Historian and scholar Dr. Ralph Le Roy Crowder was born on Saturday, March 29, 1947 in Des Moines, Iowa, to parents Ralph L. Crowder and Allie Crowder. An only child, Crowder attended public schools in Des Moines where he played football, basketball, and track. He … Read MoreRalph L. Crowder (1947-2020)
Educator and politician Lansiné Kaba was born in 1941 in the city of Kankan, Guinea when Guinea was still under French colonial rule. In Guinea, he was educated through the traditional Education system as well as Muslim teachers. He moved to France in 1956 where … Read MoreLansiné Kaba (1941- )
Dale Brown Emeagwali is a distinguished American scientist who is best known for her investigational research in the fields of microbiology and oncology. Emeagwali was born on December 24th, 1954 in Baltimore, Maryland, and was the youngest of three children. Her mother, Doris Brown, was a teacher while … Read MoreDale Brown Emeagwali (1954- )
Ples Sterling Stuckey, Jr. was a professor of history best known for his impact on shifting slavery studies from examinations ancillary to enslaved African American lives to the study of their history, culture, and sociopolitical expression as central to the understanding of African American and … Read MorePles Sterling Stuckey, Jr. (1932-2018)
Keith Ellison is an American politician and lawyer, who is currently the Attorney General-elect of Minnesota. Ellison was born on August 4, 1963 in Detroit, Michigan. He is the third of five sons born to Leonard and Clida (Martinez). Since childhood Ellison was involved with the civil rightsmovement and briefly worked … Read MoreKeith M. Ellison (1963- )
When the U.S. Army was reorganized on July 28, 1866 for peacetime service after the American Civil War, six regiments were set aside for black enlisted men. These included four infantry regiments, numbered 38th through 41st. The 25th Infantry was created during a reduction in March 1869 by … Read More25th Infantry Regiment (1866-1947)
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)
Taylor Emmanuel Gordon was born in 1893 in White Sulphur Springs, Montana, one of six children of a cook and a laundress. He is best known for his career as a singer in the Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s. After leaving Montana in 1910 for a job in Minnesota, … Read MoreTaylor Emmanuel Gordon (1893-1971)
During the 1961 Major League Baseball spring training season, Ralph M. Wimbish, a St. Petersburg, Florida-based African American physician, forced city leaders, hotel owners, and team officials to integrate its player housing and allow the entire team to live under one roof. Born on July 24, 1922, in Cordele, Georgia, Ralph Melvin … Read MoreRalph Melvin Wimbish (1922-1967)
Isola Jones is an internationally renowned mezzo-soprano opera singer. She is best known for her work with the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, New York where she sang for 16 years and particularly for her role as Carmen in Georges Bizet’s opera by the same title. Isola Jones … Read MoreIsola Jones (1949- )
