Paul Dusenbury was a multi-talented visual artist, musician, teacher, and proponent of the synthesis of many art expressions. His explorations, infectious inspiration, and originality were well appreciated throughout the Seattle, Washington area where he taught and worked. He expressed caring relationships, and art that combined … Read MorePaul R. Dusenbury (1935-1998)
Robert A. Pinn, attorney, and Civil War hero, received the Congressional Medal of Honor from President Abraham Lincoln in 1865. Pinn was born free to William and Zilphia Broxton-Pinn, in Stark County, Ohio on March 1, 1843. His father William Pinn escaped from slavery and … Read MoreRobert Alexander Pinn (1843-1911)
Image Ownership: Public Domain Thomas Calhoun Walker, teacher, lawyer, and government official, was born into slavery on June 16, 1862 in a small cabin at Spring Hill in Gloucester County, Virginia. On January 1, 1863, when Walker was just a few months old, President Abraham … Read MoreThomas Calhoun Walker (1862-1953)
Charles Lewis was a sailor and soldier during the American Revolutionary War. Lewis was born sometime around 1760 in Spotsylvania County, Virginia on Bel Aire, the Lewis Family Plantation owned by John Lewis. John and a free mulatto woman, Josephine Lewis, were the parents of … Read MoreCharles Lewis (ca. 1760-1833)
Thomas Nelson Baker Sr. was the first African American to receive a Ph.D. in philosophy. He was a writer, orator, ethicist, and advocate for a positive black cultural identity. Baker was born a slave on August 11, 1860 to Thomas Chadwick and Edith Nottingham Baker … Read MoreThomas Nelson Baker Sr. (1860-1940)
Elizabeth Hobbs Keckley is best known as Mary Lincoln’s dressmaker and confidant and as the author of Behind the Scenes By Elizabeth Keckley, Formerly a Slave, But More Recently Modiste, and Friend to Mrs. Abraham Lincoln, Or, Thirty Years a Slave, and Four Years in … Read MoreElizabeth Hobbs Keckley (1818-1907)
Hugh M. Browne was a civil rights activist and educator. Born June 12, 1851, in Washington D.C. to John and Elizabeth (Wormley) Browne, he is known for his work as the principal of the Institute for Colored Youth and his advocacy for vocational education. After … Read MoreHugh Mason Browne (1851-1923)
In the article below Clarence Spigner, DrPH., Professor of Health Services in the School of Public Health, University of Washington, Seattle, briefly describes the saga of Henrietta Lacks whose cells have been used without her family’s permission for over sixty years of bio-medical research. Dr. … Read MoreHenrietta Lacks and the Debate Over the Ethics of Bio-Medical Research
APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT No. 87-998. Argued October 5, 1988 Decided January 23, 1989 Appellant city adopted a Minority Business Utilization Plan (Plan) requiring prime contractors awarded city construction contracts to subcontract at least 30% of the … Read More(1989) City of Richmond v. Croson Co.
Dorothy Leigh Maynor was an international concert soprano, founder of the Harlem School of the Arts, the first African American to sing at an American president’s inauguration (Harry S. Truman’s, on January 20, 1949), the first African American artist to perform at Constitution Hall, the … Read MoreDorothy Leigh Maynor (1910-1996)
