The Seattle Royal Giants was a semi-professional baseball team that played through the Pacific Northwest in the first half of the 20th Century. The Giants began in 1928 under the leadership of three former professional players in the Negro Baseball League, Elmer Wilson, Jimmy Claxton, … Read MoreSeattle Royal Giants (1928-1945)
“Image Ownership: Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times” Leo Antony “Tony” Gleaton was an African American photographer, scholar, and artist who is best known for his photographic images capturing and documenting the African influence in the American West and Central and South America. Gleaton, the youngest son … Read MoreTony Gleaton (1948-2015)
John Andrew Burroughs Jr. was an equal opportunity advocate and diplomat who was born in Washington, D.C. on July 31, 1936. He spent his youth in Washington, D.C. before moving to the Midwest to attend the University of Iowa in Iowa City, Iowa. While there … Read MoreJohn Andrew Burroughs, Jr. (1936-2014)
Former professional football player, businessman, and diplomat, Sidney Williams was born in Shreveport, Louisiana on March 24, 1942. Raised in Houston, Texas, he attended the city’s Phillis Wheatley High School and upon graduation in 1959 enrolled at Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. A standout … Read MoreSidney Williams (1942- )
In the extended article that appears below historians Daudi Abe and Quintard Taylor explore the history of African Americans in King County from 1858 to 2014. They analyze the forces which encouraged people of African ancestry to settle in the county and discuss the rapid … Read MoreFrom Memphis and Mogadishu: The History of African Americans in King County, Washington, 1858-2014
Former professional football player Warren Harold Moon is best known as one of the earliest African American quarterbacks in the National Football League (NFL). In 2006 he was the first black quarterback inducted into the National Football League Hall of Fame. During the 1989 season, … Read MoreHarold Warren Moon (1956- )
When Doug Williams took the field for the Washington Redskins in Super Bowl XXII, it marked the first time in National Football League (NFL) history that an African American quarterback played in a Super Bowl. Douglas Lee “Doug” Williams was born August 9, 1955 in … Read MoreDoug Williams (1955- )
Tuskegee Airman Howard Adolphus Wooten was born on April 20, 1920 in Lovelady, Texas to parents Johnnie C. Morris Wooten and Howard L. Wooten. His father was the principal of the “colored school” in Lovelady, a town 100 miles north of Houston, and his mother … Read MoreHoward A. Wooten (1920-1948)
Image Ownership: Library of Congress Abner Leonard Howell was a star athlete in Utah whose accomplishments went largely ignored during the peak of his football career because of his race. Howell, born on August 9, 1877, moved with his family from Louisiana to Salt Lake … Read MoreAbner Leonard Howell (1877-1966)
Arthur Allen Fletcher is known to many as the father of affirmative action. In the following account historian David Hamilton Golland describes the career of Fletcher, a Republican civil rights activist during the last half of the 20th Century. Arthur Allen Fletcher, known to many as … Read MoreArthur Allen Fletcher, “The Father of Affirmative Action”
