Henry Vinton Plummer was an American Baptist preacher and a chaplain with the United States Army with the Buffalo Soldiers. Plummer was born into slavery on July 30, 1844 on the Three Sister Plantation near Bowie, Maryland. His father was Adam Francis Plummer, and his … Read MoreHenry V. Plummer (1844-1905)
Ed Dwight, the first African American astronaut candidate, IBM computer systems engineer, real estate developer, professional sculptor, and former Air Force test pilot, was born in Kansas City, Kansas on September 9th, 1933. From a young age, Dwight was an avid reader and a talented … Read MoreEd Dwight (1933- )
Jerome A. Holmes, is the first African American to serve as an United States Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. Holmes was born in Washington D.C. on November 18, 1961. His parents were Ryland and Hattie Holmes. Holmes graduated from Wake Forest University in 1983 … Read MoreJerome A. Holmes (1961- )
Dr. Irving Pressley McPhail was a professor, mentor, President of the National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering, Inc (NACME), and most recently President of Saint Augustine’s College in Raleigh, North Carolina. Irving McPhail was born on March 27, 1949 in Harlem, New York. He … Read MoreIrving Pressley McPhail (1949-2020)
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)
John Brooks Slaughter is an electrical engineer, retired university president, college professor, and the first African American to serve as the director of the National Science Foundation (NSF). Slaughter was born on March 16, 1934 in Topeka, Kansas to Reuben Brooks Slaughter, a laborer, and … Read MoreJohn Brooks Slaughter (1934- )
On May 27, 2020 Evelyn Carmon Nicol, a pioneer in microbiology and immunology, died from complications of COVID-19, the coronavirus. Born to Daniel and Margarite Carmon on June 2, 1930, Nicol came of age in Little Rock, Kentucky. As a youth, she attended high school … Read MoreEvelyn Carmon Nicol (1930-2020)
In 1966 Huey Newton and Bobby Seale created the Black Panther Party (BPP) to fight police oppression of blacks in Oakland, California. Two years later the BPP started Peoples’ Free Medical Clinics (PFMC) because of systemic discrimination against blacks in hospitals and private medical practices. … Read MoreBlack Panther Party’s Free Medical Clinics (1969-1975)
The Double V campaign was a slogan championed by The Pittsburgh Courier, then the largest black newspaper in the United States, that promoted efforts toward democracy for civilian defense workers and for African Americans in the military. The Pittsburgh Courier newspaper, founded in 1907, had … Read MoreThe Double V Campaign (1942-1945)
Hilton Lee Smith was a right-handed pitcher who played for the Monroe, Louisiana Monarchs and Kansas City Monarchs. Smith was born on February 27, 1907 to Mattie and John Smith in Giddings, Texas. Much of Smith’s early life is unknown but he attended Prairie View … Read MoreHilton Lee Smith (1907-1983)
