Dr. Warren Elliott Henry enjoyed a long and influential career in the field of physical chemistry, working in the public and private sectors and in academia. His areas of expertise included radar technology and solid-state physics. Henry conducted experiments on magnetism as well as metallurgy, … Read MoreWarren Elliott Henry (1909-2001)
Azellia White was the first African American woman to earn her pilot’s license in Texas and a trailblazer in the aviation field. Jones was born in Gonzalez, Texas, on June 3, 1913. Her father was a sharecropper and her mother was a midwife. She attended … Read MoreAzellia Jones White (1913-2019)
James E. Walton, longtime professor of English at California State University, Fresno, was born on September 13, 1944 in Bessemer, Alabama to Willie Walton, Sr. and Mary Woods Cutts. Walton attended a two-room schoolhouse in Alabama. At age three, his grandmother taught him to read … Read MoreJames E. Walton (1944-2019)
Tuskegee Airman Jack Daniels Holsclaw was born in Spokane, Washington, on March 21, 1918. His father, Charles, was a clerk in a downtown store, and his mother, Nell, was a manager at Pacific Telephone and Telegraph. Holsclaw attended North Central High School in Spokane, where … Read MoreJack Daniels Holsclaw (1918-1998)
Insurance executive Ivan James Houston was born in Los Angeles, California on June 15, 1925 to Norman Oliver Houston and Doris Talbot (Young) Houston. He attended public schools in Los Angeles and graduated from John H. Francis Polytechnic High School in 1943. Later that year … Read MoreIvan James Houston (1925- )
In the article below, Dr. Uchenna Umeh, a former San Antonio, Texas physician, briefly describes how mental health among African Americans was viewed and treated by the American medical community from the antebellum period until today. In the process she describes how those attitudes have … Read MoreMental Illness in Black Community, 1700-2019: A Short History
Calvin Coolidge Hernton, poet, author, teacher, mentor, and literary critic was born April 28, 1932, in Chattanooga, Tennessee to Virgil and Magnolia Jackson Hernton. Hernton is best known for his seminal work Sex and Racism in America, which gives a bold historical and sociological analysis … Read MoreCalvin Coolidge Hernton (1932-2001)
Letitia Woods Brown, historian, academician, public scholar and community activist was born on October 24, 1915 in Tuskegee, Alabama. She was the middle child of Tuskegee Institute instructors Matthew and Evadne Woods. In 1935, Letitia Woods completed a Bachelor of Science degree at Tuskegee. After … Read MoreLetitia Woods Brown (1915-1976)
Charles W. Dryden was a Tuskegee Airman, author, and professor. Born on September 16, 1920 in New York City, Dryden was the son of Jamaican immigrant parents Charles Levy Tucker Dryden, a World War I veteran and teacher, and Violet Adina Buckley Dryden, also a … Read MoreCharles Walter Dryden (1920-2008)
Dr. Keith L. Black is one of the world’s premier neurosurgeons. Black was born in Tuskegee, Alabama, on September 13, 1957 to Robert Black, an elementary school principal, and Lillian Black, a schoolteacher. At an early age, his parents cultivated his interest in science and, … Read MoreKeith Lanier Black (1957- )