Four-star general and precision flier Lloyd W. Newton was born December 24, 1942 in Ridgeland, South Carolina, the fourth of seven children of John H. Newton, a farmer, and Annie Newton. Finishing Jasper High School in Ridgeland, he majored in mechanical engineering at Tennessee State … Read MoreLloyd Warren Newton (1942- )
Image Ownership: Public domain The shooting death of Walter Lamar Scott, an unarmed black man, by Michael Thomas Slager, a white police officer, during a daytime traffic stop, helped fuel the Black Lives Matter movement. Many people viewed the shooting as racially motivated, and the … Read MoreWalter Lamar Scott (1965-2015)
Image Ownership: Public domain James M. Evans, a politician and business owner, was the first African American chairman of the Utah Republican Party. He was born to Robert and Beatrice Evans in Orangeburg, South Carolina, in 1962. He graduated from Orangeburg-Wilkinson High School in 1981 … Read MoreJames M. Evans (1962- )
Image Ownership: Public domain Mohammed Ali “Nicholas” Said, an enslaved African from Bornu in what is now northeastern Nigeria, traveled through Europe to the United States. He was born in Kouka, Bornu, the thirteenth of nineteen children to Barca Gana and his wife, Dalia, in … Read MoreMohammed Ali “Nicholas” Said (1836-1882)
Image Ownership: Public domain Elton Clay Fax, a prolific African-American cartoonist, author, and illustrator, was born on October 9, 1909, in Baltimore, Maryland. His parents were Mark Oakland Fax, a clerk, and Willie Estelle Fax, a seamstress. Elton’s younger brother, Mark, was a music prodigy … Read MoreElton Fax (1909-1993)
Ophelia DeVore Mitchell was an American businesswoman, publisher, and one of the first African American models in the United States. In 1946, she helped establish the Grace Del Marco Agency, one of the first modeling agencies in the nation. DeVore was born on August 12, … Read MoreOphelia DeVore Mitchell (1922-2014)
“Image Ownership: Public Domain” Arthur Prysock was an important multi-genre vocalist born in Spartanburg, South Carolina, in 1924. During the Second World War, Prysock moved from his home to Hartford, Connecticut, in order to work in the aircraft manufacturing industry. It was during this time … Read MoreArthur Prysock (1924–1997)
“Image Ownership: Pubilc Domain” Nineteenth Century black conservative William Hannibal Thomas was a Civil War veteran, Reconstruction era South Carolina politician, and U.S. counsel to Portuguese Southwest Africa (Angola). He is most famous however as the author of the 1901 book, The American Negro: What … Read More(1901) William Hannibal Thomas on the American Negro
“Image Courtesy of the Dawson Family” Daisy Tibbs Dawson, a Seattle, Washington peace activist and educator, is the only African American to be memorialized in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum in Hiroshima, Japan. Tibbs was born in Toney, Alabama on July 27, 1924 to Calvin … Read MoreDaisy Lee Tibbs Dawson (1924-2013)
Viola Davis Receives an Oscar at the Academy Awards Ceremony, Los Angeles, California, February 26, 2017 “Image Ownership: Public Domain” Viola Davis is an American producer and actress of stage, screen, and television. Davis was born August 11, 1965, in St. Matthews, South Carolina. She … Read MoreViola Davis (1965– )