Henry Hugh Proctor was an author, lecturer and a clergyman of the Congregational Church. Proctor was born on December 8, 1868, near Fayetteville, Tennessee to former slave parents Richard and Hannah (Murray) Proctor. Proctor attended local schools but was only able to take classes for … Read MoreHenry Hugh Proctor (1868-1933)
Painter and educator Laura Wheeler Waring was born in Hartford, Connecticut in 1887. The fourth child of six born to Reverend Robert Foster and Mary Wheeler, Laura was unusual in some respects because she had the advantage of a superior education and middle and upper … Read MoreLaura Wheeler Waring (1887-1948)
James Theodore Holly emigrationist, missionary, and bishop, was born in Washington, D.C on October 3, 1829. At age fourteen his family relocated to Brooklyn, New York. His father taught him the shoemaking trade. Then in 1848 he began working as an abolitionist with Lewis Tappan, one … Read MoreJames Theodore Holly (1829-1911)
Reverend Walter E. Fauntroy, pastor, Congressional representative, and civil rights activist, was born in Washington, D.C., on February, 6, 1933. The son of Ethel Vines Fauntroy and William Thomas Fauntroy, who worked in the U.S. Patent Office, Walter Fauntroy graduated from Dunbar High School in … Read MoreWalter E. Fauntroy (1933- )
Melvin Luther Watt is a politician (Democrat) who has been the Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency since 2014. Watt, a former member of the United States House of Representatives, was born on August 26, 1945 in the small community of Steele Creek in Mecklenburg … Read MoreMelvin L. Watt (1945- )
Sheila Jackson-Lee was born on January 12, 1950 in Queens, New York. She graduated from Jamaica High School in Queens, New York in 1968. She then graduated from Yale University in Connecticut with a B.A. in political science in 1972 followed in 1975 by a … Read MoreSheila Jackson-Lee (1950- )
Constance Baker Motley was born on September 14, 1921, in New Haven, Connecticut. She was the ninth child in a family of twelve children. Her parents were emigrants from the island of Nevis in the West Indies. Motley grew up attending New Haven’s integrated public … Read MoreConstance Baker Motley (1921-2005)
Clarence Thomas, the second African American to sit on the U.S. Supreme Court, was born in Pin Point, Georgia, a small community south of Savannah. His mother, Leola Williams, a single parent, raised Thomas until he was seven. He and his brother, Myers, were sent … Read MoreClarence Thomas (1948- )
John Hiram Jackson was born November 16, 1912 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Both his parents were Virginians, and his maternal grandfather, the Reverend Daniel Cave, was a founder of Lynchberg Seminary, an independent black Baptist college. Reverend Cave was the first of a line of Baptist … Read MoreJohn Hiram Jackson (1912-1997)
Joseph Cassey was born in the French West Indies in 1789. He arrived in Philadelphia sometime before 1808. Cassey prospered in the barber trade and as a perfumer, wig-maker, and money-lender. His barbershop was located a block from Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell. Cassey … Read MoreJoseph Cassey (1789-1848)
