Joyce Beatty, who represents Ohio’s 3rd congressional district, is a former consultant and business owner. She holds honorary doctorates from the Ohio Dominican University and Central State University, and is the first woman Democratic House Leader in Ohio history. Representative Beatty was born Joyce Birdsong … Read MoreJoyce Beatty (1950- )
Congresswoman Lucia “Lucy” McBath, is a wife, mother, author, and activist for social justice. Lucia Kay Holman was born in Joliet, Illinois on June 1, 1960. Her mother Wilma worked as a nurse, and her father, Lucien Holman, was a dentist. Her father also owned … Read MoreLucia Kay (Holman) McBath (1960- )
Pauline Elizabeth Short Robinson, a long-time educator, was the first black librarian to be hired in Denver, Colorado. Born on January 31, 1915 in Gay, Oklahoma, Robinson’s family emphasized the importance of education at a young age. Her grandfather taught her how to read before … Read MorePauline Short Robinson (1915-1997)
Carolyn Kilpatrick was the U.S. Representative for Michigan’s 13th congressional district from 1997 to 2011. Cheeks was born on June 25, 1945 in Detroit, Michigan to Willa Mae Henry and Marvel Cheeks Jr. Her father worked for the Ford plant and her mother was a … Read MoreCarolyn Jean Cheeks Kilpatrick (1945- )
Dr. Olivia Juliette Hooker is one of the last known survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Race Riots. Born in 1915 in Muskogee, Oklahoma, at the age of six, she lived through the Ku Klux Klan destroying her family’s home along with the 35-block “Black Wall … Read MoreOlivia J. Hooker (1915-2018)
Image Ownership: Public domain Labor leader Layle Lane was born on November 27, 1893, in Marietta, Georgia. She was the fourth of five children of Calvin Lane and Alice Virginia Clark Lane. Lane was vice president of the American Federation of Teachers union and a … Read MoreLayle Lane (1893-1976)
“Image Courtesy of the Dawson Family” Daisy Tibbs Dawson, a Seattle, Washington peace activist and educator, is the only African American to be memorialized in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum in Hiroshima, Japan. Tibbs was born in Toney, Alabama on July 27, 1924 to Calvin … Read MoreDaisy Lee Tibbs Dawson (1924-2013)
Ivy Ruth Taylor, the first popularly elected African American mayor of San Antonio, Texas, was born in Brooklyn, New York, on June 27, 1970. Her parents moved to Brooklyn from Wilmington, North Carolina, before she was born and later divorced when she was a child. … Read MoreIvy Ruth Taylor (1970- )
Shirley Elizabeth Barnes is a former United States Ambassador to the African country of Madagascar, 1998-2001. Barnes was nominated by President Bill Clinton on June 29, 1998 and after confirmation by the U.S. Senate, arrived in Antananarivo, the capital of Madagascar, and presented her credentials … Read MoreShirley Barnes (1938- )
Roberta Cleopatra Flack was born on February 10, 1937 in Black Mountain, North Carolina. Her father Laron Leroy Flack was a self-taught jazz pianist and her mother, Irene Flack, was church pianist. At the age of nine her family moved to Arlington, Virginia. There she … Read MoreRoberta Flack (1937- )