Lloyd J. Austin is the first African American to serve as U.S. Secretary of Defense. He was nominated by President Joseph Biden and confirmed by the United States Senate. A former four-star General in the U.S. Army, Austin was born in Mobile, Alabama on August … Read MoreLloyd James Austin III (1953- )
Dr. Robert Doyle Bullard, is known as the “father of environmental justice.” Over three decades he has been a prominent activist and scholar in the field of environmental justice, which encompasses land use, transportation equity, suburban sprawl, housing, minority health, regional equity, emergency response, and community preparedness. … Read MoreRobert Doyle Bullard (1946- )
James Homer Garrott was an African American modernist architect. He was pivotal to the creation of many historic buildings in the Los Angeles, California area, designing more than 200 buildings throughout the city, including municipal buildings, schools, medical buildings, and over 25 churches between 1928 and 1970. … Read MoreJames H. Garrott (1897-1991)
Michael Anthony Donald was a nineteen-year-old African American man who was murdered by the Ku Klux Klan in 1981 near Mobile, Alabama. His killing was one of the last known lynchings in the United States. Donald was born on July 24, 1961, in Mobile to Beullah Mae Donald and … Read MoreMichael Anthony Donald (1961-1981)
Physicist Elmer S. Imes, an internationally recognized early authority on infrared spectroscopy, was born in Memphis, Tennessee, on October 12, 1883, the son of Benjamin Imes, a minister, and the former Elizabeth Wallace, an ex-slave. Both of his parents were alumni of Oberlin College in Ohio and worked as missionaries in … Read MoreElmer Samuel Imes (1883-1941)
Lovett Huey Fort-Whiteman was an American political and civil rights activistand member of the Communist International. He is regarded as the first American-born black Communist and first African American to attend a Comintern training school in the Soviet Union. Fort-Whiteman organized the Communist Party-affiliated American Negro Labor Congress and was labeled by Time magazine as … Read MoreLovett Fort-Whiteman (1889-1939)
Johnny Robinson was a sixteen-year-old African American man who was shot and killed by Birmingham, Alabama police officer Jack Parker on September 15, 1963. Robinson’s death occurred on the same day as the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church Bombing in Birmingham that resulted in the deaths of four young girls earlier … Read MoreJohnny Robinson (1947-1963)
Born in Pelham, Georgia, on July 6, 1954, Donnie L. Cochran was one of the nine sons of farmers Isaac C. Cochran and Addie B. Cochran. As a child he was fascinated by planes flying close to his home and became increasingly committed to becoming a pilot and … Read MoreDonnie Lee Cochran (1954- )
Army 4-star General Dennis L. Via was born in 1958 in the industrial town of Martinsville, Virginia, the son of Henry Via, a house painter and small-contract repairman, and Margaret Via, a homemaker. He had worked in a local textile mill and intended to skip college and … Read MoreDennis L. Via (1958- )
The most widely publicized case of the virtual enslavement of an African American in the 20th century is that of Dora Jones, born Theodora Lawrence Jones in 1890 in Athens, Alabama, the daughter of former slaves Plato Jones, a shoemaker and brick maker, and Lazzie Garrett Jones. As … Read MoreDora Jones (1890-1972)
