Lucile Bluford was a pioneering black journalist who sought to integrate the University of Missouri in 1939, shortly after the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s (NAACP) test case centering on Lloyd Gaines, Gaines v. Canada, stalled when Gaines mysteriously disappeared. Although Bluford … Read MoreLucile Bluford (1911-2003)
Nineteenth Century African American soldiers who served in the Western United States have generally been known a “Buffalo Soldiers.” In this article, however, military historian Frank N. Schubert, challenges modern popular perceptions of the soldiers, among them the significance of their name and the nature … Read MoreThe Myth of the Buffalo Soldiers
The Colored Refugee Relief Board (originally called the Committee of Fifteen and then the Committee of Twenty-Five), was formed in St. Louis, Missouri in response to the Exoduster migration in March 1879. As thousands of destitute migrants arrived in St. Louis on their way to … Read MoreColored Refugee Relief Board (1879-1880)
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)
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)
Nicodemus, Kansas was founded in 1877 at the end of the Reconstruction Period. It soon became one of the most famous mostly black communities in the country formed by freedpeople migrating west. Nicodemus is located on the plains in the northwest corner of the state … Read MoreNicodemus, Kansas (1877- )
Wangari Maathai, the most prominent environmental activist in Africa, was the 2004 recipient of the Alfred Nobel Peace Prize. Wangari Muta was born on April 1, 1940, in Ihithe, Nyeri Province, Kenya during British colonial rule. Her family was of Kikuyu origin, and her father … Read MoreWangari Muta Maathai (1940-2011)
Lieutenant General Frank E. Petersen Jr., the first black general in the U.S. Marine Corps, was born in 1932 in Topeka, Kansas. He earned his Bachelor of Science in 1967. He received a Master’s in International Affairs in 1973. Both degrees came from George Washington … Read MoreFrank E. Petersen Jr. (1932-2015)
The first Kansas State Colored Convention was a call from black Kansans to be granted a future of “Liberty, Justice and Equality” under the United States government. The first Kansas Colored Convention was held in Leavenworth, Kansas on October 13-16, 1863 in the African Methodist … Read MoreKansas State Colored Convention (1863)
Lucinda Todd was a National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) activist in Topeka, Kansas who fought for school integration. Todd was born in Litchfield, Kansas on May 31, 1903 to parents who were part of the 1879 mass movement of black farmers … Read MoreLucinda “Cindy” Wilson Todd (1903-1996)
