“Image Ownership: Public Domain” Legal and civil rights activist Leo Branton, Jr. was born in Pine Bluff, Arkansas on February 17, 1922 to Leo Branton, Sr., and Pauline Wiley. His father ran a family-owned taxicab business and his mother was a school teacher. Branton received … Read MoreLeo Branton Jr. (1922-2013)
Benedetto Manasseri, an Italian of African descent, was born near Messina, Italy to Cristoforo and Diana Manasseri in 1526. His parents, captured as slaves from Africa in the early 16th century, were brought to San Fratello, near Messina. They converted to Catholicism and, due to … Read MoreSt. Benedict the Moor (1526-1589)
Recording artist and three-time Grammy award nominee Bobby Short, a self-taught piano prodigy during his childhood, was regarded as the quintessential sophisticated cabaret and supper-club vocalist and piano player of his time. Short, who learned to play piano by ear at the age of four, … Read MoreRobert “Bobby” Waltrip Short (1924-2005)
Communist Party Leaders: Claudia Jones, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Pettis Perry & Betty Gannet, ca. 1951 “Image Ownership: Public Domain” U.S. Communist Party leader Pettis Perry was born on January 4, 1897, on a tenant farm near Marion, Alabama. His mother died when he was a … Read MorePettis Perry (1897-1965)
Dennis Keith Rodman, hall of fame basketball player, actor, and self-appointed political emissary, was born in on May 13, 1961 in Trenton, New Jersey to Philander and Shirley Rodman. Shortly after Dennis was born, Philander left the family and eventually settled in the Philippines. After … Read MoreDennis Keith Rodman (1961- )
Abram Thompson Hall, Jr., a northern journalist, forced the organization of Graham County after arriving in Nicodemus, Kansas, the first all-black community on the high plains. The county’s rapidly increasing white population objected, but Kansas Governor John Pierce St. John acknowledged the validity of Hall’s … Read MoreAbram Thompson Hall Jr. (1851-1951)
Eddie Gardner Crossing the Mississippi River at St. Louis, 1929 “Image Courtesty of Charles Kastner” In the following account, sports historian Charles Kastner describes the remarkable athletic career of Eddie “the Sheik” Gardner of Seattle, Washington. Gardner was arguably the greatest ultramarathoner in Pacific Northwest … Read MoreEddie “the Sheik” Gardner: An Ultramarathoning Legend and Unsung Hero in the Struggle for Racial Equality in America.
Dean P. Baquet is primarily known as a Pulitzer Prize winner in journalism and the first African American executive editor of the New York Times. Baquet was born on September 21, 1956 in New Orleans, Louisiana, into a middle class family which included four other … Read MoreDean P. Baquet (1956- )
The Chicago Bee was an African American newspaper founded to compete with the Chicago Defender, then the largest black-owned newspaper in the United States. The Bee’s founder, banker, and food and cosmetics manufacturer, Anthony Overton, wanted a publication that would replace his now defunct Half … Read MoreThe Chicago Bee (1926-1946)
The Pekin Theater in Chicago, Illinois, was the first theater in the city, and one of the first in the nation, to feature black performers. Iowa native Robert T. Motts, a professional gambler, turned his hotel/gambling saloon into the Pekin Theater. The theater was located … Read MoreThe Pekin Theater (1905-1911)
