Shirley Clarke Franklin became Atlanta, Georgia’s first African American female mayor in 2001, as well as the first woman to be a mayor of a major southern city. Clarke was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on May 10, 1945 to parents Eugene Haywood Clarke and Ruth … Read MoreShirley Clarke Franklin (1945- )
The Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) was established on December 5, 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama as a grassroots movement to fight for civil rights for African Americans and specifically for the desegregation of the buses in Alabama’s capitol city. The MIA was the first of its … Read MoreMontgomery Improvement Association (1955–1969)
Architect and educator Robert Robinson Taylor was the first African American to graduate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He is the father of architect and Chicago, Illinois business leader Robert Rochon Taylor (1899-1957) and the great-grandfather of Valerie Jarrett (1956- ), senior advisor … Read MoreRobert Robinson Taylor (1868-1942)
Margaret Bush Wilson, prominent 20th Century Civil Rights leader, was born January 30, 1919 in St. Louis, Missouri to James and Margaret Bush; her father was a real estate agent and her mother a teacher. Her passion for the Civil Rights movement was instilled early; … Read MoreMargaret Bush Wilson (1919-2009)
Alabama State University is a Historically Black College and University (HBCU) in Montgomery, Alabama. Founded less than two years after the end of the Civil War as the Lincoln Normal School in Marion, Alabama, it is one of the oldest HBCUs in the United States. … Read MoreAlabama State University (1867- )
Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical (Alabama A&M) University is a historically black university located in the city of Normal, Alabama. The school began in 1875 when Alabama officials used the Morrill Act of 1862 allowing state governments to establish colleges for African American students. Alabama A&M … Read MoreAlabama A&M University (1875- )
Earl Hilliard, lawyer, politician, and United States Representative from Alabama’s Seventh Congressional District (1993-2003), was born in Birmingham, Alabama to parents Iola Frazier and William Hilliard in 1942. Growing up in a segregated neighborhood Hilliard graduated from Western-Olin High School in 1960 and then attended … Read MoreEarl Hilliard (1942- )
Albert Murray, an African American novelist, jazz critic, professor, and essayist, was born in Nokomis, Alabama on May 12, 1916. His birth parents were Sudie Graham and John Young but he was adopted by Hugh and Mattie Murray and grew up in Magazine Point, Alabama. … Read MoreAlbert Murray (1916-2013)
J. Max Bond, Jr. was a prominent African American architect. He was born in 1935 into a prominent intellectual family from Louisville, Kentucky. His father, J. Max Bond, Sr., who held doctorate degrees in economics and sociology from the University of Southern California, was a … Read MoreJ. Max Bond, Jr. (1935-2009)
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) was created on January 10-11, 1957, when sixty black ministers and civil rights leaders met in Atlanta, Georgia in an effort to replicate the successful strategy and tactics of the recently concluded Montgomery, Alabama bus boycott. Rev. Martin Luther … Read MoreSouthern Christian Leadership Conference (1957- )
