Dubbed the “Queen of Creole Cuisine” for her culinary genius, Leah Chase was an American chef, author, and TV personality who advanced the Civil Rights Movement as a celebrity chef. Chase was born on January 6, 1923 in New Orleans, Louisiana to Catholic Creole parents. … Read MoreLeah “Dooky” Chase (1923-2019)
Loletha Elayne Falana, famously known as actress, singer, dancer and model Lola Falana, was born on September 11, 1942 in Camden, New Jersey. Falana’s mother and father are of African-American and Afro-Cuban heritage respectively. Falana was born the third of six children and got her … Read MoreLola Falana (1942- )
Marie-Joseph dite Angelique was born around the year 1700 in the colony of Madeira, Portugal. It is unclear if she was born a slave or sold into slavery but she was first sold to Nichus Block (Nicholas Bleeker) who took her to North America sometime … Read MoreMarie-Joseph dite Angelique (1700-1734)
Magazine editor Susan L. Taylor was born in Harlem, New York on January 23, 1946. Her parents, Lawrence, from St. Kitts, and Violet, from Trinidad, came to New York in the 1920s and owned a clothing store for thirty years until it closed in the … Read MoreSusan L. Taylor (1946- )
Wilton D. Gregory is a Roman Catholic archbishop and scholar who as of November 2020, became the first African American Cardinal in the history of the Roman Catholic Church. Cardinal Gregory was born on December 7, 1947 in Chicago, Illinois as the oldest of the … Read MoreWilton Daniel Gregory (1947- )
Edward T. “Ned” Coll is a civil rights activist and one time (1972) presidential candidate from Connecticut known for taking on the privatized and segregated beaches along the Connecticut coast in the 1970s. Born in 1940, he grew up in Hartford, Connecticut and was educated at the Jesuit Fairfield University, graduating in 1962. Ned Coll, who … Read MoreNed Coll (1940- )
With his appointment in 1955 as the first African American to serve on the New York State Supreme Court, Harold Arnoldus Stevens continued a string of firsts that began in 1950 when he was elected to the New York Court of General Sessions, becoming the first African … Read MoreHarold A. Stevens (1907-1990)
Rachel Megan Markle was born on August 4, 1981 in Los Angeles, California. Her African American mother Doria Ragland was a social worker and yoga instructor, and her Caucasian father Thomas Markle Sr., is a retired television director of lighting and photography. The couple divorced … Read MoreRachel Megan Markle, The Duchess of Sussex (1981- )
Mother Mathilda Beasley (née Taylor) was the first African American Roman Catholic nun in Georgia. Much of Beasley’s life—including the circumstances that led to her freedom, her move from her birthplace in New Orleans, Louisiana to Savannah, and her conversion to Roman Catholicism—remain a mystery. What is known, however, is her birth … Read MoreMother Mathilda Beasley (1832-1903)
Lloyd J. Austin is the first African American to serve as U.S. Secretary of Defense. He was nominated by President Joseph Biden and confirmed by the United States Senate. A former four-star General in the U.S. Army, Austin was born in Mobile, Alabama on August … Read MoreLloyd James Austin III (1953- )
