Benjamin O. Davis, Jr. followed in the footsteps of his trail blazing father as the first black general in the U.S. Air Force. He was born in Washington, D.C. on December 18, 1912, fully committed to a military career. He entered West Point Military Academy … Read MoreBenjamin O. Davis Jr. (1912-2002)
Fredi Washington was an actress and founding member of the Negro Actors Guild of America as well as a journalist for People’s Voice. Born in Savannah, Georgia, Washington moved as a child to New York and began her professional career as a chorus dancer in … Read MoreFredi Washington (1903-1994)
Wilfred Augustus Low — or “Gus,” as he was universally known to friends and colleagues — was born to a sharecropping family in the Delta country of Mississippi on May 17, 1916. When Low was a teenager, his family relocated to St. Louis, Missouri, which … Read MoreW. Augustus Low (1916-1988)
African American philosopher and minister Richard Ishmael McKinney was born on August 8, 1906, in Live Oak, Florida. He began his formal education at a local school, the Florida Institute, co-founded by his father, George McKinney, a Baptist Minister. Due to financial difficulties, McKinney stayed … Read MoreRichard Ishmael McKinney (1906-2005)
Frank Horne was a Harlem Renaissance poet and a member of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s (FDR) “Black Cabinet.” Throughout his public career, including his years with the U.S. Housing Authority, Horne was an outspoken opponent of racial segregation in public and private housing. Horne was … Read MoreFrank Smith Horne (1899-1974)
Shirley Anita St. Hill Chisholm, an advocate for the rights of people of color and for women’s rights, became the first black woman elected to the United States Congress in November 1968. Four years later, she became the first black person to seek a major … Read MoreShirley Chisholm (1924-2005)
Sarah Davis was one of the leading free African Creek merchants who lived in the Creek Agency settlement, west of present day Muskogee before (and after) the Civil War. Sarah Davis was born in the Old Creek Nation in 1799 and was formerly a slave … Read MoreSarah Davis (1799-1886)
Ray Charles Robinson, a talented musician, singer, and composer, was one of the first African American artists to merge the blues with gospel to pave the way for rhythm and blues (R&B) music. Robinson was born September 23, 1930, in Albany, Georgia. At age five, … Read MoreRay Charles (1930-2004)
Mordecai Wyatt Johnson, an African American educator, clergyman, administrator, and public speaker, was born on January 4, 1891, in Paris, Tennessee, the son of Reverend Wyatt J. Johnson, a former slave. His father, a minister and laborer, was a stern man who worked at a … Read MoreMordecai Wyatt Johnson (1890-1976)
By the standards of African American history, Bishop Randall Albert Carter is a little known figure. Born in Fort Valley, Georgia on January 1, 1867, he was educated at Allen University in Columbia, South Carolina and Paine College in Augusta, Georgia. An active pastor in … Read More(1923) Bishop Randall Albert Carter, “Whence and Whither“
