Evangelist and civil rights leader Reverend Clay Evans founded the Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church in Chicago, Illinois in 1958 and was the founding national board chairman of Operation PUSH (People United to Save Humanity, later changed to People United to Serve Humanity) in 1971. Rev. … Read MoreClay Evans (1925- )
J. Max Bond, Sr., an educator who worked in the United States and abroad, was born in Nashville, Tennessee in 1902. His father was a Congregationalist minister and his mother was a schoolteacher. Bond’s undergraduate education came from what would become Roosevelt University in Chicago, … Read MoreJ. Max Bond Sr. (1902-1991)
William ‘Willie the Pro” Thrower was the first African American to play as a quarterback in the National Football League (NFL). Thrower was born on March 22, 1930, in New Kensington, Pennsylvania. Although his statistics as a college and high school football player are good, … Read MoreWilliam “Willie the Pro” Thrower (1930-2002)
Author George Jackson is best known for his memoir Soledad Brother, containing the letters that he wrote from prison between 1964 and 1970. George Lester Jackson was born on September 23, 1941, on the west side of Chicago, Illinois. The second of five children, Jackson’s … Read MoreGeorge Jackson (1941-1971)
Dennis Brutus was a South African poet, organizer and activist perhaps most notable for his use of sports as a weapon against apartheid. Dennis Vincent Brutus was born to South African parents of French, Italian and African descent in Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) in … Read MoreDennis Brutus (1924-2009)
Professional basketball star Isiah Lord Thomas III was the Detroit Pistons’ point guard from 1981-1994, helping to lead the team to back-to-back National Basketball Association (NBA) championships in 1989 and 1990. Thomas was named one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History during the … Read MoreIsiah Lord Thomas III (1961- )
Carmen McRae, a jazz singer and songwriter, was born on April 8, 1920 in Harlem, New York. Her father Osmond Llewelyn McRae was born in Santa Cruz, Jamaica in 1891; he moved from Jamaica to Costa Rica to Cuba and then to New York City, … Read MoreCarmen McRae (1920-1994)
Although he struggled throughout his life to produce a sufficient income, Big Bill Broonzy played an integral role in launching the global popularity of Southern blues. Born to sharecropper parents on June 26, 1893 in Scott, Mississippi, Broonzy grew up in Mississippi and Arkansas. As … Read MoreWilliam Lee Conley “Big Bill” Broonzy (1893-1958)
Ernest “Ernie” Banks was the first African American baseball player for the Chicago (Illinois) Cubs and the first African American manager in Major League Baseball (MLB). Banks earned the nickname “Mr. Cub” while playing shortstop and first base from 1953-1971 for the team. Ernest Banks … Read MoreErnest “Ernie” Banks (1931-2015)
David Harold Blackwell, mathematician and statistician, was the first African American to be elected to the National Academy of Sciences (1965) and is especially known for his contributions to the theory of duels. Blackwell was born on April 24, 1919, to a working-class family in … Read MoreDavid Harold Blackwell (1919-2010)
