Edward G. Irvin was a co-founder of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity. Irvin was born on August 13th, 1893, in Spencer, Indiana, as the seventh of nine siblings. His father was an African Methodist Episcopal (AME) preacher. Irvin grew up in Spencer but was part of … Read MoreEdward Giles Irvin (1893-1982)
Rufus Calvin Kuykendall was an attorney, politician, and one of the first African Americans to be elected judge in Indiana’s Marion County Superior Court. Kuykendall was born on September 24, 1903 in Indianapolis, Indiana to John, a former slave from Tennessee, and Belle (Jackson) Kuykendall. … Read MoreRufus Calvin Kuykendall (1903-1977)
The Pittsburgh Crawfords were a professional Negro League baseball team based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Pittsburgh was the only city in the country to be home of two of the Negro Leagues teams, The Homestead Grays, and the Pittsburgh Crawfords. The Pittsburgh Crawfords started off as … Read MoreThe Pittsburgh Crawfords (1931-1947)
John B (for the Baptist) Stradford was born a free man in Versailles, Kentucky in 1861. His father, J.C. Stradford was a former slave who had been emancipated and was living in Stradford, Ontario (Canada) but who returned to the U.S. and was in Versailles … Read MoreJohn “the Baptist” Stradford (1861-1935)
Ronald Earle Glass was an American actor and director who was best known for his role as Detective Ron Harris on the long-running cop comedy television sitcom Barney Miller. Glass was born to Lethia and Crump Glass on July 10, 1945, in Evansville, Indiana. He … Read MoreRonald Earle Glass (1945-2016)
Curtis Theophilus Hill Jr. is a prosecutor who serves as the 43rd Attorney General of Indiana. Hill was born in Elkhart, Indiana on February 21, 1961 and raised there. He graduated from Elkhart High School and then Indiana University with a degree in Marketing. He received his Juris … Read MoreCurtis Theophilus Hill, Jr. (1961- )
The son of Percival Leonard and Dorothy Stinson Everett, the author Percival Leonard Everett, was born on a military base outside Augusta, Georgia on December 22, 1956, but grew up in Columbia, South Carolina. In 1977 Everett received a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from the … Read MorePercival Everett (1956- )
William Marshall was a commanding, deep-voiced actor who enjoyed a four-decade career in both classical stage works and Hollywood movies and TV. The London Sunday Times once called him “the best Othello of our time,” but he is persistently best known for the blaxploitation-era films … Read MoreWilliam Marshall (1924-2003)
Though overshadowed by and having received far less publicity than fabled Pearl Harbor hero Dorie Miller, Alonzo Alexander Swann Jr. performed similar action in the Pacific Theater and his all-black Navy gun crew. Their brave accomplishment and awful sacrifice would have gone relatively unnoticed had … Read MoreAlonzo Alexander Swann, Jr. (1925-2007)
Sundown Towns are all-white communities, neighborhoods, or counties that exclude Blacks and other minorities through the use of discriminatory laws, harassment, and threats or use of violence. The name derives from the posted and verbal warnings issued to Blacks that although they might be allowed … Read MoreSundown Towns
