“Fair Use Image” Sidney Walker, world champion boxer in world light heavyweight class, was born in Augusta, Georgia on April 1, 1921. He was raised by his grandmother, Evie Mixom, on her small farm near Augusta. Walker quit school by the second grade to assist … Read MoreSidney/Beau Jack Walker (1921-2000)
“Image Ownership: MissChatter” Major League Baseball shortstop Edgar Renteria is Colombia’s most successful player in U.S. baseball history as well as its most prominent athlete of African descent. During his 16 years in the U.S. major leagues he played for seven different teams. Renteria was … Read MoreEdgar Enrique Renteria (1975- )
In the extended article that appears below historians Daudi Abe and Quintard Taylor explore the history of African Americans in King County from 1858 to 2014. They analyze the forces which encouraged people of African ancestry to settle in the county and discuss the rapid … Read MoreFrom Memphis and Mogadishu: The History of African Americans in King County, Washington, 1858-2014
Michael Lee-Chin is best known as a business magnate, investor, and philanthropist. He is the founder and Chairman of Portland Holdings Inc., a privately held investment company which owns a collection of diversified operating companies in media, tourism, health care, telecommunications, and financial services. He … Read MoreMichael Lee-Chin (1951- )
“Image Ownership: Public Domain” Noah Webster Griffin is best known as the first director of the West Coast Regional Office of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), established by the national headquarters in 1942. Griffin was born in 1896 to formerly … Read MoreNoah Webster Griffin Sr. (1896-1974)
Born in Gainesville, Florida on February 7, 1882, Emma Rochelle Wheeler had gained an interest in medicine at the young age of six after her father had taken her to a white female doctor for an eye problem. Seeing the rare female doctor persuaded young … Read MoreEmma Rochelle Wheeler (1882-1957)
Larry Steele’s touring production review, Smart Affairs, was the largest black entertainment touring group in the United States from the 1940s through the early 1960s. Steele’s review, headquartered in Atlantic City, New Jersey, featured up to 40 entertainment acts. The revue performed in major venues … Read MoreLarry Steele’s Smart Affairs (1946-1971)
Act of August 30, 1890, ch. 841, 26 Stat. 417, 7 U.S.C. 322 et seq. Chap. 841.–AN ACT To apply a portion of the proceeds of the public lands to the more complete endowment and support of the colleges for the benefit of agriculture and … Read More(1890) Second Morrill Act
Bethel Baptist Institutional Church is the oldest Baptist church congregation in the state of Florida. At the end of the Civil War, Bethel Baptist Church was recognized by the court in Jacksonville to be a black church, but the history of this church extends well … Read MoreBethel Baptist Institutional Church of Jacksonville, Florida (ca. 1865- )
Louise Cecelia Fleming, the first African American to graduate from the Women’s Medical College at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was born January 28, 1862 to slave parents on a plantation near Hibernia in Clay County, Florida. Her father is unknown; she was raised by her mother who … Read MoreLouise Celia “Lulu” Fleming (1862-1899)
