Sam Cooke has been described as one of the most influential rhythm and blues singers to emerge in the 20th Century. Cooke could exude soul-stirring sensuality that went from the sacred to the profane in the same breath. The son of a Baptist minister, Sam … Read MoreSam Cooke (1931-1964)
Madam C.J. Walker was born Sarah Breedlove to former slaves, Owen and Minerva Breedlove in Delta, Louisiana on December 23, 1867. Breedlove became an orphan at age seven when her parents died. Three years later, ten-year-old Sarah and her sister moved across to river to Vicksburg, … Read MoreMadam C. J. Walker (1867-1919)
Lester (Willis) Young, known as “Pres,” was born in Woodville, Mississippi and died in New York City. Named Willis Lester at birth, he dropped “Willis” at an early age. Young developed a light tone and swinging style as a member of “territory bands,” such as … Read MoreWillis Lester Young (“Pres”) (1909-1959)
Horace Roscoe Cayton spent nearly all his life combating racism. The child of a Mississippi slave, Cayton came of age during the Reconstruction and post-Reconstruction eras and had already cultivated strong opinions on human, political, and civil rights by the time he settled in Seattle, … Read MoreHorace Roscoe Cayton, Sr. (1859-1940)
James Meredith is best known as the first African American student to enroll at the University of Mississippi (Old Miss). He was born on June 25, 1933 in Kosciusko, Mississippi, served in the Air Force between 1951 and 1960 and then attended Jackson State University … Read MoreJames Meredith (1933- )
Medgar Evers, at the time of his assassination in 1963, was the Field Secretary for the Mississippi NAACP and, thus one of the leaders of the civil rights movement in that state. Evers was born on July 2, 1925 in Decatur, Mississippi. Evers was inducted … Read MoreMedgar Evers (1925-1963)
Wilfred Augustus Low — or “Gus,” as he was universally known to friends and colleagues — was born to a sharecropping family in the Delta country of Mississippi on May 17, 1916. When Low was a teenager, his family relocated to St. Louis, Missouri, which … Read MoreW. Augustus Low (1916-1988)
Repeatedly on Time magazine’s list of the 100 most influential people in the world, Oprah Winfrey is a television host, media mogul – in television, radio, film, and print – and philanthropist. Forbes magazine included her in its 2003 list of America’s billionaires, the first … Read MoreOprah Winfrey (1954- )
Carl Maxey grew up in an orphanage and became a leading attorney, civil rights activist, and champion of the underdog. He was adopted by a Spokane, Washington, couple immediately following his birth in Tacoma but ended up in the Spokane Children’s Home after his adoptive … Read MoreCarl Maxey (1924-1997)
Born in Hattiesburg, Virginia on November 5, 1926, Victoria Jackson Gray Adams became one of the most important Mississipians in the Civil Rights Movement. Her activities included teaching voter registration courses to domestics and sharecroppers, opening of the Freedom Schools during Mississippi’s Freedom Summer of … Read MoreVictoria Jackson Gray Adams (1926-2006)
