John William Coltrane emerged as one of the most innovative and influential jazz musicians of the 20th century. Born in Hamlet, North Carolina on September 23, 1926, the son of John Robert and Alice Blair Coltrane, he grew up in High Point, North Carolina where … Read MoreJohn William Coltrane (1926-1967)
Frank Marshall Davis rose to prominence as a poet and journalist during the Depression and the Second World War. Prior to his departure for the Territory of Hawaii in 1948, he found himself the subject of adulation by many readers but also the target of … Read MoreFrank Marshall Davis (1905-1987)
In 1878 soprano Marie Selika Williams, known as the “queen of staccato,” became the first black artist to perform at the White House. Marie Selika was born c. 1849 in Natchez, Mississippi. Shortly after her birth, Selika’s family moved to Cincinnati, Ohio where, as a … Read MoreMarie Selika Williams (ca. 1849-1937)
Alice Augusta Ball, a pharmaceutical chemist, was born in Seattle, Washington in 1892 to Laura and James P. Ball Jr. Her grandfather was J.P. Ball, the well known daguerreotype photographer and her father was a promising lawyer. James P. Ball Sr. moved to Hawaii for … Read MoreAlice Augusta Ball (1892-1916)
William Lineas Maples, a physician and musician, was born in Sevierville, Tennessee, on March 31, 1869. The son of Edward Maples and Martha Jane Runions, William graduated in the first class of the segregated high school in Knoxville in 1888. Showing a talent for science, … Read MoreWilliam Lineas Maples (1869-1943)
In the account below University of Quebec at Montreal historian Greg Robinson describes the activies of Hugh MacBeth, a black Los Angeles attorney, on behalf of the Japanese American citizens and resident aliens incarcerated during World War II. Hugh MacBeth, Sr., an African American attorney … Read MoreDefending Nikkei: Hugh MacBeth and the Japanese American Internment
Betsey Stockton was born into slavery in Princeton, New Jersey in 1798. She belonged to Robert Stockton, a local attorney. Presented to Stockton’s daughter and son-in-law, the Rev. Ashbel Green, then President of Princeton College, as a gift, Betsy Stockton was now in a household … Read MoreBetsey Stockton (1798-1865)
Wesley Brown earned distinction in 1949 as the first African American to graduate from the United States Naval Academy. Wesley Brown grew up in Washington, D.C. and attended Dunbar High School. A “voracious reader,” Brown joined the Association for the Study of Negro Life and … Read MoreWesley Brown (1927-2012)
Formerly enslaved Anthony D. Allen found his way to Hawaii and made his home there in the early 1800s. Allen was born in 1774 either in Albany or Schenectady in New York to a mother who was probably a slave and a father who was … Read MoreAnthony D. Allen (1774-1835)
Hampton University, located on the shore of Chesapeake Bay in Hampton, Virginia, was founded in 1868 by Samuel Chapman Armstrong, the son of a prominent missionary family that settled in Hawaii in the early 1800s. Armstrong was enrolled at Williams College in Massachusetts when the … Read MoreHampton University (1868- )
