Barack Obama was the 44th President of the United States and the first African American to occupy the White House. Obama was born August 4, 1961, in Honolulu, Hawaii. His father, Barack Obama Sr., was a Kenyan graduate student studying in the United States, and … Read MoreBarack Obama Jr. (1961- )
The events of the Phoenix Thanksgiving Day Riot began on Thanksgiving, November 27, 1942. An off-duty soldier from the all-black 364th Negro Infantry Regiment became drunk at the Alhambra Bar, located at the corner of 12th & Washington Streets in Phoenix. A black female patron … Read MoreThe Phoenix Thanksgiving Day Riot (1942)
Dr. Lincoln J. Ragsdale, Sr. was a leading activist in the battle for civil rights in Arizona. After graduating from Tuskegee flying school in Alabama in 1945, he relocated to Luke Air Field in Litchfield Park, Arizona, becoming one of the first black pilots to … Read MoreLincoln J. Ragsdale Sr. (1926-1995)
Prominent civil rights attorney Hayzel B. Daniels earned his B.S. in Social Sciences in 1939 and an M.A. in Education in 1941 from the University of Arizona. He taught at Fort Huachuca, Arizona where his father was stationed with the 10th Cavalry. Daniels served in … Read MoreHayzel B. Daniels (1913-1992)
Esteban, an enslaved Moroccan, made the first contact with the native peoples of what is now the American Southwest. Fraught with misunderstandings, that encounter led to Esteban’s untimely demise in 1539 and prefigured the violence that would characterize the Spanish conquest and subsequent colonization of … Read MoreEsteban (?-1539)
Carl Sims was born in Bremond, Texas. He moved to Phoenix, Arizona in 1927. Not long after migrating to Phoenix, he became a gardener and a painting contractor. Despite having only an eighth grade education, Sims would eventually work for the (Arizona) Maricopa Country Highway … Read MoreCarl Sims (1911-1974)
Before 1941 about 4,000 black soldiers (and a handful of African American officers) served in the 9th and 10th Cavalry Regiments (the “Buffalo Soldiers”), two of the all-black units formed after the Civil War. Following the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941, the number of … Read MoreBlack Soldiers at Fort Huachuca, Arizona During World War II
May 1880 found Colonel Edward Hatch’s 9th Cavalry buffalo soldiers campaigning in the Southwest against the wily Apache leader Victorio. A skilled practitioner of guerrilla warfare, Victorio – “The Triumphant One” – was proving difficult to catch, avoiding pursuit in Arizona and slipping into New … Read MoreBattle of Tularosa (May 14, 1880)
