Reverend Joseph Harrison Jackson was the pastor of Olivet Baptist Church in Chicago, Illinois (1941–1990), the longest-serving president of the National Baptist Convention (1953-1982), and a leading conservative voice during the Civil Rights era. To this day, Rev. Jackson remains a deeply controversial figure, in … Read MoreReverend Joseph H. Jackson (1900-1990)
Melissa Harris-Perry is an American author, professor, television host, and political commentator who focuses on African American political issues. Harris-Perry has written for The Nation, in addition to penning her two award-winning books, Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in America (2013), and Barbershops, … Read MoreMelissa Harris-Perry (1973- )
Founded in 1961, the DuSable Museum of African American History is oldest museum dedicated to African American history in the United States. The DuSable began as the Ebony Museum of Negro History, housed in the South Side Chicago, Illinois home of DuSable High School teacher, … Read MoreDuSable Museum of African American History (1961– )
Frances Cress Welsing, a psychiatrist best known for writing The Isis Papers, was born Frances Luella Cress in Chicago, Illinois, on March 18, 1935. Welsing, who was the child of physician Henry Cress and teacher Ida Mae Griffen, grew up the middle of three daughters. … Read MoreFrances Cress Welsing (1935–2016)
Mellody Hobson is the co-CEO of Ariel Investments (AI), which was founded in 1983 by John W. Rogers Jr. With the continued growth of the African American middle class, the number of black investors has risen. Ariel Investments is one of the nation’s few African … Read MoreMellody Hobson (1969- )
The 1966 championship game for the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) basketball tournament came down to a test between a small southwestern institution, El Paso’s Texas Western College Miners, and an accomplished four-time NCAA tournament winner, the University of Kentucky Wildcats. This game, however, proved … Read MoreThe Texas Western Miners (1966)
William P. Stewart, a Civil War veteran, was also an early black settler in Snohomish County, Washington. Stewart was born on December 9, 1839, as a free person of color to Walden and Henrietta Stewart in Sangamon County, Illinois. He had five other siblings, four … Read MoreWilliam P. Stewart (1839-1907)
Lorenzo Dow Turner was an African American linguist who headed the English department at Howard University in Washington, D.C. from 1920 to 1928, and later headed of the English department at Fisk University (1929 to 1946). His accomplishments within his career in academia include the … Read MoreLorenzo Dow Turner (1890-1972)
“Image Ownership: MavsFan28“ Jenean Hampton, at the age of fifty-eight, became the first statewide, black, elected official in Kentucky’s history when she was elected lieutenant governor on November 3, 2015. Hampton ran on the Republican Party ticket headed by GOP gubernatorial candidate Matt Bevin who … Read MoreJenean Hampton (1958– )
A musical pioneer who was among America’s first wave of jazz and blues recording artists in the 1920s, Lucille Hegamin was born Lucille Nelson in Macon, Georgia, on November 29, 1894. She grew up singing in church and at the age of fifteen joined a … Read MoreLucille Hegamin (1894-1970)
