Educator, newspaper publisher and politician John Quincy Adams is best known as the editor of the Western Appeal/The Appeal of St. Paul, Minnesota. He held the position from 1886 to 1922. John Quincy Adams was born free in Louisville, Kentucky, on May 4, 1848, to … Read MoreJohn Quincy [“J. Q.”] Adams (1848-1922)
The Fillmore Auditorium, San Francisco Image Courtesy: total13 (CC BY-SA 2.0) Although Third Baptist Church, the first black church of San Francisco, was established in 1852 in the Fillmore District, located west of downtown San Francisco, this historic area has been the home to a … Read MoreFillmore District, San Francisco
James Still, medical doctor and herbalist, was born on April 9, 1812 in Burlington County, New Jersey. Still was born to Levin and Charity Still, two former slaves living in the Pine Barrens to avoid being captured and sold back into slavery. Although the Still … Read MoreJames Still (1812-1882)
St. Louis, Missouri native Wendell Oliver Pruitt, a pioneering pilot of the 15th Air Force, was born to Elijah and Melanie Pruitt on June 20, 1920. Pruitt graduated from Sumner High School, briefly attended Stowe Teachers College (now Harris-Stowe State University), and later transferred to … Read MoreWendell Oliver Pruitt (1920-1945)
The Prince Hall Masons are the oldest and largest group of Masons of African origin in the world. Today there are forty Grand Lodges of Prince Hall Freemasonry in the United States, Canada, the Bahamas, and Liberia. These Grand Lodges preside over more than 5,000 … Read MorePrince Hall Masons (1784- )
The St. Martin De Porres Club was founded in 1947 by Father John P. Markoe, S.J., a priest, and Creighton University students interested in local civil rights issues in Omaha, Nebraska. Father Markoe was assigned to St. Benedict the Moor Parish at 2423 Grant Street … Read MoreSt. Martin De Porres Club (1947- )
Canadian entrepreneur Viola Desmond was arrested in 1946 for refusing to leave a segregated section of a Nova Scotia movie theatre. She was physically injured by police in the incident but was convicted and fined by local courts. She was posthumously pardoned in 2010. Born … Read MoreViola Davis Desmond (1914-1965)
George Edward Chalmer Hayes, one of the 1954 Brown Decision attorneys, was born on July 1, 1894, in Richmond, Virginia. His father, attorney James H. Hayes, encouraged George to pursue both law and Republican politics. He earned his undergraduate degree at Brown University in 1915 … Read MoreGeorge E. C. Hayes (1894-1968)
Academic, leading educator, World War I veteran, and president of Kentucky State College for Colored Persons (later Kentucky State College for Negroes and now Kentucky State University), Rufus Ballard Atwood was born on March 15, 1897 near Hickman, Kentucky. The child of former slaves, Atwood … Read MoreRufus B. Atwood (1897-1963)
Established in 1942, Koinonia is a collective farm in Sumter County, Georgia that supports interracialism as an element of Christian community values. Inspired by both his Christian faith and his training in agriculture at the University of Georgia, founder Clarence Jordan believed that poor white … Read MoreKoinonia Farm (1942- )
