Vivian Leona Caver was a civil rights activist from Seattle, Washington. She directed the Seattle Human Rights Commission between 1975 and 1981, and served briefly in the Washington State Legislature in 1994. Caver was born Vivian Leona Mead in 1928, in Jackson, Tennessee. Her mother … Read MoreVivian Leona Caver (1928-2021)
Attorney, civil rights and human rights activist, Fred D. Gray was born on December 14, 1930, in Montgomery, Alabama to Nancy and Abraham Gray. The youngest of five children, he and his siblings were raised in a shotgun house in a segregated black section of … Read MoreFred D. Gray (1930- )
Carl Thomas Rowan was a diplomat, author, reporter, and broadcaster. He was the first black deputy Secretary of State, and the first black director of the United States Information Agency (USIA). Rowan was born August 11, 1925, in the mining town of Ravenscroft, Tennessee. When … Read MoreCarl T. Rowan (1925-2000)
Most visitors who tour the Hermitage outside Nashville, Tennessee come to the historic site because it is the home of Andrew Jackson, the seventh president of the United States. Hermitage Archaeology Director Kevin Bartoy reminds us, however, that the plantation was also home to over … Read MoreThe Other Hermitage: The Enslaved at the Andrew Jackson Plantation
The 1927 Times of London (UK) obituary noted of Florence Mills, “There is no doubt that she was a real artist full of individuality and intelligence, and her premature death is a sad loss to the profession.” Florence Mills was an internationally-recognized and multifaceted performer … Read MoreFlorence Mills (1896-1927)
James Finley Wilson was born in Nashville, Tennessee in 1881 to Reverend James L. Wilson and Nancy Wiley Wilson. From 1922 to 1948, Wilson served consecutive terms as Grand Exalted Ruler of the Improved Benevolent Protective Order of the Elks of the World (I.B.P.O.E. of … Read MoreJames Finley Wilson (1881-1952)
Dr. John Henry Jordan, the first black doctor in Coweta County, Georgia, was born in Troup County, Georgia on March 11, 1870, to Berry and Isabella Jordan. His father was a sharecropper and his mother died when he was two. As a child, Jordan was … Read MoreJohn Henry Jordan (1870-1912)
Academy Award-winning composer and musician Isaac Hayes, Jr. was born to Isaac Sr. and Eula Hayes on August 20, 1942 in Covington, Tennessee. Hayes began his career at the age of 20 when he joined Stax Records as a studio musician. By the late 1960s … Read MoreIsaac Hayes (1942-2008)
Author, educator and organizer George Edmund Haynes was a social scientist, religious leader and pioneer in social work education for African Americans. Born in 1880 to Louis and Mattie Haynes in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, George Haynes was the oldest of two children of a domestic … Read MoreGeorge Edmund Haynes (1880-1960)
Emma Azalia Smith Hackley was an African American singer and Denver political activist born in Murfreesboro, Tennessee in 1867. Her parents, business owners Henry and Corilla Smith, moved to Detroit where she attended Washington Normal School, graduating in 1886. Smith, a child prodigy learned to … Read MoreEmma Azalia Hackley (1867-1922)
