Ellis (Eli) Reed is a professor, author, and photographer. He is the first African American selected as a full member into the Magnum Photos agency, the elite international photojournalist collective. Having been published in close to 30 magazines, Reed is best known for his three … Read MoreEllis Reed (Eli) (1946- )
The novelist and poet Gayl Jones was born November 23, 1949 in Lexington, Kentucky. She came from a creative background; her grandmother Amanda Wilson wrote religious dramas and her mother Lucile wrote fiction. By the time she was seven years old, she had already begun … Read MoreGayl Jones (1949- )
Image Ownership: Library of Congress Life (CC0) African novelist Ngugi wa Thiong’o is a Kenyan author, educator and playwright. With the publication of his first novel, he became a critically-acclaimed author at the age of 29. His work is also published under the pseudonym James … Read MoreNgugi wa Thiong’o (AKA James T. Ngugi) (1938- )
Image Courtesy of the New York Amsterdam News (Fair Use) Former Tuskegee University president Benjamin Franklin Payton was born in 1932 in Orangeburg, South Carolina. His father, Reverend Leroy Payton, was a Baptist minister, farmer, and teacher while his mother, Sarah Mack Payton, was a … Read MoreBenjamin F. Payton (1932-2016)
James Pierpont Comer, a leading black child psychiatrist and educational reformer, was born into a working class family in East Chicago, Indiana on September 25, 1934. Although his parents, Maggie and Hugh Comer, had little education themselves, they strongly supported their children’s education. All five … Read MoreJames P. Comer (1934- )
Civil rights leader and intellectual, Moses Carl Holman, was born to Moses and Mamie Durham Holman on June 27, 1919. Although born in Minter City, Mississippi, Holman was raised in St. Louis, Missouri, where his father worked in a steel mill. As a child Holman … Read MoreM. Carl Holman (1919-1988)
Noted historian Charles Harris Wesley was born in Louisville, Kentucky on December 2, 1891, and attended local schools as a boy. He graduated from Fisk University in 1911 and, in 1913, earned a Master’s degree from Yale University. In 1925, Wesley became the third African … Read MoreCharles H. Wesley (1891-1987)
Harold M. Kingsley, Congregational minister and political activist, was born in Mobile, Alabama in 1887. The son of a wealthy white man and a poor black woman, Kingsley was raised by Baptists but sent to an Episcopal church because his family believed it was closely … Read MoreHarold M. Kingsley (1887-1970)
Hubert T. Delany was one of the first appointed African American judges in New York City in the early 20th Century. The son of a former slave and prominent cleric, Bishop Henry T. Delany of the Episcopal Church, and Nanny J. Delaney, a St. Augustine’s … Read MoreHubert T. Delany (1901-1990)
Image Ownership: David Shankbone (CC BY-SA 3.0) Gloria Naylor, a major 20th century writer of African American literature, was born on January 25, 1950 in New York City, New York to Roosevelt and Alberta Naylor. She was born just six weeks after her parents … Read MoreGloria Naylor (1950-2016)
