Wilton Norman Chamberlain was an African American basketball player who played in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for the Philadelphia/San Francisco Warriors, the Philadelphia 76ers, and the Los Angeles Lakers. Chamberlain is known as one of the greatest basketball players of all time, being selected … Read MoreWilton Norman Chamberlain (1936-1999)
Born Robert Todd Duncan in Danville, Kentucky in 1903, Todd Duncan was the first African American to perform in an otherwise all-white cast in the New York City Opera’s production of Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci. He began his professional stage career in 1933 in Pietro Mascagni’s Cavalleria … Read MoreTodd Duncan (1903-1998)
The Underground Railroad which fugitive slaves followed from the antebellum South to Canada is now a well-known story. But what of those who returned? In his ongoing research, University of Texas at El Paso historian Adam Arenson explores this little-known aspect of nineteenth- century African … Read MoreAfter the Underground Railroad: Finding the African North Americans who Returned from Canada
John Elliott Churchville is a civil rights activist and black nationalist who founded Philadelphia’s Freedom Library Community Project, which would become the Freedom Library Day School. Born in Philadelphia in 1941, Churchville attended Simon Gratz High School, and, on graduation, began studying music education at … Read MoreJohn Churchville (1941- )
Maxwell Curtis Stanford, Jr., known since 1970 as Muhammad Ahmad, is a civil rights activist and was a founder of the Revolutionary Action Movement (RAM), a black power organization active during the 1960s. Born on July 31, 1941 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he graduated from West … Read MoreMaxwell Curtis Stanford Jr. (a.k.a. Muhammad Ahmad) (1941- )
Freedom’s Journal, established the same year that slavery was abolished in New York, was the first African American-owned and operated newspaper in the United States. In its early years, it distributed more than 800 copies throughout 11 states and the District of Columbia. It reached … Read MoreFreedom’s Journal (1827-1829)
In 1810 The African Insurance Company was created with offices located at 159 Lombard Street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was the first African American-owned insurance company in the United States. The first president was Joseph Randolph while Cyrus Porter was treasurer and William Coleman was … Read MoreThe African Insurance Company (1810-1813)
Henry McKee Minton was an African American pharmacist and physician who was one of the six men who founded the first African American fraternity, Sigma Pi Phi, commonly known as The Boulé. The other five founders were Algernon Jackson, Edwin Howard, Richard Warrick, Robert Abele, … Read MoreHenry McKee Minton (1870-1946)
Most Americans are now familiar with the contribution of nearly 300,000 black soldiers and sailors to the Union cause during the U.S. Civil War. Less well known is the role of a dedicated group of black doctors and nurses in uniform who worked diligently to … Read MoreAfrican Americans in Medicine in the Civil War Era
Political activist and educator Anna Arnold Hedgeman was the first African American woman to serve on the cabinet of a New York mayor when she worked during the term of New York City Mayor Robert Wagner from 1957-1958. Her career spanned more than six decades … Read MoreAnna Arnold Hedgeman (1899-1990)
