Luis Gonzaga Pinto da Gama (Luis Gama) was a Brazilian poet, journalist, legal activist, abolitionist leader, and former slave. He was born in 1830, a free mulatto in Salvador, the capital of Brazil’s Bahia province. His mother, Luisa Mahin, was a black woman from Ghana … Read MoreLuis Gama (1830-1882)
Rosemarie Florence Freeney Harding was a tireless teacher, social worker, civil rights leader, and healer. She was especially known for her deep spirituality and commitment to nonviolence. The youngest of nine siblings, Harding was born in Chicago, Illinois on July 24, 1930 to Dock Freeney, … Read MoreRosemarie Florence Freeney Harding (1930-2004)
In the account below historian Lorraine McConaghy uses the story of black sailor Robert Shorter to indicate that while the Civil War freed nearly four million slaves, it also set in motion the status decline of antebellum African American seamen. The eleven years Robert Shorter … Read MoreEleven Years in the U.S. Navy: The Strange Saga of Robert Shorter
Lucien-Leon Guillaume Lambert was a pianist, composer, arranger, and music teacher. Born in 1858 in Vernouillet, France, a then-small village near Paris, he was the son of Charles Lucien Lambert, an American, and an unknown French mother. Guillaume Lambert was one of several renowned musicians … Read MoreLucien-Leon Guillaume Lambert (1858-1945)
Charles Lucièn Lambert, Sr., also known as Lucièn Lambert, Sr., was an internationally prominent classical musician and composer, and part of the middle generation of acclaimed Lambert musical artists. Both his father, Charles-Richard Lambert, and his son, Lucièn-Léon Guillaume Lambert, had distinguished careers in classical … Read MoreCharles Lucièn Lambert Sr. (1828-1896)
Image Courtesy of Erik van Leeuwen (GNU Free Documentation) Usain Bolt, known as the “fastest man on earth,” has won a phenomenal eight Olympic gold medals the 2008, 2012, and 2016 Olympics, making Olympic history. He has also broken multiple world records Bolt was born … Read MoreUsain St. Leo Bolt (1986- )
Yosef Ben-Jochannan was an Afrocentric historian whose work is focused mainly on black presence in ancient Egypt. He contends in his writings that the pharaohs came out of the heart of Africa and that the original Jews were from Ethiopia and were black Africans, and … Read MoreYosef Ben-Jochannan (1918-2015)
Today the phrase “Uncle Tom” evokes a powerfully negative image in American society. It depicts a weak, subservient, cringing black man who betrays his race and its struggle for liberation. David Reynolds, an English professor in the Graduate School of the City University of New … Read MoreUncle Tom Revisited: Rescuing the Real Character from the Caricature
In 1998 Dr. Carolyn Jefferson-Jenkins of Colorado Springs, Colorado, was elected the first African American President of the National League of Women Voters. She became the 15th President of the League in its 78-year history. After joining the League in 1982, she served as a … Read MoreCarolyn Jefferson-Jenkins (1952- )
The Movimento Negro Unificado (MNU) or Unified Black Movement, the most notable black civil rights organization in Brazil, was founded in São Paulo, Brazil in 1978 by Thereza Santos and Eduardo Oliveira de Oliveira. The founders along with other black activists in Brazil found influence … Read MoreMovimento Negro Unificado (1978- )
