The Memphis Sanitation Strike occurred between February 12 and April 16, 1968. The sanitation strike was called in response to the deaths of sanitation workers Echol Cole and Robert Walker and in response to the racial discrimination that Black sanitation workers experienced. Dr. Martin Luther … Read MoreMemphis Sanitation Strike (1968)
Kelley V. Board of Education was a lawsuit filed in 1955 by several Black families to desegregate Nashville public schools. Zephaniah Alexander Looby, a prominent Nashville Black attorney, joined Thurgood Marshall, Director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Legal and … Read MoreKelley V. Board of Education (1955-1957)
Thomas Fountain Blue, the first African American to head a public library in the United States, was also a civic, educational, and religious leader. Blue was born in Farmville, Virginia, on March 6, 1866, to Noah Blue, a carpenter, and Henry Ann Crawley Blue. They … Read MoreThomas Fountain Blue (1866-1935)
Stafford Fitzgerald Haney, an international businessman and diplomat, was born in Nashville, Tennessee, on January 3, 1969, but grew up in Naperville, Illinois, a Chicago suburb. He graduated from Central High School in Naperville and then attended the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, where … Read MoreStafford Fitzgerald Haney (1969- )
Patrick Mahomes, who is also known as Patrick Lavon Mahomes, Sr. or Pat Mahomes, is a former American professional baseball player. He actively played from 1988 to 2009. Born on August 9, 1970, Mahomes is the son of Johnny and Cindy Mahomes. During his childhood, … Read MorePatrick Mahomes Sr. (1970-)
Thelma Marie Claybrooks Harper, born in Brentwood, Davidson County, Tennessee, on December 2, 1940, was the first African American woman State Senator in Tennessee. She was born to the Rev. William Claybrooks, Sr., and Clora Thomas Claybrooks, a sharecropper who parented eleven children. Her early … Read MoreThelma Harper (1940-2021)
Carol Johnson-Dean was the first black woman superintendent of Minneapolis Public Schools. She held that post from 1997 to 2003. Johnson-Dean was born 1948 to Mrs. Willie Rawls and Buddy Rawls. She grew up in Brownsville, Haywood County, Tennessee about 50 miles northeast of Memphis. … Read MoreDr. Carol Johnson-Dean (1948-)
Carolyn J. Purnell, a 1971 graduate of the University of Washington’s School of Law, is one of two women who are the first Black women known to have graduated from that institution (Gwendolyn Howard is the other). William McDonald Austin, the first Black man, graduated … Read MoreCarolyn Purnell (1939- )
Edith Peterson Mitchell, MD, was born in 1948, and raised in Brownsville, Haywood County, Tennessee during the time of Racial segregation in the United States. The daughter of Callie and Robert Peterson, she is a prominent Philadelphia physician and Medical School professor. Mitchell received her … Read MoreEdith P. Mitchell, MD (1948- )
Altha Jeanne Stewart is a psychiatrist who served as the first African American President of the American Psychiatric Association. Stewart was born on October 28, 1952, on the south side of Memphis, Tennessee. Her mother was a librarian and her father was a civil service … Read MoreAltha Stewart (1952- )
