Anna Maria Weems is best known as an enslaved person who gained her freedom with a daring escape from slavery. Weems was born into slavery about 1840 in Maryland to John and Arabella Talbot Weems. Her father was a free man of color, but her … Read MoreAnna Maria Weems (1840-?)
“Image Ownership: Public Domain” Ta-Nehisi Coates is a writer, journalist, educator, and a national correspondent for The Atlantic. His articles, regarding such topics as social, political, and cultural issues, have been featured in national publications, including the Washington Post, Time, and The New Yorker. Coates’s … Read MoreTa-Nehisi Coates (1975– )
The theoretical physicist Sylvester James Gates, known for his work in supersymmetry, string theory, superconformal algebra, Adinkra symbols, and bihermitian manifolds, was born on December 15, 1950 in Tampa, Florida. Dr. Gates has three siblings: two younger brothers, and one younger sister. Sylvester James Gates … Read MoreSylvester James Gates (1950- )
Ali Al’amin Mazrui was a Kenyan intellectual in the fields of political science, African studies, and Islamic studies. The father of the African Liberalism ideology (an economic perspective on Africa critical of western powers and Marxism/Socialism) was an often controversial figure due largely to his … Read MoreAli Al’amin Mazrui (1933-2014)
American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) “Image Ownership: Cfiles-aflcio“ Labor leader Tefere Gebre fled Ethiopia at fourteen years of age, moved to the United States, and was elected years later, in 2013, executive vice president of the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial … Read MoreTefere Gebre (1968–)
Joe Gans, 1899 “Image Ownership: Public Domain” Joe Gant, who was given the name Gans by the press, became the first American and African American to hold a world boxing title when he defeated Frank Erne in Fort Erie, Canada, in 1902 to take the … Read MoreJoe “Gans” Gant (1874–1910)
Oscar Wayman Holmes Jr., the first African American commissioned officer in the United States Navy and its first black aircraft pilot, was also the first black air traffic controller. Born January 31, 1916, he was the son of Oscar Sr. and Grace Holmes of Dunbar, … Read MoreOscar Wayman Holmes Jr. (1916-2001)
Heiress and socialite Amanda America Dickson Toomer was, in her time, the wealthiest African American woman in Georgia, and one of the wealthiest women in the United States. Born November 20, 1849, on the Dickson Plantation, near Sparta, Georgia (Hancock County), Amanda America was the … Read MoreAmanda America Dickson Toomer (1849-1893)
Prominent Virginia journalist Ray Boone Sr. was born February 2, 1938, in Suffolk, Virginia. His parents, foreign-born Japanese father, Tsujiro Miyanski, and mother, Leathia M. Boone, of mixed African and Native American descent, were banned from marrying in Virginia because of their different races. Yet … Read MoreRaymond Harold/ “Ray” Boone Sr. (1938-2014)
Established by a free African American community in Southeastern Pennsylvania, Hosanna African Union Methodist Church (A.U.M.P.) has been part of local African American history and independent church history since its founding in 1843. Standing at the entrance to Lincoln University in Oxford, Pennsylvania, the one-room, … Read MoreHosanna African Union Methodist Protestant Church (1843- )
