Victor Séjour was a playwright born in New Orleans, Louisiana on June 2, 1817. His parents were Louis Victor Séjour Marou, a free colored man from Saint-Domingue (Haiti), and Héloise Philippe Ferrand, a quadroon from New Orleans. Although Victor was born in 1817, and his … Read MoreVictor Séjour (1817-1874)
Physician and newspaper publisher, Louis Charles Roudanez was born free in June of 1823 in Saint James Parish, Louisiana. He was the son of a French merchant named Louis Roudanez and a black woman named Aimée Potens. Though his baptismal record registers him as white, … Read MoreLouis Charles Roudanez (1823-1890)
Camille Thierry was a prolific Francophone poet, born to a French father and octoroon mother in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1814. Thierry’s family had significant holdings as wholesale liquor merchants. This wealth provided Thierry with advantages in education and the opportunity to pursue his own … Read MoreCamille Thierry (1814-1875)
Joseph Savary, a hero at the Battle of New Orleans, was a native of Saint-Dominque (Haiti) who had fought with the French during the Haitian Revolution. When Haiti became independent, Savary and his family fled and settled in New Orleans. Savary’s occupation in New Orleans … Read MoreJoseph Savary (?-1800s)
Legendary basketball star William Felton (Bill) Russell was a five-time National Basketball Association (NBA) Most Valuable Player and twelve-time All-Star. He was also the centerpiece of the Boston (Massachusetts) Celtics basketball dynasty when his team won eleven NBA championships during his thirteen seasons with the … Read MoreBill Russell (1934-2022)
Henry Adams was a Louisiana leader who advocated the emigration of southern freed blacks to Liberia after emancipation. Born a slave in Newton County, Georgia on March 16, 1843, Henry Adams was originally born as Henry Houston but changed his name at the age of … Read MoreHenry Adams [Louisiana] (1843-?)
Plaintiff for a landmark Supreme Court case, Homer A. Plessy was born on March 17, 1863 in New Orleans. He was a light-skinned Creole of Color during the post-reconstruction years. With the aid of the Comité des Citoyens, a black organization in New Orleans, Homer … Read MoreHomer Plessy (1863-1925)
Octavia Victoria Rogers Albert, a 19th century author and religious leader, was born in December 25, 1853 in Oglethorpe, Georgia into slavery. She draws inspiration from that experience for her book The House of Bondage which was published after her death by her husband and … Read MoreOctavia Victoria Rogers Albert (1853-1890)
Anti-affirmative action activist, businessman and former University of California regent Wardell (Ward) Anthony Connerly is popularly known as the key figure responsible for passage of California Proposition 209 which outlawed race and gender based preferences in state college and university admission and hiring. Connerly was … Read MoreWard Connerly (1939- )
In the article below University of California, Riverside historian Ralph Crowder describes this fascinating but little known attempt by Joe Louis and Fidel Castro to encourage middle class African American tourism to Cuba in the first year of the new regime. When Fidel Castro successfully … Read MoreAfrican Americans and Cuba’s First Experiment in Castro-Era Tourism: The Joe Louis Commission in Post Revolutionary Havana, 1959-1960
