read MoreWilliana “Liana” Burroughs (1882-1945)
Cliff Hooper, Sr. was an artist, an activist, and a community leader. Though born in Evansville, Indiana, he became an important part of the black community in Seattle. Hooper graduated from the Cornish School of Allied Arts in Seattle in 1953 and soon earned recognition … Read MoreCliff Hooper, Sr. (1917-2001)
University professor and political activist Beverley Bryan was born in 1950 in Portland, Jamaica. Her Jamaican parents were part of the “Windrush” generation, the post-World War II migration Afro-Caribbean immigrants to Great Britain, Northern Europe, and the United States. Bryan’s family eventually settled in the Brixton section of London, UK where there was … Read MoreBeverley Bryan (1950- )
Dr. Manuel Cuesta Morúa is a Cuban dissident leader, a scholar, and a political activist. He was born on December 31, 1962 in Havana, Cuba where he is still based. He claims ancestry from Martín Morúa Delgado, an Afrocuban leader and first black Cuban senator, on his mother’s side, … Read MoreManuel Cuesta Morúa (1962- )
Berta de los Angeles Soler Fernandez is a Cuban dissident and activist. She is the co-founder and current leader of Ladies in White, or Damas de Blanco, an all-female organization of the wives and female relatives of political prisoners. Soler was born July 31, 1963 in Matanzas, Cuba. She studied … Read MoreBerta Soler (1963- )
In June of 1932, poet Langston Hughes, political activist Louise Thompson, and 22 other African American artists, filmmakers, and actors, traveled to the Soviet Union (USSR) to create a film about African American life in the American south. The film, aptly titled Black and White, was to focus on the many examples of racial discrimination … Read MoreLangston Hughes’ Visit to the Soviet Union (1932-1933)
