Grant Reynolds was a civic leader, civil rights activist, World War II chaplain, attorney, and educator. He was best known as a leading force in ending segregation in the United States Armed Forces. Reynolds was born July 29, 1908 in Key West, Florida to Emma … Read MoreGrant Reynolds (1908-2004)
Writer Ann Petry was born Ann Lane on October 12, 1908 to pharmacist Peter Clark Lane, Jr. and podiatrist Bertha James Lane in Old Saybrook, Connecticut. Like her father, Ann was trained as a pharmacist and practiced in the family’s drugstores in Old Saybrook. However, … Read MoreAnn Lane Petry (1908-1997)
Labor union organizer and leader Bill Lucy was born on November 26, 1933, to Joseph and Susie Lucy in Memphis, Tennessee. Raised in Richmond, California, Lucy studied civil engineering at the University of California at Berkeley in the 1950s. He then joined the U.S. Navy … Read MoreWilliam “Bill” Lucy (1933- )
Jazz pianist, bandleader, composer, and cosmic philosopher Le Sony’r Ra, or Sun Ra, remains an influential and controversial figure in jazz history. He is largely remembered for his Astro Black Mythology that incorporated aspects of ancient Egyptian philosophy and science fiction, as well as his … Read MoreSun Ra/Le Sony’r Ra (1914-1993)
Billy Preston, singer and musician, was born William Everett Preston in 1946 in Houston, Texas. He lived in Houston, Texas until his family moved to Los Angeles, California in 1949. Working as Victory Baptist Church’s organist, his mother, Robbie Preston Williams, supported Preston, his sister … Read MoreWilliam Everett “Billy” Preston (1946-2006)
Gospel music composer, conductor, pianist, and singer James Cleveland was born James Edward Cleveland on December 5, 1931, on the south side of Chicago, Illinois to Benjamin Cleveland, a retired Army sergeant, and Rosie Lee. He was introduced to gospel music at an early age … Read MoreJames Cleveland (1931-1991)
Two-time Academy Award-winning actor Denzel Hayes Washington was born December 28, 1954 in Mount Vernon, New York. Growing up in a middle-class family, Washington was the second of three children, his father, Reverend Denzel Washington, Sr., was a Pentecostal minister and his mother, Lennis “Lynne” … Read MoreDenzel Hayes Washington, Jr. (1954- )
Pioneer jazz musician Freddie Keppard was one of the most famous cornet players of the early 20th Century. Born February 27, 1890 in New Orleans, Keppard came from a musical family which included his brother Louis Keppard, who also became a professional musician playing the … Read MoreFreddie Keppard (1890-1933)
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- )
The Civil Rights Movement and investigative journalism combined in the early 1960s, inciting a nation to address the growing problem of poverty in America. A 1963 New York Times series on Appalachian poverty and Michael Harrington’s The Other America (1962) inspired discontent young Americans as … Read MoreWar on Poverty
