Six-foot-eight NBA Superstar legend Connie Hawkins, one of the first basketball players capable of swooping and soaring in flights to the hoop, was born Cornelius Lance Hawkins on July 17, 1942, in Brooklyn, New York. A playground legend, he was dunking at the age of … Read MoreConnie Hawkins (1942-2017)
Anthony “Spice” Adams is a former American football player for the National Football League (NFL), actor, comedian, and television host. He was born on June 18, 1980, to Anthony Adams Sr. and Constance Davis in Detroit, Michigan. Adams, who had two siblings, attended Martin Luther … Read MoreAnthony “Spice” Adams (1980- )
Vince Lamar Carter Jr, a former National Basketball Association (NBA) basketball player and T.V. producer, was born on January 26, 1977, in Daytona Beach, Florida. He is the son of Michelle and Vince Carter Sr, who divorced when he was seven. Carter attended Mainland High … Read MoreVince Lamar Carter Jr. (1977- )
Benjamin Franklin Kelly made history on September 19, 1953, when he became the first African American to play at an all-white college in Texas, San Angelo College (later Angelo State University, ASU). His San Angelo College debut came eight months before the U.S. Supreme Court’s … Read MoreBen Kelly (1931-2014)
John Thomas Salley is a former National Basketball Association (NBA) basketball star, television and motion picture actor, and a major figure in the emerging U.S. cannabis industry. Salley was born on May 16, 1960, to Quille Salley and Mazie Salley in Brooklyn, New York. Salley … Read MoreJohn Thomas Salley (1964-)
Nathan Hare, the founder of The Black Scholar: A Journal of Black Studies and Research and called by many scholars “the father of Black and Ethnic Studies,” was born on April 9, 1933, in Slick, Oklahoma, to Seddie H. Hare, a sharecropper from Arkansas, and … Read MoreNathan Hare (1933-2024)
Robert Charles O’Hara Benjamin, also known as R.C.O. Benjamin, was a Caribbean-born political activist, newspaper editor, minister, poet, teacher, author, and lawyer. He was born on the island of St. Kitts on March 31, 1855. Information about his parents is unknown, but we do know … Read MoreRobert Charles O’Hara Benjamin (1855-1900)
Politician, philanthropist, and investor Benoni Wilfred Urey is one of the wealthiest Liberians and the founder of Lonestar Cell Mobile Telecommunication Corporation (MTN), Liberia’s largest nationwide mobile network. Urey was born on June 22, 1957, in Careysburg Montserrado County, the Republic of Liberia, to Daniel … Read MoreBenoni Wilfred Urey (1957- )
U.S. Army Air Force World War II veteran Joseph Dubois Elsberry was the first Black fighter pilot to shoot down three German aircraft in a single mission. Elsberry was born on April 25, 1921, in Langston, Oklahoma. His father was Joseph Dean Elsberry, and his … Read MoreJoseph Elsberry (1921-1985)
U.S. Army Air Force World War II veteran Edward Lucien Toppins was a fighter pilot credited with shooting down four German enemy fighter aircraft during aerial combat, a distinction shared with two other Tuskegee Airmen. Toppins was born in Mississippi on June 12, 1915. His … Read MoreEdward Toppins (1915-1946)
