When the U.S. Army was reorganized on July 28, 1866 for peacetime service after the American Civil War, six regiments were set aside for black enlisted men. These included four infantry regiments, numbered 38th through 41st. The 25th Infantry was created during a reduction in March 1869 by … Read More25th Infantry Regiment (1866-1947)
Peter Davis and Louis Armstrong, New Orleans, 1963 Image Courtesy of Robert Mikell Peter Davis is best known as the music teacher of Louis Armstrong. Much of his life story is found in interviews. The exact date of his birth is uncertain but he recalled … Read MorePeter Davis (1887?-1971)
Image Ownership: Public domain French naval hero Camille Mortenol was born November 29, 1859 in Pointe-à-Pitre, the largest city in the French island colony of Guadeloupe in the Caribbean Sea, the son of former slave André Mortenol, a sailor, and his wife, Julienne Toussaint, a … Read MoreCamille Sosthène Héliodore Mortenol (1859-1930)
Dr. Donnis Hazel Thompson was an athlete, coach, University of Hawaii Women’s Athletic Director, State of Hawaii Department of Education school superintendent, Martin Luther King, Jr. Commission chair in Hawaii, and champion for Title IX women’s athletics in Hawaii. Thompson was born in Chicago, Illinois, … Read MoreDonnis Hazel Thompson (1933-2009)
Sunday School Class at Blackdom, New Mexico Image Ownership: Public domain In the early 1900s, the Pecos Valley Region of Southeastern New Mexico Territory experienced an economic boom because of an influx of settlers into the area. African American families were among those settlers. They … Read MoreNew Mexico Blackdom (1903-1930)
Image Ownership: Public domain Irene McCoy Gaines was a civil rights activist and a community leader. Born October 25, 1892, in Ocala, Florida, to Charles and Mamie McCoy, she had one older sister who died while Gaines was a child. Her family moved to Chicago, … Read MoreIrene McCoy Gaines (1892-1964)
Theophilus Lewis, drama/ theater critic, journalist, and U.S. Postal Service employee, was born to Thomas and Anne Lewis on March 4, 1891, in Baltimore, Maryland. Lewis attended public schools in Baltimore but was very much self-educated. He joined the U.S. Army and fought in World … Read MoreTheophilus Lewis (1891-1974)
African American labor leader Willard S. Townsend was born on December 4, 1895, in Cincinnati, Ohio, to Willard and Cora Elizabeth Townsend. In 1938 he organized railway workers of several Chicago, Illinois stations to form the International Brotherhood of Redcaps and remained the union’s president … Read MoreWillard S. Townsend (1895-1957)
Image Ownership: Public domain Lamar Smith, voting rights activist and veteran, was a martyr in the fight for civil rights. Smith was born in March 1892 to Levi Smith and Harriet Humphrey in Lincoln County, Mississippi; however, there is little information concerning his early life. … Read MoreLamar Smith (1892-1955)
In 1978 Joseph Freeman became the first man of African ancestry to be granted the priesthood after the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced that any male could be ordained, regardless of race or color. Freeman was born July 24, 1953, in Vanceboro, … Read MoreJoseph Freeman (1953– )