In the following account sports historian Charles Kastner describes the Bunion Derby, the 1928 cross country footrace that captured the nation’s attention in the spring of 1928 and the remarkable group of black runners who participated in that event. For a detailed discussion of the … Read MoreThe 1928 Bunion Derby: America’s Brush with Integrated Sports
Playwright Ed Bullins was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1935. He was raised by his mother on Philadelphia’s North side, a community considered troubled and crime-ridden. Bullins has often recounted his near fatal death by stabbing while he was a youth. Many scholars note that … Read MoreEd Bullins (1935- )
Earl Whaley was an alto-saxophone player and bandleader from the San Francisco Bay Area. He moved to Seattle and led one of the first swing bands on the West Coast, The Red Hot Syncopators, who started performing successfully around Seattle at the Broadway and Finnish … Read MoreEarl Whaley Band
Born the son of slaves in Davidson County Tennessee in 1854, Nat Love grew up during the turbulent Civil War and Reconstruction era. Rare for African Americans born enslaved in that era, Love learned to read and write as a child. In 1869 he left … Read MoreNat Love (1854-1921)
Accomplished journalist and activist Noah Thompson became one of the most influential leaders in Los Angeles, California during the early twentieth century. Born in Baltimore, Maryland on June 9, 1878, Thompson fled Baltimore as a young adult in search of success in the United States’ … Read MoreNoah Thompson (1878-?)
Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on April 17, 1823, Mifflin Wistar Gibbs apprenticed as a carpenter. By his early 20s he was an activist in the abolition movement, sharing platforms with Frederick Douglass and helping in the Underground Railroad. Black intellectual ferment of the era gave … Read MoreMifflin Wistar Gibbs (1823-1915)
There is little known about Archy Lee’s childhood except that he was born in Mississippi in 1840, an illiterate slave owned by Charles Stovall. In 1857, Charles Stovall moved to California from Missouri taking Lee with him. While in California Stovall opened a school and … Read MoreArchy Lee Case, 1858
Founded in 1903 by J.E. Edwards, Jefferson Lewis Edmunds, and Frederick Roberts, the Los Angeles Forum served as a civil rights organization dedicated to addressing black grievances in Los Angeles, California. Although the organization fell prior to the African American Civil Rights Movement, the activism … Read MoreLos Angeles Forum (1903-1942)
Dr. Mayme Clayton was born in Arkansas and transplanted to California, where she served as law librarian at University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), beginning in 1957. In 1969 she helped put together the university’s African American Studies Center Library. But her most astounding … Read MoreIn Praise of Mayme Clayton: Images of the African American West
Washington State politician George Fleming was born February 22, 1937, in Dallas, Texas, to parents A.R. and Lilla N. Fleming. He started post secondary education at the University of Washington, Seattle. While attending the University, Fleming was running back and kicker for the Washington Huskies … Read MoreGeorge Fleming (1937-2021)
