Taliaferro, the first black talk show host on a major American radio station, was born on February 7, 1939 and grew up in the Hunters Point district of San Francisco. His talk radio career began in 1967 at San Francisco’s KNEW station and shortly thereafter … Read MoreRaphael “Ray” Taliaferro (1939-2018)
In 1995, author Lalita Tademy left her prestigious and well-paid position of vice-president and general manager at Sun Microsystems and began to search for a new direction for her life. Her long corporate climb, including stints at Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) and Memorex, led … Read MoreLalita Tademy (1948- )
Laila Ali, the daughter of former heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali, and Jacqui Frazier, the daughter of former heavyweight champion Joe Frazier, became the first woman in history to headline a pay-per-view event when they fought on June 7, 2001. It was also the first time … Read MoreLaila Ali (1977- )
Filmmaker Julie Dash was born on October 22, 1952 in Queens, New York. She received her B.A. in film production from City College of New York in 1974 and went on to earn a two-year fellowship to the Center for Advanced Film Studies at the … Read MoreJulie Dash (1952- )
In the following article Dr. Carol Lynn McKibben, Director of the Seaside History Project, City of Seaside, California, and Lecturer, Department of History, Stanford University, describes the subject of her research, Seaside, California, and specifically the unusual history of the African American community in this … Read MoreRace and Color in A California Coastal Community: The Seaside Story
Ralph Alexander Gardner, hard plastics pioneer and one of the scientists and technicians who worked on the Manhattan Project which developed the atomic bomb, was born December 3, 1922 in Cleveland, Ohio, son of Vivian and Clarence Gardner. Gardner developed an early love of chemistry, … Read MoreRalph Gardner-Chavis (1922- )
Curt Flood, an American Major League Baseball player best known for his challenge of the “reserve clause,” was born January 18, 1938 in Houston, Texas and was raised in Oakland, California. Flood began playing baseball as a youth. Showing great promise he signed a contract … Read MoreCurtis Charles Flood (1938-1997)
A supporter of the Gandhian philosophy of nonviolent protest, the Reverend James M. Lawson, Jr. was one of the Civil Rights Movement’s leading theoreticians and tacticians in the African American struggle for freedom and equality in the 1950s and 1960s. Raised in a household of … Read MoreJames Lawson (1928- )
Born on April 17, 1912 as the youngest of twelve children in Culloden, Georgia, Jo Ann Robinson would become a successful educator and famous civil rights activist. After graduating from Fort Valley State College in 1934, she became a public school teacher in Macon, Georgia … Read MoreJo Ann Robinson (1912-1992)
Lucretia Marchbanks, well-documented in western lore for her upright character and superb culinary talents, was one of the first African American women to venture into the Black Hills of South Dakota. Marchbanks was born enslaved on March 25, 1832 near Turkey Creek in Putnam County, … Read MoreLucretia Marchbanks (1832–1911)
