Wilfred DeFour was an aircraft technician and member of the famed Tuskegee Airmen, a group of African American pilots and support personnel who were in the U.S. Army Air Corps in World War II. DeFour was born on April 12, 1918 in Colon, Panama to … Read MoreWilfred DeFour (1918-2018)
Imari Obadele, black power activist, reparations advocate, and college professor, is best known as co-founder of the Republic of New Afrika. Obadele was born Richard Bullock Henry on May 2, 1930 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His homemaker mother, Vera N. Robinson Henry, and his father, Walter … Read MoreImari Abubakari Obadele, I (1930-2010)
Maude Craig, public school teacher, suffragist, civil rights and community activist, was born in Austin, Texas in February 1880 to Marie Sanders Craig, a homemaker, and George Washington Craig, a grocer. In 1900, Craig graduated from Prairie View State Normal and Industrial College (now Prairie … Read MoreMaude E. Craig Sampson Williams (1880-1958)
Raymond A. Brown, a prominent civil rights activist, attorney, and military officer was born on May 6, 1915 in Fernandina Beach, Florida. His mother, Elizabeth Christopher Traeye, was a domestic, teacher and homemaker who in 1930 helped establish Christ the King, Jersey City’s only Black … Read MoreRaymond Aloysius Brown (1915-2009)
Marion Stokes, best known for her collection of television news recordings, was born on November 25, 1929 in the Germantown section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She graduated from Girls High in Philadelphia and worked as a librarian for the Free Library of Philadelphia from the 1940’s … Read MoreMarion Marguerite Butler Stokes (1929-2012)
Civil rights attorney Julius W. (Robinson) Robertson was born on July 23, 1916, to parents Richard Robinson and Fannie Mae Robinson, who were subsistence farmers in Green County, Georgia. In 1922, the family moved to Knoxville, Tennessee for better opportunities. Robertson joined the Civilian Conservation … Read MoreJulius Winfield Robertson (1916-1961)
Frances B. North was a Seattle civic leader known for her role uniting the business sector, public schools, and city government to end segregation. Her life transformed racial and gender barriers. As a member of Mount Zion Baptist Church from 1943 to 2017, her faith … Read MoreFrances B. North (1919-2017)
In the five years following the Civil War, the U.S. Congress passed and the states ratified the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution. These amendments permanently ended slavery and granted African Americans access to civil rights and suffrage as citizens of the United … Read MoreThe Enforcement Act of 1870 (1870-1871)
In 1969 a group of nine student-athletes boycotted Syracuse University’s football program to demand change and promote racial equality. Popularized erroneously in 1970 by the media as the “Syracuse 8,” the nine students behind the boycott were Gregory Allen, Richard Bulls, Dana Harrell, John Godbolt, … Read MoreThe Syracuse 8 (1969)
Azellia White was the first African American woman to earn her pilot’s license in Texas and a trailblazer in the aviation field. Jones was born in Gonzalez, Texas, on June 3, 1913. Her father was a sharecropper and her mother was a midwife. She attended … Read MoreAzellia Jones White (1913-2019)
