Dr. Claudine Gay made history on December 17, 2022 when it was announced that she was appointed the 30th President of Harvard University. She begins her tenure on July 1, 2023 becoming the first Black president in Harvard’s nearly 400 year history. Dr. Gay had … Read MoreClaudine Gay (1970-)
Emery Neal Brown is one of a small number of African American scientists who came to prominence near the start of the 21st century. Brown is a medical doctor (anesthesiologist), statistician, and a neuroscientist. Born in Ocala, Florida on December 20, 1956, he is the … Read MoreEmery Neal Brown (1956- )
Luis Abinader, the 54th and current president of the Dominican Republic, was born in Santo Domingo on July 12, 1967. His parents were Jose Rafael Abinader Wassef and Rosa Sula Corona Caba. His grandfather emigrated from Lebanon and his mother’s ancestors were from the Canary … Read MoreLuis Rodolfo Abinader Corona (1967- )
On March 19, 2021, Samia Suluhu Hassan became Tanzania’s president following the death of President John Magufuli from heart failure on March 17. Hassan, the sixth president of Tanzania, and the first woman to head this nation was born in the town of Makunduchi, Tanzania … Read MoreSamia Suluhu Hassan (1960- )
Robin Davis Gibran Kelley is an educator, historian, and author. Kelley was born on March 14, 1962, in New York City, New York, and grew up in the Harlem/Washington Heights area. He participated in the Black Panther Party’s free breakfast program, and attended P.S. 28, … Read MoreRobin D. G. Kelley (1962- )
Donovan Mitchell Jr. is a basketball player who played for the Utah Jazz in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Mitchell was born on September 7, 1996 to Donovan Mitchell Sr and Nicole Mitchell in Elmford, New York. Mitchell also has one younger sister, Jordan Mitchell. … Read MoreDonovan Mitchell Jr. (1996- )
William Durrell “Bubba” Wallace is only the second person of African descent to win a NASCAR race but he is best known for his 2020 successful campaign to have the Confederate flag, long a controversial and racially polarizing symbol for Americans, officially banned from NASCAR … Read MoreWilliam Durrell “Bubba” Wallace Jr. (1993- )
Wentworth Cheswell was a teacher, auditor, assessor, selectman, and Justice of the Peace in New Hampshire. When he was elected town Constable of Newmarket, New Hampshire in 1768, he became the second person of African ancestry, after Mathias de Sousa of the Maryland colony, to … Read MoreWentworth Cheswell (1746-1817)
In 2018, Dr. Odette Harris of Stanford University in California became the second African American female professor of neurosurgery in the United States, following Dr. Alexa Canady who was appointed in 1981. Harris’s research and clinical focus is on traumatic brain injury and peripheral nerve neurosurgery. Born in Jamaica in 1970, Harris took an interest … Read MoreOdette Harris (1970- )
As a former slave in George Washington’s household, Ona “Oney” Judge is best remembered for her escape to New Hampshire. Born at Mount Vernon, the Washingtons’ Virginia plantation, around 1773 (exact date not known) to an indentured servant named Andrew Judge and a slave name Betty, Ona “Oney” … Read MoreOna “Oney” Judge (1773-1848)
