Musicologist, playwright, novelist and political activist Lola Shirley Graham, born in Indianapolis, Indiana in 1896, became the second wife to W.E.B. Du Bois in 1951. Lola Shirley Graham was taught at a young age to stand up to injustice. She wrote her first editorial to … Read MoreShirley Graham Du Bois (1896 – 1977)
Madam C.J. Walker was born Sarah Breedlove to former slaves, Owen and Minerva Breedlove in Delta, Louisiana on December 23, 1867. Breedlove became an orphan at age seven when her parents died. Three years later, ten-year-old Sarah and her sister moved across to river to Vicksburg, … Read MoreMadam C. J. Walker (1867-1919)
Image Ownership: Public Domain Born in 1816 in Maryland to a freedwoman mother and a German father, Henry O. Wagoner (often spelled Waggoner) had the benefit of a brief exposure to education in Pennsylvania. This limited education gave him a base for further self-education and … Read MoreHenry O. Wagoner (1816-1901)
One of Colorado Territory’s most interesting African American citizens spoke eloquently on behalf of black suffrage between 1863 and 1873, a decade of great debate on this particular subject. William Jefferson Hardin had been born to a free quadroon woman and a white father in … Read MoreWilliam Jefferson Hardin (1831-1889)
Although George L. Brown was born and raised in Lawrence, Kansas, he played a significant roll in Colorado politics for nearly twenty-five years. Following his graduation from the University of Kansas with a degree in journalism in 1950, Brown moved to Denver where he worked … Read MoreGeorge L. Brown (1926-2005)
Nolle Smith, cowboy, politician, diplomat, was born on his parents’ ranch in Horse Creek, Wyoming in 1888 but grew up in Cheyenne where he graduated as valedictorian of his high school class at Cheyenne High School in 1907. The son of a white father and … Read MoreNolle Smith (1888-1982)
Cathay Williams is the only documented African American woman who served as a soldier in the Regular U.S. Army in the nineteenth century. Cathay was born a slave around 1850 in Jackson County, Missouri. In September 1861 Union troops impressed Cathay into the Army to … Read MoreCathay Williams (1850- )
Joe Louis Barrow, known popularly as Joe Louis, was the second African American heavyweight boxing champion in the 20th Century. Louis was born on May 13, 1914 in Chambers County Alabama to sharecropper parents Monroe and Lilly Reese Barrow. He was the seventh of eight … Read MoreJoe Louis [Barrow] (1914-1981)
Edward Lancelot Miles, the Bloedel Professor Emeritus of Marine and Public Affairs at the University of Washington, Seattle, was a pioneer scientist in examining and establishing international environmental policy, particularly in the area of global climate change. He was born on December, 12, 1939 in Trinidad, … Read MoreEdward L. Miles (1939-2016)
In May, 1870, Henry O. Wagoner, Jr., the twenty year old son of one of black Denver’s leading civil rights advocates, was given the rare privilege of addressing a local audience gathered to celebrate the ratification of the 15th Amendment to the United States Constitution. … Read More(1870) Henry O. Wagoner, Jr. Celebrates The Ratification Of The 15th Amendment To The United States Constitution
