Warrick De’Mon Dunn is a former National Football League (NFL) running back who played for twelve seasons. Dunn was born on January 5, 1975 in New Orleans, Louisiana to single mother Betty Smothers. He attended Catholic High in Baton Rouge and played on the football … Read MoreWarrick De’Mon Dunn (1975- )
Benjamin Lloyd Crump is an American Civil Rights lawyer who is best known as the attorney of the families of Black Lives Matter victims starting with the case of Genie McMeans Jr in 2002. Crump, the oldest of nine siblings, was born on October 10, … Read MoreBenjamin Lloyd Crump (1969- )
Activist, existential philosopher, professor, and Unitarian Universalist minister Rev. Dr. William “Bill” Ronald Jones dedicated his career to the analysis and methods of oppression, religious humanism, and liberation theology that influenced Africana philosophers such as Anthony B. Pinn and Lewis R. Gordon. Born July 17, … Read MoreBill Jones (1933-2012)
Henry “Pistol” Mason was the first Black baseball pitcher for the Philadelphia farm team, the Schenectady Blue Jays in 1955. Mason was born on June 19, 1931 in Marshall, Missouri to Tansie and Anna Mason. His father was a laborer in a rock quarry and … Read MoreHenry Mason (1931-2020)
The son of Percival Leonard and Dorothy Stinson Everett, the author Percival Leonard Everett, was born on a military base outside Augusta, Georgia on December 22, 1956, but grew up in Columbia, South Carolina. In 1977 Everett received a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from the … Read MorePercival Everett (1956- )
Nigerian-born Njideka Akunyili Crosby is a leading contemporary artist. In early 2018 a typically large-scale painting by Crosby sold for $3 million, just a few months after she had won a MacArthur Foundation “genius” award worth $624,000. Born in 1983 in Enugu, Nigeria, she is … Read MoreNjideka Akunyili Crosby (1983- )
Olly W. Wilson, Jr. was an African American composer of contemporary classical music, a pianist, double bassist, musicologist, and educator. Born in St. Louis, Missouri on September 7, 1937, Wilson was the only son of three children of Olly W. Wilson, Sr., an insurance salesman … Read MoreOlly Woodrow Wilson, Jr. (1937-2018)
Pioneering computer scientist and mathematician David R. Hedgley Jr., hailed as the “Father of 3D Graphics” was born in Chicago, Illinois, on January 21, 1937, the son of David R. Rice Sr., a prominent Baptist minister and civil rights activist, and Christine Hedgley, a schoolteacher. … Read MoreDavid Rice Hedgley Jr. (1937- )
Myron Rolle is a neurosurgery resident who at one time played in the National Football League (NFL) for the Tennessee Titans. Rolle was born on October 30, 1986 to Beverly Rolle and Whitney Rolle (his father) in Houston, Texas. The Rolle family were immigrants from … Read MoreMyron Rolle (1986- )
