Roderick Raynor Paige, the first African American and the first school superintendent to serve as the U.S. Secretary of Education, was born on June 17, 1933 in Monticello, Mississippi. The eldest of five children, Paige was born to his mother Sophie, a librarian, and father, … Read MoreRoderick Raynor Paige (1933- )
Legendary blues singer B.B. King was born Riley B. King on September 16, 1925, in Itta Bena, Mississippi. King spent his childhood in the Mississippi Delta but left to pursue a music career in Memphis, Tennessee in 1946. While in Memphis, King was employed as … Read MoreB.B. King/Riley B. King (1925 -2015)
Fisk Jubilee Singer and educator America W. Robinson was born in Murfreesboro, Tennessee in 1855. Though America’s father was his master’s half brother, he enjoyed no special privileges; when his white relations ran into financial difficulty, they sold him to a Virginian named Elliott. An … Read MoreAmerica W. Robinson (ca. 1855-ca. 1920)
Charley Pride, born on March 18, 1938, on a cotton farm in Sledge, Mississippi, eventually became one of the most successful black entertainers in country music. Although he loved music and taught himself to play the guitar as a teenager, Pride’s first dream was to … Read MoreCharley Pride (1938-2020)
Hiram Rhodes Revels was a Republican U.S. Senator, minister in the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church, and the first African American to serve in the U.S. Senate. Revels was born in Fayetteville, North Carolina on September 27, 1827, to a family that had been free … Read MoreHiram Rhodes Revels (1827-1901)
Alvin Poussaint was born in East Harlem in New York City on May 15, 1934. After graduating from Stuyvesant High School he received a Bachelor’s degree from Columbia College in 1956 and an M.D. from Cornell University in 1960. Poussaint completed his postgraduate training at … Read MoreAlvin F. Poussaint (1934- )
In the article that follows, Richard S. Kirkendall, the Scott and Dorothy Bullitt Professor Emeritus of American History at the University of Washington, Seattle, pays tribute to fellow historian Arvarh E. Strickland. Kirkendall was chairman of the History Department of the University of Missouri-Columbia in … Read MoreArvarh E. Strickland, 1930-2013: An Historian’s Life
The first African American to win the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, Alice Walker was born the eighth child of sharecroppers Willie Lee and Minnie Lou Grant Walker, on February 9, 1944, in Eatonton, Georgia. Walker became the valedictorian of her segregated high school class, despite … Read MoreAlice M. Walker (1944- )
The life of the Reverend Cordy Tindell “C.T.” Vivian is in many ways the story of the modern black freedom struggle. Vivian actively participated in the Nashville desegregation movement, Freedom Rides, Birmingham, Selma, Chicago, and other chapters of the fight for equal rights. Born Boonville, … Read MoreCordy Tindell “C.T.” Vivian (1924-2020)
James D. Lynch, a Reconstruction era politician, is best known for his position as Secretary of the State of Mississippi from 1869 to 1872. Lynch was the first African American to hold a major political office in that state. Born in 1838 in Baltimore, Maryland, … Read MoreJames D. Lynch (1838-1872)
