Ruffin Bridgeforth, president of the Genesis Group and priest in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), was born in Melville, Louisiana, on March 18, 1923. His father, Ruffin Sr., and mother, Mary Adams Fips, had four children together. Bridgeforth moved from Louisiana … Read MoreRuffin Bridgeforth (1923–1997)
Philanthropist Darren Walker is the tenth president of the seventy-seven-year-old Ford Foundation, the second largest philanthropy in the world. Walker was born August 28, 1959, at a charity hospital in Lafayette, Louisiana, to a single mother and was raised in East Texas. He received two … Read MoreDarren Walker (1959– )
Thornton Dial, a native Alabamian, was an artist and sculptor famous for yard show-influenced, mixed media pieces that used discarded everyday objects to symbolize the history and experience of African Americans in the South. While he did not belong to any formal school of art, … Read MoreThornton Dial (1928-2016)
Georgia Ann Hill Robinson became the first black female police officer to work for the Los Angeles (California) Police Department (LAPD)—and possibly the first in the country—in 1916. Months before 15 percent of the police force of the United States would begin enlisting to enter … Read MoreGeorgia Ann Hill Robinson (1879–1961)
Marjorie Lee Browne was a prominent mathematician and educator who, in 1949, became only the third African-American woman to earn a doctorate in her field. Browne was born on September 9, 1914, in Memphis, Tennessee, to Mary Taylor Lee and Lawrence Johnson Lee. Her father, … Read MoreMarjorie Lee Browne (1914-1979)
Edward Perkins served as U.S. Ambassador on four occasions; more than all but two other African Americans. He was born Edward Joseph Perkins, Jr. on June 8, 1928 in Sterlington, Louisiana to Edward Perkins, Sr. and Tiny Estella Noble. After moving to Portland, Oregon and graduating … Read MoreEdward Joseph Perkins, Jr. (1928-2020)
Lieutenant Colonel Eldridge F. Williams was one of the first trainers of Tuskegee Airmen. Williams was born in Harris, Washington County, Texas on November 2, 1917, the son of cotton sharecroppers Ora and E.D. Williams who eventually moved to Kansas. Williams finished high school and … Read MoreEldridge F. Williams (1917-2015)
Newspaper columnist and poet Ora Mae Lewis was born March 29, 1918, in New Orleans, Louisiana. Her father, Nathan Leopold Lewis, was a native of Jamaica and a decorated soldier in the British Colonial Army, and her mother Cecelia Della Atkinson, a New Orleans Creole, … Read MoreOra Mae Lewis Martin (1918–2005)
“Image Ownership: Fair Use” Born on July 4, 1902 in Seattle, Washington, Brice Union Taylor was an athlete who broke racial barriers for African American football players. Brice Taylor is perhaps best known as the University of Southern California’s first All-American football player. A descendant of the Shawnee Chief Tecumseh and African slaves, he was the … Read MoreBrice Union Taylor (1902-1974)
Image Courtesy of UCSF Archives and Special Collections Medical professor and civil rights leader Thomas Nathaniel Burbridge was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, on July 12, 1921. He received a bachelor of arts degree from Talladega College in Talladega, Alabama, in 1941. From 1942 through … Read MoreThomas Nathaniel Burbridge (1921–1972)
