Edwin Clarence Joseph Turpin Howard was the first African-American graduate of Harvard Medical College and also one of the founding members of the oldest African-American Greek-lettered organization, Sigma Pi Phi. Howard was born on October 21, 1846 in Boston, Massachusetts to Joan Louise Turpin Howard … Read MoreEdwin Clarence Joseph Turpin Howard (1846-1912)
In 2018, Ayanna Soynini Pressley became the first African American woman elected to represent the 7th District in Massachusetts. She unseated ten-term congressman Michael Capuano, a Democrat, in the August primary of that year. Ayanna Soynini Pressley was born on February 3, 1974, in Chicago, … Read MoreAyanna Pressley (1974- )
Letitia Woods Brown, historian, academician, public scholar and community activist was born on October 24, 1915 in Tuskegee, Alabama. She was the middle child of Tuskegee Institute instructors Matthew and Evadne Woods. In 1935, Letitia Woods completed a Bachelor of Science degree at Tuskegee. After … Read MoreLetitia Woods Brown (1915-1976)
Merze Tate, a historian, political author, world traveler, and philanthropist, was the first African American to graduate from Oxford University. She was born during a terrible blizzard in rural Blanchard, Michigan on February 6, 1905 to Charles and Myrtle Tate, both farmers. Her grandparents were … Read MoreVernie Merze Tate (1905-1996)
Abiel Smith School Image Ownership: Public domain The Abiel Smith School, originally founded in 1798 by African American parents in the Boston, Massachusetts community, was an institution for free African American students. It became known as the Abiel Smith School in 1815 after Abiel Smith, a wealthy white … Read MoreAbiel Smith School (1798-1855)
Toussaint Tourgee Tildon was a physician and psychiatrist with the Hospital for Sick and Injured Colored World War Veterans (1923), later named the Veterans Administration of Tuskegee, Alabama (1923) from October 1923 until his retirement as Hospital Director on January 31, 1958. Tildon’s writing on African American veterans appeared in the VA Medical Bulletin (1925) and the Journal … Read MoreToussaint Tourgee Tildon, M.D. (1893-1964)
Kofi Atta Annan, born on April 8, 1938 in Kumasi, Ghana, served as the seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN) between 1997 and 2006. He was the first person of African descent to hold that post. Annan grew up in Kumasi but attended Mfantsipim School, … Read MoreKofi A. Annan (1938-2018)
The 25th Infantry Bicycle Corps was a unit of black soldiers commanded by a white officer, Lt. James A. Moss, which was formed in 1896 to test the combat viability of bicycle-mounted troops by riding from Missoula, Montana to Saint Louis, Missouri. Moss, a West Point graduate and … Read More25th Infantry Bicycle Corps (1896-97)
Lieutenant General Larry R. Jordan is a former Army officer, former Senior Vice President of Burdeshaw Associates, Ltd., and current Principal of LNJ Group, LLC. Jordan served for 35 years as member of the U.S. Army, completing two active combat tours in Vietnam and Operation Desert Storm(Iraq). Jordan ended his … Read MoreLarry R. Jordan (1946- )
William Henry Cosby, Jr., one of America’s most influential and successful entertainers, was born in Germantown, Pennsylvania on July 12, 1937 to William Henry, a U.S. Navy cook, and Anna Pearl Cosby, a maid. The family struggled financially, and moved into Philadelphia’s crime-ridden Richard Allen … Read MoreBill Cosby (1937– )