Stephen Bonga was part of a prosperous Minnesota fur trading family, the first African American residents of that state. Fluent in Native American languages, Stephen and his brothers traveled as translators and voyageurs throughout the upper Great Lakes region of the Midwest. Bonga was born … Read MoreStephen Bonga (1799-1884)
Political activist and educator Anna Arnold Hedgeman was the first African American woman to serve on the cabinet of a New York mayor when she worked during the term of New York City Mayor Robert Wagner from 1957-1958. Her career spanned more than six decades … Read MoreAnna Arnold Hedgeman (1899-1990)
George Poage ran track in the 1904 Olympic Games and was the first African American to ever win an Olympic medal. Poage was born in Hannibal, Missouri on November 6, 1880, but spent most of his childhood growing up in La Crosse, Wisconsin. As a … Read MoreGeorge Coleman Poage (1880-1962)
In the following article historian Bruce A. Glasrud follows the exploits of an all black baseball team in the southwestern Minnesota town of Pipestone in the 1920s which at the time had virtually no black residents. Nonetheless the team competed with other white, all-black, and … Read MoreBlack Baseball in Minnesota: The Pipestone Black Sox
George W. Gibbs, Jr. was the first person of African descent to set foot on Antarctica (the South Pole). He was also a civil rights leader and World War II Navy gunner. Gibbs was born in Jacksonville, Florida on November 7, 1916. He moved to Brooklyn, … Read MoreGeorge W. Gibbs Jr. (1916-2000)
Fredrick McGhee, a founding member of the Niagara Movement, was born into slavery in Mississippi in 1861. He was freed in 1864 as Union forces marched through the northeastern part of the state. McGhee’s parents helped make it possible for him to attend a United … Read MoreFredrick L. McGhee (1861-1912)
In the following article Professor Malik Simba, an historian at California State University, Fresno describes his professional and personal odyssey that led to the writing of his book, Black Marxism and American Constitutionalism: From the Colonial Background through the Ascendancy of Barack Obama and the … Read MoreA Marxist Scholar Analyzes the American Legal System
Social activist and black labor leader Nellie Stone Johnson was born Nellie Saunders Allen in Lakeville, Minnesota in 1905, the eldest daughter of an activist farmer, William R. Allen and a schoolteacher, Gladys Allen. As a child, Nellie worked on her family’s farm near Hinckley, … Read MoreNellie Stone Johnson (1905-2002)
Prince Rogers Nelson, songwriter, singer, producer, and all-round musical icon, was born on June 7, 1958 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Music was a part of Prince’s family; his father, John Nelson, was a jazz pianist whose stage name was Prince Rogers, and his mother, Mattie Nelson, … Read MorePrince Rogers Nelson (“Prince,” “The Artist Formerly Known As Prince”) (1958-2016)
George Bonga was a 19th century fur trader of black and Native American heritage. He lived along the shores of Lake Superior, one of the Midwestern Great Lakes. Fluent in French, English, and Native American languages, Bonga served as an interpreter during Indian-U.S. negotiations and … Read MoreGeorge Bonga (1802-1880)
