King Virgil Cheek Jr. is a lifelong educator, lawyer, and author, who, along with older brother, James Edward Cheek, served as president of the historic black college, Shaw University. King Cheek was born on May 26, 1937, in Weldon, North Carolina. His mother, Lee Ella … Read MoreKing Virgil Cheek Jr. (1937- )
Nate Parker is an American actor, director, producer, writer, and musical performer, who has appeared in popular films such as Red Tails, The Secret Life of Bees, The Great Debaters, and Arbitrage. He is best known, however, as the star and producer of The Birth … Read MoreNate Parker (1979– )
“Image Ownership: Public Domain” Hamilton Hatter, educator and inventor, was the first principal of Bluefield Colored Institute in Bluefield, West Virginia. Hatter was born enslaved on April 24, 1856, in Jefferson County, Virginia, which became part of West Virginia in 1863. His parents Frank and … Read MoreHamilton Hatter (1856-1942)
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- )
“Image Ownership: Robm154 (CC BY-SA 3.0)” Rock Rest was a resort near Kittery Point, Maine, that was open to African Americans during much of the 20th Century. Clayton Sinclair and his wife, Hazel, purchased a house on the small cape off Maine Route 103 in … Read MoreRock Rest (1938-1976)
Benjamin A. Boseman, physician, politician, and postmaster, was free born in New York in 1840 to Benjamin A. and Annaretta Boseman. He was the oldest of five children, two girls and three boys. Boseman grew up in Troy, New York where his father served as … Read MoreBenjamin Anthony Boseman (1840-1881)
John Van Surly DeGrasse was a commissioned physician with the Union Army during the American Civil War and was the first black to be admitted to a United states medical society. He was born in June 1825 in New York City, New York to Count … Read MoreJohn Van Surly DeGrasse (1825-1868)
Late 19th and early 20th century African American playwright, novelist, and columnist Pauline Hopkins was born in Portland, Maine in 1859. Hopkins was born to free parents of color who raised her in Maine for a short period before moving to Boston, Massachusetts. Hopkins’s father, … Read MorePauline Elizabeth Hopkins (1859-1930)
Bryant Gumbel was the first African-American co-host of the National Broadcasting Company’s (NBC) The Today Show and is well known as a broadcast journalist and sportscaster. Gumbel was born in1948 in New Orleans, Louisiana to Rhea Alice and Richard Dunbar Gumbel, a city clerk and … Read MoreBryant Gumbel (1948- )
Everett Frederic Morrow, the son of John Eugene Morrow, a library custodian who became an ordained Methodist minister in 1912 and Mary Ann Hayes, a former farm worker and maid, was born on April 9, 1909 in Hackensack, New Jersey. He graduated from Hackensack High … Read MoreEverett Frederic Morrow (1909-1994)
