Lyle Quasim, born Lyle Rogers in Chicago in 1943, has held leadership positions in public health and administration in Tacoma, Pierce County, and the state of Washington. In 1995 he became the first African American to head Washington’s Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS). … Read MoreLyle Quasim (1943- )
Richard Franklin Lennox Thomas Pryor III, was an American stand-up comedian, writer, actor and social critic who revolutionized the comedy world in the 1960s and 1970s. He became famous for colorful, irreverent and often vulgar language as he comically described the major issues of the … Read MoreRichard Pryor (1940-2005)
John Ritchey integrated the Pacific Coast League, the AAA-level minor baseball league on the West Coast, when he played as a San Diego Padre in 1948. The second-generation baseball player was born in 1923, in San Diego, California and was the youngest of nine children. … Read MoreJohn Franklin Ritchey (1923-2003)
Etta Moten, a multifaceted pioneer in the world of entertainment, was born in Weimar, Texas in 1901. She was raised as the only child of her parents, Freeman Moten, a Methodist minister, and his wife Ida Mae Norman. In 1915, Rev. Moten moved to Kansas … Read MoreEtta Moten (1901-2004)
Deval L. Patrick, Governor of Massachusetts, was elected in 2006. He became at that time the second African American elected as a state Governor in the history of the United States. Patrick was born on July 31, 1956 in Chicago to Laurdine “Pat” Patrick and … Read MoreDeval L. Patrick (1956- )
On November 4, 2008, Illinois Senator Barack Obama defeated Arizona Senator John McCain in the 2008 presidential election. On the night of his historic victory, Senator Obama addressed an audience of 250,000 at Grant Park in Chicago. The text of his speech appears below. Hello … Read More(2008) President-Elect Barack Obama’s Election Night Victory Speech, Nov. 4th, 2008
Thomas Arnold Hill, early leader of the National Urban League, was born in 1888 in Richmond, Virginia to Reuben and Irene Robinson Hill. He studied at Richmond Business School and received his Bachelor of Art degree at Virginia Union University in 1911. Hill then studied … Read MoreThomas Arnold Hill (1888-1947)
Evelyn Preer, one of the first African American silent screen actresses to transition into sound Hollywood films, was born on July 21, 1896 in Vicksburg, Mississippi. After her father’s death, Preer and her mother relocated to Chicago, Illinois where she completed high school before pursuing … Read MoreEvelyn Preer (1896-1932)
Los Angeles newspaper owner and political activist Charlotta Bass began her career as a conservative Republican. By the 1940s, however, she moved to the political left. In 1948 she supported Progressive Party candidate Henry Wallace in his failed bid for the Presidency. Four years later … Read More(1952) Charlotta Bass, “Acceptance Speech for Vice Presidential Candidate of the Progressive Party”
In 1961, Margaret Burroughs and her husband, Charles Burroughs founded the Ebony Museum of Chicago, later called the DuSable Museum of African American History. The DuSable is the oldest museum of its type in the United States. Margaret Burroughs was born Margaret Taylor on November … Read MoreMargaret Burroughs (1917-2010)
