Concert Pianist, composer, conductor, pedagogic Nelson Hall was born on February 11, 1954, in Marianao, Cuba, to Selvin Hall, a choral conductor from Manzanillo, Cuba, and Elsa Fortun Hall from Placetas, Cuba. He has two siblings, Merari and David. Hall, an intelligent artistically child, began … Read MoreNelson Hall (1954 – )
Meredith C. Gourdine was an American engineer, athlete, and inventor. He primarily focused on electrogasdynamics systems which refer to generating energy from the motion of gas molecules that have been electrically charged under pressure. He is considered a pioneer in the field and specialized in … Read MoreMeredith C. Gourdine (1929-1998)
Joseph L. Graves Jr. is a renowned geneticist and the first African American evolutionary biologist. Currently an Associate Dean for research and a professor of biological sciences at North Carolina A&T University, Graves’ professional work is rooted in the evolutionary genetics of aging and untangling genetic … Read MoreJoseph L. Graves, Jr. (1955- )
Motivational speaker Dennis Paul Kimbro was born December 29, 1950, in Jersey City, New Jersey, to Donald Kimbro, a World War II Veteran from Bellaire, Ohio, and Mary Elizabeth Anderson Kimbro, a housekeeper from Baltimore, Maryland. He was reared in East Orange and Teaneck, New … Read MoreDennis Paul Kimbro (1950- )
Nel Ust Wyclef Jean is an rapper, musician and actor. Jean was born on October 17, 1969, in a hut with no electricity, in Croix-des-Bouquest, Haiti. His parents, Nazarene Pastor Gesner and mother Yolanda immigrated to the United States, and in 1978, Jean and his … Read MoreNel Ust Wyclef Jean (1969- )
Harriet Washington is a prolific author and medical ethicist who wrote the 2007 National Book Critics Circle Award-winning Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present, in which she explores the medical maltreatment of Black people … Read MoreHarriet Washington (1951- )
Lolita Shanté Gooden is an American rapper best known under the stage name Roxanne Shanté. Gooden was born on November 5, 1969 in Queens, New York. She grew up in the Queensbridge Projects, the largest public housing complex in North America. Gooden started rapping at … Read MoreRoxanne Shanté (1969- )
Composer, librettist, and pianist Michael D. Raphael was born January 12, 1952, in Norfolk, Virginia, to Latham Hill, Sr., a factory worker, and Lillian Walton Hill, a trained social worker. His name at birth was Michael Hill. He grew up in the mostly Black town … Read MoreMichael Raphael (1952-2015)
Activist for ethnic and intellectual diversity, author, and attorney Lawrence Otis Graham was born December 25, 1961, in New York City, New York to Richard C. Graham, a real estate developer, and Betty J. Graham, a social worker. He and his brother, Richard, were reared … Read MoreLawrence Otis Graham (1961-2021)
Cato Howe was an enslaved African-American who served in the American Revolutionary War as a courier and a spy. Service in the American Revolutionary War gives a person the status of Patriot. There is little information about the early life of Howe before the war. … Read MoreCato Howe (?- 1824)
