Historian and scholar Dr. Ralph Le Roy Crowder was born on Saturday, March 29, 1947 in Des Moines, Iowa, to parents Ralph L. Crowder and Allie Crowder. An only child, Crowder attended public schools in Des Moines where he played football, basketball, and track. He … Read MoreRalph L. Crowder (1947-2020)
In the following article, historian Nafeesa Muhammad describes the often lauded but understudied economic program of the Nation of Islam (NOI). Here she focuses on the economic development plans put in place under the NOI’s longtime leader, Elijah Muhammad and their impact on African American … Read MoreThe Nation of Islam’s Economic Program, 1934-1975
Mathematician Annie J. Easley was born on April 23, 1933 in Birmingham, Alabama to Samuel and Mary Easley. Easley grew up in Birmingham and initially sought to be a nurse, but she soon switched to pharmacy once she started high school. Easley entered Xavier University … Read MoreAnnie J. Easley (1933-2011)
Raymond A. Brown, a prominent civil rights activist, attorney, and military officer was born on May 6, 1915 in Fernandina Beach, Florida. His mother, Elizabeth Christopher Traeye, was a domestic, teacher and homemaker who in 1930 helped establish Christ the King, Jersey City’s only Black … Read MoreRaymond Aloysius Brown (1915-2009)
The Virden, Illinois Race Riot was an example of the combination of labor and racial violence in the late 19th and early 20th Century United States. Following a United Mine Workers (UMW) national coal strike in 1897, a new 40-cents-per-ton rate was agreed on by … Read MoreVirden, Illinois Race Riot (1898)
Tuskegee Airman Charles McGee is a retired fighter pilot whose legendary career spans three wars and four hundred and nine combat missions. McGee was born on December 7, 1919, to Lewis Allen and Ruth Elizabeth (Lewis) in Cleveland, Ohio. His father’s position as a minister, … Read MoreCharles Edward McGee (1919- )
Stayce D. Harris is the first African American woman to hold a three-star General rank, first Air Force Reservist to be promoted to the three-star rank other than the chief of the Air Force Reserve Command, and the first African American woman to serve as … Read MoreStayce D. Harris (1959- )
Dr. Warren Elliott Henry enjoyed a long and influential career in the field of physical chemistry, working in the public and private sectors and in academia. His areas of expertise included radar technology and solid-state physics. Henry conducted experiments on magnetism as well as metallurgy, … Read MoreWarren Elliott Henry (1909-2001)
Azellia White was the first African American woman to earn her pilot’s license in Texas and a trailblazer in the aviation field. Jones was born in Gonzalez, Texas, on June 3, 1913. Her father was a sharecropper and her mother was a midwife. She attended … Read MoreAzellia Jones White (1913-2019)
James E. Walton, longtime professor of English at California State University, Fresno, was born on September 13, 1944 in Bessemer, Alabama to Willie Walton, Sr. and Mary Woods Cutts. Walton attended a two-room schoolhouse in Alabama. At age three, his grandmother taught him to read … Read MoreJames E. Walton (1944-2019)
