William Henry Hunt, African American U.S. diplomat, was born a slave in Tennessee in 1863. Hunt claimed to have been born on June 29, 1869, so he could get into school at the age of twenty-six posing as a twenty-year-old, a lie he kept to … Read MoreWilliam Henry Hunt (1863-1951)
Philippa Duke Schuyler was an African American child prodigy, pianist, composer, journalist, and author. She became famous in the 1930s and 1940s for her unique musical talents, mixed-race background, and the abnormal methods her parents used to raise her. Schuyler was born on August 2, … Read MorePhilippa Schuyler (1931-1967)
Ferdinand Q. Morton, political leader, attorney, and baseball commissioner, was born to two former slaves named Edward James Morton and Mattie Shelton Morton on September 9, 1881, in Macon, Mississippi. His father moved their family to Washington D.C. in 1890 because he got a job … Read MoreFerdinand Q. Morton (1881-1949)
Atlanta attorney Michael R. Hollis founded one of the earliest black-owned airlines, Air Atlanta, in 1984. Hollis was born in Atlanta, Georgia, on October 22, 1953, the youngest of five children of Flem H. Hollis, a Pullman porter, and Virginia R. Hollis, an official with … Read MoreMichael R. Hollis (1953-2012)
Arthur W. Lewis was a career foreign officer who served in diplomatic missions in Eastern Europe and Africa before retiring in 1987. He also played a significant role in expanding opportunities for racial and ethnic minorities in the American diplomatic corps. Before entering the Foreign … Read MoreArthur W. Lewis (1926-2019)
People’s Baptist Church in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, thrived for the first half of the 20th century as the state’s first and only black congregation. It served a New England coastal community where African Americans represented 4% of the population. People’s Baptist was the spiritual home … Read MorePeople’s Baptist Church, Portsmouth, New Hampshire (1873- )
“Image Ownership: Policía Nacional de Los Colombianos” Ronald Kenneth Noble is the first African American to serve as Secretary General of the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) headquartered in Lyon, France. Born in 1956 at Fort Dix, New Jersey, Noble is the son of an … Read MoreRonald Noble (1956 -)
Author, commentator, speaker, political advisor, and columnist Keith Boykin was born in St. Louis, Missouri on August 28, 1965 but was raised in the suburb of Florissant, Missouri. Boykin’s parents separated during his childhood, but he enjoyed close relationships with both sides of his family … Read MoreKeith Boykin (1965- )
Alan Gilbert, University of Denver political scientist and anti-racist activist, is the author of Black Patriots and Loyalists: Fighting for Emancipation in the War for Independence, one of the few works that examines the free and enslaved blacks who joined the American Patriots and the … Read MoreFighting for Freedom on Both Sides of the American Revolution
Geoffrey Canada is an educator and social activist who has dedicated much of his life to reforming the educational system in Harlem, New York in order to provide poor and disadvantaged children the skills they need to attend colleges and universities. Canada was born on … Read MoreGeoffrey Canada (1952- )
