Rex Ingram, one of the first African American male actors to serve on the Board of the Screen Actors Guild, was born in 1895 on a houseboat on the Mississippi River near Cairo Illinois. Ingram claimed to have sailed as a crewman on a windjammer … Read MoreRex Ingram (1895-1969)
Vildana Muratovic, a native of Bosnia-Herzegovina and now a citizen of the United States, describes the impact of hip-hop music on the people of the Balkans following her 1997 return to Sarajevo. Her paper was written in 2007. Since its humble beginnings in the 1970s … Read MoreTupac in Sarajevo: The Rise of Rebellion Rap in Eastern Europe
Born on January 28, 1981 in Villa Clara, Cuba, the Cuban born player Maykel Galindo has made a name for himself among the American soccer ranks over the last several years. Galindo started playing soccer when he was eight years old. He soon became an … Read MoreMaykel Galindo (1981- )
Gene Upshaw was a Hall of Fame professional football player for the Oakland Raiders and Executive Director of the National Football League (NFL) Players’ Association. Upshaw was born in Robstown, Texas in 1945 where he picked cotton as a child and played high school football. … Read MoreEugene Upshaw (Gene) Thurman (1945-2008)
In 1984 Rev. Jesse Jackson campaigned for the Democratic nomination for the Presidency. Although he entered the Democratic convention at San Francisco with little hope of winning, his appeals on behalf of the dispossessed of America whom he characterized as the “Rainbow Coalition,” ensured that … Read More(1984) Rev. Jesse Jackson, “The Rainbow Coalition”
Karen Bass made history on December 11, 2022 when she was sworn in by Vice President Kamala Harris as the first woman and second Black person (after Tom Bradley) to be mayor of Los Angeles, California, the second largest city in the United States. Before … Read MoreKaren Bass (1953- )
Born in Washington, D.C. on April 27, 1969, Cory Booker is currently the United States Senator from New Jersey. Booker was raised in Harrington Park, New Jersey, a mostly white town where his parents Cary and Carolyn Booker, former civil rights activists and pioneer black … Read MoreCory Booker (1969- )
Born in Pocatello, Idaho, on May 9, 1945, Dorthy (spelled without the second “o”) L. Johnson, became a semi-finalist in the 1964 Miss USA pageant after winning the title of “Miss Idaho.” The nineteen year-old was not the first African American to compete in The … Read MoreDorthy Johnson (1945- )
Robert Curry Owens was born in Los Angeles, California in January of 1860 to Charles Owens, a livery stable owner, and Ellen Mason-Owens. As the first born grandson to the Owens-Mason union, Robert rose to prominence in Los Angeles after inheriting both his father’s and … Read MoreRobert Curry Owens (1860-?)
In an era when both movies and audiences were segregated, Lorenzo Tucker became African America’s leading man. Tucker was born in Philadelphia in 1907 to parents John and Virginia Lee Tucker. Lorenzo Tucker studied photography in trade school and briefly attended Temple University, where he … Read MoreLorenzo Tucker (1907-1986)
