Harold Eugene Ford, Sr., a United States Representative from Tennessee from 1975 to 1997, was born on May 20, 1945 in Memphis, Tennessee to Vera Davis and Newton Jackson Ford, a funeral home director. Ford’s family was part of the local black elite dating back … Read MoreHarold Ford, Sr. (1945- )
Dr. Willie W. Herenton was born on April 23, 1941 in Memphis, Tennessee and served as the first African American mayor of that city. Dr. Herenton is a graduate of LeMoyne-Owen College in Memphis and the University of Memphis. At a young age, Herenton demonstrated … Read MoreWillie W. Herenton (1941- )
Otis Blackwell was an American songwriter, singer, and pianist whose work significantly influenced rock ‘n’ roll. His compositions include Elvis Presley’s “Don’t Be Cruel,” “All Shook Up” and “Return to Sender,” Little Willie John’s “Fever,” Jerry Lee Lewis’s “Great Balls of Fire” and “Breathless” (with … Read MoreOtis Blackwell (1931-2002)
William Lineas Maples, a physician and musician, was born in Sevierville, Tennessee, on March 31, 1869. The son of Edward Maples and Martha Jane Runions, William graduated in the first class of the segregated high school in Knoxville in 1888. Showing a talent for science, … Read MoreWilliam Lineas Maples (1869-1943)
One of the most visible advocates of nonviolence and direct action as methods of social change, Martin Luther King, Jr. was born in Atlanta, Georgia on January 15, 1929. As the grandson of the Rev. A.D. Williams, pastor of Ebenezer Baptist church and a founder … Read MoreMartin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968)
In 1931 twelve-year- old Thomas J. Pressly witnessed the lynching of George Smith in Union City, the county seat of Obion County, Tennessee. Now a University of Washington historian and Professor Emeritus, Dr. Pressley describes that lynching in the article below. When I was twelve … Read MoreEyewitness to Terror: The Lynching of a Black Man in Obion County, Tennessee in 1931
Green Fields, former Seattle City employee, early African American resident of the Queen Anne Neighborhood in Seattle, and soldier with the U.S. Colored Troops during the Civil War, was born a slave in DeSoto, Mississippi, the son of Fannie Jackson and Richard Fields. In 1864 … Read MoreGreen Fields (1840-1914)
Following the momentum of student-led sit-ins in Greensboro, North Carolina and Nashville, Tennesssee in early 1960, an interracial group of activists, led by Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) Executive Director James Farmer, decided to continue to challenge Jim Crow segregation in the South by organizing … Read MoreFreedom Rides (1961)
Clara Brown was a kind-hearted, generous woman whose determination led her on a life-long quest to be reunited with her daughter. Born in Spotsylvania County, Virginia in 1803, her earliest memory was of being sold on the auction block. She grew up in Logan County, … Read MoreClara Brown (1803-1885)
Eliza Ann Grier was born enslaved in Mecklenburg, County North Carolina in 1864 but along with her parents, Emily and George Washington Grier, she was freed by the 13th Amendment to the US. Constitution in 1865. Grier eventually earned her M.D., becoming in 1898 the … Read MoreEliza Ann Grier (1864-1902)
