“Image Ownership: Public Domain” Jerome R. Riley, medical doctor, author, political and civil rights activist, was born in St. Catharines, Canada West on March 17, 1840 to Isaac and Catherine Riley. His father and mother were runaway slaves who made their way from Perry County, … Read MoreJerome R. Riley (1840-1929)
Congresswoman Mia Love represents Utah’s 4th Congressional District and is the first black Republican woman and the first Haitian-American elected to the United States Congress. She is also the first black person elected to Congress in Utah. Love was born Ludmya Bourdeau on December 6, … Read MoreMia Love (1975 – )
John Edward West Thompson was an African American non-career diplomat. He served as U.S. Minister Resident/Consul General to Haiti from June 30, 1885 to October 17, 1889. Thompson simultaneously served as U.S. Chargé d’Affaires to Santo Domingo (now the Dominican Republic) from 1885 to 1889. … Read MoreJohn Edward West Thompson (1855-1918)
“Image Ownership: Public Domain” Samuel Eugene Kelly, soldier and educator, was born in Greenwich, Connecticut on January 26, 1926 to James Handy Kelly, a minister, and Essie Matilda Allen-Kelly, a homemaker. Educated at Greenwich public schools, Kelly dropped out of high school in 1943 and … Read MoreSamuel Eugene Kelly (1926-2009)
People’s Baptist Church in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, thrived for the first half of the 20th century as the state’s first and only black congregation. It served a New England coastal community where African Americans represented 4% of the population. People’s Baptist was the spiritual home … Read MorePeople’s Baptist Church, Portsmouth, New Hampshire (1873- )
Often misinterpreted to mean that African Americans as individuals are considered three-fifths of a person or that they are three-fifths of a citizen of the U.S., the three-fifths clause (Article I, Section 2, of the U.S. Constitution of 1787) in fact declared that for purposes … Read MoreThe Three-Fifths Clause of the United States Constitution (1787)
Mary E. Pugh, founder of Pugh Capital Management, a successful investment firm in Seattle, was the first black woman and youngest person to be named Senior Vice President at Washington Mutual Savings Bank. Born to a Boeing engineer father and real estate agent mother, Pugh’s … Read MoreMary E. Pugh (1959- )
Charles “Chuck” Stone, Jr., pioneering African American newspaper columnist, editor, author, and professor was born on July 21, 1924 to Charles and Madeline Stone in St. Louis, Missouri. Soon after, the family moved to Connecticut where Stone’s mother worked for the Hartford Board of Education … Read MoreCharles Sumner “Chuck” Stone, Jr. (1924-2014)
(Image Courtesy of the Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley) Nathaniel Sextus Colley, the first African American attorney in Sacramento, California, was born on November 21, 1918 in Carlowsville, Alabama. The youngest of six brothers, Colley grew up in Snow Hill, Alabama, and graduated from … Read MoreNathaniel Sextus Colley (1918-1992)
The Faith Congregational Church in Hartford, Connecticut began in 1819 as a place for African Americans to worship on their own since they were previously only able to worship in the backs of churches and in church galleries in that city. A group of African … Read MoreFaith Congregational Church [Hartford] (1819- )
