Choreographer, dancer, and teacher Lorraine Graves was born Lorraine Elizabeth Graves on October 5, 1957, in Norfolk, Virginia, to Tommy E. Graves Jr., founder and CEO of Graves Funeral Home, and Mildred Odom Graves, a public school teacher. Lorraine had one brother, Tommy E. Graves … Read MoreLorraine Graves (1957-2024)
Tuskegee Airman and later College President Roscoe Conkling Brown, Jr., was born March 9, 1922, in Washington, DC, to Roscoe Conkling Brown Sr., a dentist, and Vivian Kemp Brown, a teacher. He had an older sister, Portia Brown. Roscoe Brown graduated with honors from racially … Read MoreRoscoe C. Brown, Jr. (1922-2016)
Tuskegee Airman Earl Roscoe Lane was born in the rural all-Black town of Red Bird, Oklahoma, on July 22, 1920 to Levi and Christine Lane. In 1930, when he was 10, his family moved to Wickliffe, Ohio. His younger sisters were Barbara Lane Martin and … Read MoreEarl Roscoe Lane (1920-1990)
Economist, academic scholar, and bank executive Emmett John Rice was born on December 21, 1919, in Florence, South Carolina to Ulysses Simpson Rice, a Methodist minister, and Sue Suber Pearl, a schoolteacher. However, when he was 13, the Rices moved to Harlem, New York City. … Read MoreEmmett John Rice (1919-2011)
The Greenville (South Carolina) Library Desegregation Crisis involved eight African American students who protested the segregated library system in Greenville, South Carolina, from March 1, 1960, to September 9, 1960. The eight students included future civil rights leader and presidential candidate Jesse Jackson, Dorris Wright, … Read MoreThe Greenville Library Desegregation Crisis/ The Greenville Eight (1960)
The North Little Rock High School Desegregation Crisis created the North Little Rock Six, a group of six African American students who attempted to desegregate North Little Rock High School on September 9, 1957. This desegregation event was overshadowed by the nationally prominent effort to … Read MoreThe North Little Rock High School Desegregation Crisis (1957)
The New Year’s Day March, the first major civil rights demonstration in South Carolina, was a 1,000-person march that protested segregated facilities at the Greenville, South Carolina Municipal Airport (Now Greenville Downtown Airport) on January 1, 1960. The march was prompted by Jackie Robinson and … Read MoreNew Year’s Day March, Greenville, South Carolina (1960)
The grandson of formerly enslaved people, Walter Franklin Anderson, classical pianist, organist, composer, jazz musician, community activist, and academician, was born on May 12, 1915, in segregated Zanesville, Ohio. Walter was the sixth of nine children of humble beginnings. Information regarding his parents is not … Read MoreWalter Franklin Anderson (1915-2003)
George Metcalfe was a civil rights leader in Natchez, Mississippi, who led one of the most successful yet little-known movements in the Deep South. Metcalfe was born on September 20, 1911, in Franklin, Louisiana, to parents Ernest Metcalfe and Alberta Simon Metcalfe. He was a … Read MoreGeorge Metcalfe (1911-1989)
John “Jack” Albert Holmes, Jr. (also known as “Daddy Jack Holmes”) was Virginia’s first Black disc jockey. He was born to John Albert Holmes, Sr., and Mary Holmes on July 1, 1912, in Merchantville, New Jersey. He graduated from Camden High School in Camden, New … Read MoreJohn Albert Holmes, Jr. (1912-1989)
