Singer, guitarist, songwriter, and music producer Curtis Lee Mayfield was born on June 3, 1942 in Chicago, Illinois. Mayfield began his career singing gospel music with the group the Northern Jubilee Singers. While with them he met Jerry Butler, another aspiring singer, and in 1957 … Read MoreCurtis Mayfield (1942-1999)
Rev. Archibald Carey, Sr. a political activist, writer, orator, and religious leader, used his talents to help Chicago’s African American community. Carey was a minister for African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Churches in Georgia, Florida and finally, Chicago. Archibald James Carey Sr. was born in Atlanta, … Read MoreArchibald J. Carey, Sr. (1868-1931)
The Harlem Globetrotters have gained worldwide recognition for combining their basketball playing skills with comedic tricks and stunts. Over the past eight decades the Globetrotters have competed in more than 20,000 games in over 100 countries. The Harlem Globetrotters began in Chicago in 1926 as … Read MoreHarlem Globetrotters (1926- )
The Phyllis Wheatley Women’s Clubs were named after Phyllis Wheatley, an enslaved poet who lived from 1753 to 1784. The first Phyllis Wheatley Women’s Club was established in 1895 in Nashville, Tennessee. The founders sought to improve the status of African American women in American … Read MorePhyllis Wheatley Women’s Clubs (1895- )
Beverly Loraine Greene, believed to be the first African American woman architect in the United States, was born in Chicago, Illinois on October 4, 1915. She grew up in Chicago and was raised by her father, James A. Greene, a lawyer, and her mother, Vera … Read MoreBeverly Loraine Greene (1915-1957)
Gale Eugene Sayers, nicknamed the “Kansas Comet,” was born on May 30, 1943, in Wichita, Kansas. Gale was born to Roger and Bernice Sayers and was the second of three sons. Gale’s father, Roger Sayers, worked as a mechanic for Goodyear until 1950 when the … Read MoreGale Eugene Sayers (1943-2020)
Redd Foxx was born John Elroy Stanford on December 9, 1922 in St. Louis, Missouri. In 1926 his father, an electrician, abandoned the family. Shortly afterward, he and his mother moved to Chicago to live with his grandmother. While in high school he formed a … Read MoreRedd Foxx (1922-1991)
Hall-of-Fame football player Walter Jerry Payton was born on July 25, 1954 in Columbia, Mississippi. He was one of three children born to Edward and Alyne Payton. Young Payton played a number of sports with his brother, Eddie. Payton attended John Jefferson High School, an … Read MoreWalter Jerry Payton (1954-1999)
Early 20th Century Seattle civil rights activist Letitia Ann Dennie Graves was born in 1863 in Illinois to Martha Murphy and George Dennie. Very little is known about Graves’s early life other than the fact that she and her husband, John Henry Graves, a Kansas … Read MoreLetitia A. Graves (1863-1952)
Rhythm and blues (R&B), jazz, and blues singer Etta James was born Jamesetta Hawkins on January 25, 1938 in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles to Dorothy Hawkins, who at the time was sixteen years old and unmarried. James received her first professional training as … Read MoreEtta James (1938-2012)
