Parliament/Funkadelic (or P-Funk) is an American Funk music collective founded by George Clinton and largely credited with being the “architects” of the Funk genre. Parliament/Funkadelic recorded over 40 hit singles, as well as three platinum albums. Inspired by Motown, Clinton gradually built up an ensemble of over 50 … Read MoreGeorge Clinton and Parliament/Funkadelic (1964-1981)
Alice H. Parker was an African American inventor famous for her patented system of central heating using natural gas. In the 1920s using natural gas to power a heating furnace was a revolutionary idea that conserved energy and paved the way for the central heating systems we … Read MoreAlice H. Parker (1895-?)
Charles B. Brooks was an American inventor, who is best known for his patented improvements to the street sweeper in 1896. Very little is known about his early life beyond the fact that he was born in Virginia in 1865. By the 1890s Brooks was living in Newark, New … Read MoreCharles B. Brooks (1865-?)
Fannie Lou Hamer was a grass-roots civil rights activist whose life exemplified resistance in rural Mississippi to oppressive conditions. Born on October 6, 1917 in Montgomery County, Mississippi, to a family of sharecroppers, she was the youngest of Lou Ella and Jim Townsend’s twenty children. Her family moved to … Read MoreFannie Lou Hamer (1917-1977)
Julius Henry Taylor was an American physicist, scholarly publisher, physics professor, and one of the first African Americans to receive a Ph.D. in physics in the nation. Taylor was born on February 15th, 1914, in Cape May, New Jersey, to his parents Julia Taylor and Coleman Taylor. Taylor grew … Read MoreJulius Henry Taylor (1914-2011)
As one of the country’s most notorious gangsters and drug kingpins, Frank Lucas led a very public life, even having his story depicted in the film American Gangster. Lucas was born to Mahalee Jones Lucas and Fred Lucas, on September 9, 1930 in La Grange, North Carolina. … Read MoreFrank Lucas (1930-2019)
James H. Coleman, Jr., is an American lawyer, judge, and the first African American to serve on the Supreme Court of New Jersey. Born on May 4th, 1933, in Lawrenceville, Virginia, Coleman is the son of a poor southern sharecropper. While Coleman has since retired his position as an … Read MoreJames H. Coleman, Jr. (1933- )
Willie Hobbs Moore has the distinction of being the first African American woman to earn a doctorate in physics, granted to her from the University of Michigan in 1972. Moore was born in Atlantic City, New Jersey on May 23, 1934. In 1952, she relocated to Ann … Read MoreWillie Hobbs Moore (1934 -1994)
David Fleming III is a brigadier general in the United States Army, who in 2017 became the first African American to be promoted to the rank of general in the Delaware National Guard. Fleming was born in 1962 to David and Huggie Fleming in New Jersey. He joined the … Read MoreDavid Fleming (1962- )
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a Nigerian-born writer who is best known for her published works that have garnered internal acclaim. Adichie, the fifth of six children, was born on September 15, 1977, in Enugu, Nigeria, to James Nwoye Adichie and Grace Ifeoma. Her father was the first professor … Read MoreChimamanda Ngozi Adichie (1977- )
