Beverly Johnson is a model, actress, singer, and businesswoman who in 1971 became the first African American woman to appear on the cover of a major magazine. Johnson was born on October 13, 1952, in Buffalo, New York to middle class parents. Her father was … Read MoreBeverly Johnson (1952- )
Educator Mary Jane Patterson is considered to be the first African American woman to receive a B.A. when she graduated from Oberlin College in 1862. A fellow Oberlin alumnus, Lucy Stanton Day Sessions, graduated twelve years earlier but was not in a program that awarded … Read MoreMary Jane Patterson (1840-1894)
Francis Johnson, musician, composer, and bandmaster, was born in 1792 in Martinique in the West Indies and emigrated to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1809 at the age of 17. By that point he had already mastered the keyed bugle and the violin. By his early 20s … Read MoreFrancis Johnson (1792-1844)
Author Harriet E. Wilson is believed to be the first African American woman to publish a novel in the United States. Her fictional autobiography Our Nig; or, Sketches from the Life of a Free Black, in a Two-story White House, North. Showing that Slavery’s Shadows … Read MoreHarriet E. Adams Wilson (ca. 1828-?)
William DeHart Hubbard was the first African American to win a gold medal at the Olympics as an individual, placing first in the running long jump. Hubbard was born on November 25, 1903, in Cincinnati, Ohio and attended Walnut Hills High School in that city. … Read MoreWilliam DeHart Hubbard (1903-1976)
Dick Gregory, comedian, actor, and civil rights activist, was born Richard Claxton Gregory in 1932 in St. Louis, Missouri. Gregory’s father left the family when Gregory was a child forcing his mother, Lucille, a maid, to raise him and his five siblings. During his high … Read MoreDick Gregory (1932-2017)
In 1921 Eva Beatrice Dykes became the first black woman in the United States to complete the required coursework for a Ph.D. and the third African American woman to receive a doctoral degree. Two other black women, Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander and Georgiana Simpson, receive … Read MoreEva Beatrice Dykes (1893-1986)
In the account below Nova Scotian historian Sharon Robart-Johnson describes the research and writing that culminated in her book, African’s Children: A History of Blacks in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. Her book, the first history of Afro-Canadians in Nova Scotia, focuses on her community of Greenville, … Read MoreSlavery and Freedom on a Canadian Shore: Africa’s Children in Nova Scotia, 1750-2009
In the following article, Dr. Gary B. Nash, Director, National Center for History in the Schools and Professor Emeritus of History at the University of California, Los Angeles, describes his new book, Forbidden Love: The Hidden History of Mixed-Race America. His book provides a counter … Read MoreCrossing Boundaries of Race, Crossing Boundaries of Love
In 1848 Benjamin Roberts filed a lawsuit against the city of Boston on behalf of his five year old daughter, Sarah, who was denied admission to schools in her neighborhood and instead assigned to the lone all-black school in the city. Two attorneys, Robert Morris, … Read More(1849) Charles Sumner, “Equality Before the Law: Unconstitutionality of Separate Colored Schools in Massachusetts”
