Louise Alone Thompson Patterson, civil rights activist, communist, and educator, was born in Chicago, Illinois on September 9, 1901 to Lulu (Louise) F. Brown Toles and William J. Toles. After her parents 1904 separation, Thompson lived in Seattle, Washington as well as Utah, Nevada, Idaho, … Read MoreLouise Thompson Patterson (1901-1999)
Fabián Jesús Colón López, Afro-Puerto Rican Marxist, socialist, communist, writer, and political and community activist, was born on January 20, 1901 in Cayey, Puerto Rico (PR), to Paula López Colón (1874-1927), a domestic worker, and Mauricio Colón Coto (1863-1920), a baker, jointer, artisan, and US … Read MoreJesús Colón (1901-1974)
Dominga de la Cruz-Becerril, socialist, lecturer, poet, and declamadora, was born April 22, 1909 in Bueno Aires, Ponce, Puerto Rico (PR) to Catalina Becerril of Fajardo and Domingo Clarillo Cruz of Ponce. Reared in Mayagüez, both parents and godparents died while she was a pre-teen. … Read MoreDominga Cruz-Becerril (1909-1981)
The South Conference For Human Welfare (SCHW), and the Southern Conference Education Fund (SCEF) which evolved out of it, were part of a broad movement to promote New Deal policies, civil rights, and economic and political reform in the South. Twelve hundred people, about 25% … Read MoreSouthern Conference For Human Welfare (1938-1948)
Political activist Alexander Rahming was born on February 24, 1884 in Nassau, Bahamas. He emigrated to Key West, Florida in 1884 where he met his future bride, Alice Dean. They married in 1905 and migrated to New York City. Rahming was an advocate and organizer, … Read MoreAlexander Rahming (1884-1922)
One of the last of the major riots of the “Red Summer” of 1919, the so-called race riot in Elaine, Arkansas was in fact a racial massacre. Though exact numbers are unknown, it is estimated that over 200 African Americans were killed, along with five whites, during the white … Read MoreElaine, Arkansas Riot (1919)
Jacob Zuma is the 4th president of post-apartheid South Africa and a member of the African National Congress (ANC). He held the presidency for nine years from 2009 to 2018 until he was ousted under a shroud of scandals and corruption. Before his presidency, Zuma worked with other African nationalists … Read MoreJacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma (1942– )
Hazel Carby is an African-American Studies scholar, a professor at Yale University in Connecticut, and holder of the Charles C. and Dorothea S. Dilley Chair in African American Studies. Hazel Vivian Carby was born on January 15, 1948 in Okehampton, in Devon county, United Kingdom. She was born to … Read MoreHazel V. Carby (1948- )
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)
The Crusader was a black communist magazine established by journalist Cyril Briggs initially with the financial support of West Indian merchant Anthony Crawford in September 1918. Briggs established The Crusader in response to and in support of President Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points that called for the “impartial adjustment of all colonial claims.” Briggs, formerly of the Amsterdam … Read MoreThe Crusader (1918-1922)
