Wilfred DeFour was an aircraft technician and member of the famed Tuskegee Airmen, a group of African American pilots and support personnel who were in the U.S. Army Air Corps in World War II. DeFour was born on April 12, 1918 in Colon, Panama to … Read MoreWilfred DeFour (1918-2018)
African Americans began a migration up the island of Manhattan in the early 1800s. Starting in Five Points, which is now New York City’s Chinatown, they moved in succession to Washington Street on the Lower West Side, then the Tenderloin in the West 20s and … Read MoreSan Juan Hill, New York City (ca. 1895-1940)
In the following article, historian Nafeesa Muhammad describes the often lauded but understudied economic program of the Nation of Islam (NOI). Here she focuses on the economic development plans put in place under the NOI’s longtime leader, Elijah Muhammad and their impact on African American … Read MoreThe Nation of Islam’s Economic Program, 1934-1975
Magazine editor Susan L. Taylor was born in Harlem, New York on January 23, 1946. Her parents, Lawrence, from St. Kitts, and Violet, from Trinidad, came to New York in the 1920s and owned a clothing store for thirty years until it closed in the … Read MoreSusan L. Taylor (1946- )
Retired U.S. Air Force Colonel Merryl Tengesdal is the first African American female U-2 pilot in history and is the first African American woman to fly the Air Force’s U-2 Dragon Lady Spy Plane. She is the only black woman alongside five white women and … Read MoreColonel Merryl Tengesdal (1971- )
John Macklin is an Emeritus Professor of Chemistry at the University of Washington, Seattle since his retirement in 2005. He was born in Fort Worth, Texas on December 11, 1939, and was raised in Seattle by parents Albert Macklin, a worker at Bethlehem Steel and … Read MoreJohn W. Macklin (1939- )
Reece “Goose” Tatum was a professional baseball and basketball player. Tatum was born on May 31, 1921 in El Dorado, Arkansas to Ben Tatum, a farmer and part-time preacher, and Alice Tatum, a domestic cook. Tatum was the fifth of seven children in the family. … Read MoreReece “Goose” Tatum (1921-1967)
Political activist Alexander Rahming was born on February 24, 1884 in Nassau, Bahamas. He emigrated to Key West, Florida in 1884 where he met his future bride, Alice Dean. They married in 1905 and migrated to New York City. Rahming was an advocate and organizer, … Read MoreAlexander Rahming (1884-1922)
George Costello Wolfe is one of the most celebrated American playwrights and directors of theater and film. Known for his five Tony Awards, Wolfe was born in Frankfort, Kentucky on September 23, 1954. His mother Anna Lindsey-Wolfe was a librarian and principal at the all-black … Read MoreGeorge C. Wolfe (1954- )
American actor of stage and screen. He is perhaps best known known for films such as Shaft (1971), Ragtime (1981), and Heartbreak Ridge, (1986). He won his first Obie Award for his portrayal as Aaron in Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus, and was nominated for a Tony … Read MoreMoses Gunn (1929-1993)
