Eugene Parker is best known as the first African American sports agent. Parker was born February 24, 1956, in Fort Wayne, Indiana. He attended Concordia Lutheran High School and graduated from Purdue University in 1978. He received a J.D. from Valparaiso University School of Law … Read MoreEugene Parker (1956-2016)
Stephanie Diana Wilson is an American NASA astronaut, engineer, and is the second African American woman to go into space, following Mae Jemison. Wilson was born September 27, 1966, in Boston, Massachusetts. In 1984 she graduated from Taconic High School in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, and four … Read MoreStephanie Diana Wilson (1966- )
Philanthropist Darren Walker is the tenth president of the seventy-seven-year-old Ford Foundation, the second largest philanthropy in the world. Walker was born August 28, 1959, at a charity hospital in Lafayette, Louisiana, to a single mother and was raised in East Texas. He received two … Read MoreDarren Walker (1959– )
“Image Ownership: Kaori Tachibana/The Collegian” Dr. Ronald Andrew Crutcher is a distinguished classical musician and a national leader in higher education. He served as the as the seventh president of Wheaton College from 2004 to 2014, and then became the first African American president of … Read MoreRonald Andrew Crutcher (1947– )
The inventor Otis Frank Boykin, known for inventing the wire precision resistor, was born on August 29, 1920 in Dallas, Texas. Boykin’s mother, Sarah Boykin, worked as a maid before dying in 1921 before Boykin’s first birthday. Boykin’s father, Walter Boykin, worked as a carpenter … Read MoreOtis Frank Boykin (1920-1982)
Marvin Ellison is the current CEO of Lowe’s, a hardware and home improvement store chain, since July 2018 and the first African American to hold that post. He was previously President and CEO of JCPenney, where he was also the first African American head of … Read MoreMarvin Ellison (1966- )
Sam Martin Bruce was born on December 7, 1915, in Houston, Texas. Bruce’s father died when he was a young boy. His mother remarried and the family relocated to Seattle, Washington. In 1933, Bruce graduated from Garfield High School and soon enrolled at North Carolina … Read MoreSamuel (Sam) Bruce Martin (1915-1944)
Deborah Prothrow-Stith is a nationally known leader for public health awareness and violence prevention in youth. Her 1991 book, Deadly Consequences: How Violence is Destroying Our Teenage Population and a Plan to Begin Solving the Problem, was one of the first to address the topic … Read MoreDeborah Prothrow-Stith (1954– )
Janet Emerson Bashen is the founder and CEO of the Bashen Corporation, a private consulting group that investigates Equal Employment Opportunity complaints under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. She is the first African American woman in the United States to hold a … Read MoreJanet Emerson Bashen (1957- )
Marjorie Lee Browne was a prominent mathematician and educator who, in 1949, became only the third African-American woman to earn a doctorate in her field. Browne was born on September 9, 1914, in Memphis, Tennessee, to Mary Taylor Lee and Lawrence Johnson Lee. Her father, … Read MoreMarjorie Lee Browne (1914-1979)
