Osborne Perry Anderson was one of the five African American men to accompany John Brown in the raid on the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia) in October 1859. Anderson was a free-born abolitionist, born in West Fallow Field, Pennsylvania on July … Read MoreOsborne P. Anderson (1830-1872)
Alonzo “Lonnie” Clayton reached stardom at the age of fifteen, when he became the youngest rider to win the Kentucky Derby. He was born on March 27, 1876, in Kansas City, Missouri to Robert and Evaline Clayton. Alonzo Clayton moved with his parents and eight … Read MoreAlonzo Clayton (1876-1917)
Bishop Charles Harrison Mason, the founder of the Church of God In Christ, was born September 8, 1866 near Memphis, Tennessee. His parents Jerry and Eliza Mason were ex-slaves. When Charles was twelve years old his family moved to Plumerville, Arkansas due to a Yellow-Fever … Read MoreCharles Harrison Mason (1866-1961)
Mary Burnett Talbert, clubwoman and civil rights leader, was born on September 18, 1866, to Cornelius and Caroline Nicholls Burnett in Oberlin, Ohio. Mary Burnett graduated from Oberlin High School at the age of sixteen and in 1886 graduated from Oberlin College with a literary … Read MoreMary B. Talbert (1866-1923)
Ben Gross is a legendary civil rights and union activist in San Jose, California and the surrounding Silicon Valley. Gross was born and raised in McGehee, Arkansas in 1921. In Arkansas, Gross lived under Jim Crow Laws (legal segregation) and picked cotton during the Great … Read MoreBen Gross (1921- )
Eldridge Cleaver, author and civil rights activist, was born on August 31, 1935 in Wabbaseka, Arkansas. Cleaver, a child of six, lived in a household where his father abused his mother. The Cleavers moved to Phoenix, Arizona and finally settled in Los Angeles, California where … Read MoreEldridge Cleaver (1935-1998)
The National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs, Inc. (NACW), was established in July 1896 as a merger between the National League of Colored Women and the National Federation of Afro-American Women. The merger enabled the NACWC to function as a national umbrella group for local … Read MoreNational Association of Colored Women’s Clubs, NACW (1896– )
Jeremiah Haralson was born near Columbus, Georgia on April 1, 1846. The slave of Georgia planter John Haralson, he was taken to Alabama where he remained in bondage until 1865. It is unclear as to what he did in the earlier years of his freedom, … Read MoreJeremiah Haralson (1846-1916)
Pompey Factor, former slave, scout for the United States Army and Congressional Medal of Honor winner, was born in Arkansas in 1849 to Hardy Factor, a black Seminole chief and an unknown Biloxi Indian woman. By the end of that 2nd Seminole War (1835-1842), most … Read MorePompey Factor (1849-1928)
The Southern Tenant Farmers Union (STFU) was founded in Tyronza, Arkansas in July 1934 by black and white tenant farmers and Socialist Party members. The STFU is part of a rich tradition of labor organizing in the Depression-era South amongst mostly Black agricultural laborers. Since … Read MoreSouthern Tenant Farmers Union
