Embodying the Communist Party‘s turn from Third Period sectarianism to Popular Front coalition building, the National Negro Congress (NNC) was the culmination of the Party’s Depression-era effort to unite black and white workers and intellectuals in the fight for racial justice, and marked the apex … Read MoreNational Negro Congress (1935-1940s)
Louis Abdul Farrakhan was born on May 11, 1933 in Bronx, New York as Louis Eugene Walcott. Walcott, who grew up in Roxbury, Massachusetts, excelled as a musician, singer and track star. He attended a Boston-area school for gifted children and was given national exposure … Read MoreLouis Abdul Farrakhan (1933- )
Inventor Lewis H. Latimer was born in Chelsea, Massachusetts on September 4, 1848. His parents were former slaves who escaped bondage and settled in Boston. Abolitionists William Lloyd Garrison and Frederick Douglass secured the necessary funds to obtain their freedom. After a stint in the … Read MoreLewis H. Latimer (1848-1928)
Leroy Robert Paige, one of the few African American baseball athletes to play in both the Negro Baseball Leagues and in Major League Baseball. He was also the first player to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame because of his career in the … Read MoreLeroy Robert “Satchel” Paige (1906-1982)
John Russwurm was a man ahead of his time. Centuries before scholars began debating such issues as “hegemony” and “the social construction of race,” Russwurm understood how the powerful used media to create and perpetuate destructive stereotypes of the powerless. He set out to challenge … Read MoreJohn Russwurm (1799-1851)
Athlete, actor, and political activist James Nathaniel Brown was born February 17, 1936, in St. Simon Island, Georgia. A talented athlete from an early age, Brown earned 13 letters playing a variety of sports at Manhasset High School in New York. Over the course of … Read MoreJames Nathaniel [“Jim”] Brown (1936-2023)
Hester Jeffrey, an organizer and activist who became involved in the women’s movement in the city of Rochester, New York, was born in Norfolk, Virginia around 1842. Jeffrey was the daughter of free parents Robert and Martha Whitehurst. In 1860 Jeffrey, along with her brother … Read MoreHester C. Jeffrey (1842-1934)
Born into slavery near New Markey, Maryland on December 23, 1815, Henry Highland Garnet escaped from bondage via the Underground Railroad with his parents, George and Henrietta Trusty in 1824. After residing briefly in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, the family settled in New York City, New … Read MoreHenry Highland Garnet (1815-1882)
Henry Walton Bibb was the eldest of the seven male children of Mildred Jackson. Henry was told that his father, whom he never met, was a man named James Bibb. He grew up in bondage in the Deep South, and claims to have been owned … Read MoreHenry Bibb (1815-1854)
Born as Harold George Bellanfanti Jr. on March 1, 1927, in Harlem, New York, to parents Melvine Love Bellanfanti, a Jamaican housekeeper, and Harold George Bellanfanti, Sr., of Martinique, who worked as a chef for the National Guard. Belafonte grew from being a troubled youth to … Read MoreHarry Belafonte (1927-2023)
