The Oblate Sisters of Providence was the first successful order of Roman Catholic nuns of African descent. Establishing an order of black sisters first started in Kentucky in 1812 under the encouragement of a Belgian priest, Father Charles Nerinckx. Nerinckx helped found the Friends of … Read MoreThe Oblate Sisters of Providence (1829- )
Eddie Gardner Crossing the Mississippi River at St. Louis, 1929 “Image Courtesty of Charles Kastner” In the following account, sports historian Charles Kastner describes the remarkable athletic career of Eddie “the Sheik” Gardner of Seattle, Washington. Gardner was arguably the greatest ultramarathoner in Pacific Northwest … Read MoreEddie “the Sheik” Gardner: An Ultramarathoning Legend and Unsung Hero in the Struggle for Racial Equality in America.
William Manning Marable was an influential social commentator, writer, and professor of political science, public affairs, history, and African American studies. He was born on May 13, 1950 in Dayton, Ohio to James and June Morehead Marable. Previously married twice, he married anthropologist Leith Mullings … Read MoreManning Marable (1950-2011)
Addison Scurlock, photographer, was born to attorney George Clay Scurlock and wife Nannie in Fayetteville, North Carolina on June 19, 1883. In 1900, his family moved to Washington, D.C. where in 1900, 17-year-old Scurlock began an apprenticeship under Moses P. Rice, a prominent white photographer … Read MoreAddison Scurlock (1883-1964)
Saint Francis Xavier Catholic Church was the first African American Catholic Church in the United States. The building, located on the corner of Calvert and Pleasant Street in Baltimore, Maryland, was originally constructed in 1836 for the congregation of the First Universalist Church. By 1837, … Read MoreSaint Francis Xavier Catholic Church, Baltimore, Maryland (1863- )
Philip Reid’s Lantern of the Dome of the United States Capitol, Washington D.C. “Image Ownership: Andreas Praefcke” Craftsman Philip Reid is best known as the enslaved African who worked on the casting of the Statue of Freedom which sits atop the Capitol building housing the … Read MorePhilip Reid (1820-1892)
During the first two decades of the 19th Century, escaped American slaves formed a military cadre called Britain’s Royal Navy Corps of Colonial Marines. After the War of 1812 these former soldiers established Trinidad’s “Merikin” communities. These black marines in the British Navy were first organized in 1808 to … Read MoreBritish Corps of Colonial Marines (1808-1810, 1814-1816)
Influential educational leader Freeman A. Hrabowski III has occupied many roles in his life, as a child civil rights activist in the 1960s, as professor, as university president, as philanthropist, and as consultant. He was born on August 13, 1950 in Birmingham, Alabama to parents … Read MoreFreeman A. Hrabowski III (1950- )
Christian Fleetwood, soldier, choir master, clerk, and abolitionist, was born free in Baltimore, Maryland to Charles Fleetwood and Anna Marie Fleetwood on July 21, 1840. At an early age, Christian Fleetwood showed signs of intelligence and quickly endeared himself to the wealthy sugar merchant John … Read MoreChristian Abraham Fleetwood (1840-1914)
In the essay below, Bruce L. Mouser, Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, describes the conflicting goals of African Creoles, African Americans, and British and American colonizationists in the fate of the Rio Pongo Valley along the West Coast of Africa. … Read MoreAfricans, African Americans, Great Britain and the United States: The Curious History of the Rio Pongo in the Early 19th Century
