Born on November 5, 1940, Cedric Robinson, one of the nation’s most influential political scientists, on died on June 5, 2016. Robinson was born and raised in a working-class neighborhood of Oakland, California, the son of Clara Whiteside and Frederick Hill. After graduating from Berkeley … Read MoreCedric Robinson (1940-2016)
The Wyoming Black Fourteen were African American members of the 1969 University of Wyoming (UW) football team who protested playing a game with Brigham Young University (BYU) because of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’s ban on black men holding the priesthood in … Read MoreThe Wyoming Black Fourteen (1969)
Allen Ezail Iverson is an American retired professional basketball player who played fourteen seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played both the point guard and shooting guard positions during his playing time in the NBA. Iverson was born on June 7, 1975, in … Read MoreAllen E. Iverson (1975- )
Brenda L. Lawrence is a well-known and high-profile Democratic Party politician from Michigan who currently serves as the U.S. Representative for the state’s Fourteenth Congressional District. Before her election to Congress, Lawrence served as the mayor of Southfield, Michigan, from 2001 to 2015. She was … Read MoreBrenda Lawrence (1954- )
Philanthropist Darren Walker is the tenth president of the seventy-seven-year-old Ford Foundation, the second largest philanthropy in the world. Walker was born August 28, 1959, at a charity hospital in Lafayette, Louisiana, to a single mother and was raised in East Texas. He received two … Read MoreDarren Walker (1959– )
“Image Ownership: Public Domain” Eddie Marcy was a member of the support staff of the famed Tuskegee Airmen in World War II. Marcy was born in Birmingham, Alabama, on June 13, 1919, to Arthur and Callie Marcy. His parents moved to Big Stone Gap, Virginia, … Read MoreEddie E. Marcy (1919–2016)
McKinley Thompson, the first major African American auto car designer, was born on November 8, 1922, in New York City, New York. As a child, Thompson was intrigued with automobiles. In an oral history interview in 2001, he discussed the first time he had seen … Read MoreMcKinley Thompson (1922-2006)
William H. Grier was a psychiatrist who published the groundbreaking book, Black Rage, along with fellow psychiatrist Price M. Cobbs in 1968. Published in the aftermath of the assassination of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and subsequent outburst of race riots, the book sought … Read MoreWilliam H. Grier (1926-2015)
Marjorie Lee Browne was a prominent mathematician and educator who, in 1949, became only the third African-American woman to earn a doctorate in her field. Browne was born on September 9, 1914, in Memphis, Tennessee, to Mary Taylor Lee and Lawrence Johnson Lee. Her father, … Read MoreMarjorie Lee Browne (1914-1979)
“Image Ownership: MavsFan28“ Jenean Hampton, at the age of fifty-eight, became the first statewide, black, elected official in Kentucky’s history when she was elected lieutenant governor on November 3, 2015. Hampton ran on the Republican Party ticket headed by GOP gubernatorial candidate Matt Bevin who … Read MoreJenean Hampton (1958– )
