Image Ownership: Courtesy Gage Skidmore (CC BY-SA 3.0) Herman Cain, Republican Party activist and 2012 Presidential candidate was also a newspaper columnist, popular radio talk show host in Atlanta, and former chairman and CEO of Godfather’s Pizza, a Pillsbury subsidiary. Cain was born on December … Read MoreHerman Cain (1945-2020)
Mary Lou Williams was an African American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger who wrote hundreds of compositions and arrangements and recorded over one hundred records. Williams was born as Mary Elfireda Scruggs on May 8, 1910 in Atlanta, Georgia, but grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. … Read MoreMary Lou Williams (1910-1981)
Rev. Dr. Maynard Holbrook Jackson, Sr. carried on two family traditions: preaching and politics. The son of Alexander Stephens Jackson, a Baptist minister from New Orleans, and Odalie Alice Morse Jackson. Jackson was born into New Orleans’s Negro-Creole Society on May 3, 1894. Like his father, … Read MoreMaynard Jackson, Sr. (1894-1953)
Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton was a blues singer and songwriter whose recordings of “Hound Dog” and “Ball ‘n’ Chain” later were transformed into huge hits by Elvis Presley and Janis Joplin. Willie Mae Thornton was born on December 11, 1926 outside of Montgomery in … Read MoreWillie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton (1926-1984)
Truman Gibson was an African American businessman, attorney, government advisor, and boxing promoter. Gibson, the son of an insurance executive, was born on January 22, 1912 in Atlanta, Georgia. A few years after he was born, Gibson’s family moved to Columbus, Ohio. Gibson graduated high … Read MoreTruman Gibson (1912-2005)
Milton Crenchaw was a flight instructor and one of the original Tuskegee Airman. He was the first African American from Arkansas to receive training from the federal government to become a civilian licensed pilot. Milton Pitts Crenchaw was born on January 13, 1919, in Little … Read MoreMilton Pitts Crenchaw (1919-2015)
Historian, educator and clergyman Rev. Miles Mark Fisher was pastor of the White Rock Baptist Church in Durham, North Carolina from 1933 to 1965. He published a number of important scholarly works on African American culture and the Baptist missionary movement to Africa. In 1953 … Read MoreMiles Mark Fisher (1899-1970)
In 2010, retired lieutenant colonel Allen West became the first black Republican to represent Florida in Congress since Rep. Josiah T. Walls, who served during Reconstruction. Congressman West was born on February 7, 1961 in Atlanta, Georgia to Herman and Elizabeth West. His father was … Read MoreAllen West (1961- )
Editor and bibliophile Henry Proctor Slaughter is best remembered for his vast collection of rare documents on African American history. The son of former slaves, a young Slaughter questioned the biased treatment of slavery in his school textbooks, and he spent a lifetime collecting materials … Read MoreHenry Proctor Slaughter (1871-1958)
The Interdenominational Theological Center (ITC) is a Christian, ecumenical, graduate professional school of theology located on the Atlanta University campus in Atlanta, Georgia. The ITC began in 1958 when four schools of theology united to form the Center: Morehouse School of Religion, Gammon Theological Seminary, … Read MoreInterdenominational Theological Center (1958- )
