Willie Melton was a farmer and a Civil Rights pioneer in Fort Bend, Texas, responsible for helping to settle what is now known as Kendleton, Fort Bend County, Texas. Melton was born on November 8, 1900, in Fort Bend, a county that in its origins … Read MoreWillie Melton (1900-1969)
Arizona Fleming was a small business owner who became part of the Civil Rights Movement in Fort Bend County, Texas. Fleming was born in Richmond, Texas on March 23, 1884, to Laura and Beauregard Fleming. Not much is known about her life. After attending segregated … Read MoreArizona Fleming (1884-1976)
Clarice Evone Salone Phelps, a nuclear chemist was part of the research team responsible for the discovery of a new element, 117 also known as tennessine, was born in 1981 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and reared in the Edgehill Housing Projects in Nashville, Tennessee, by a … Read MoreClarice Evone Salone Phelps (1981- )
Opal (Flake) Lee is a retired teacher and activist who is considered the “grandmother of Juneteenth.” Flake was born on October 7, 1926, in Marshall, Texas, to Otis Flake and Mattie Broadus. When Lee was a child, her family home burned down in a fire, … Read MoreOpal Lee (1926- )
Nicholas (“Nick”) Brown is the first African American to serve as United States Attorney for the Western District of Washington. Born in San Francisco to a career military officer, Brown also lived in Augsburg, Germany as a child. He attended high school in Steilacoom, Washington, … Read MoreNicholas W. Brown (1977- )
Investment analyst Degas A. Wright was born in April 1963, in Lithonia, Georgia. Wright attended the United States Military Academy at West Point where he majored in mathematics and earned a Bachelor of Science Degree. He graduated from West Point in 1985, and served as … Read MoreDegas Wright (1963- )
John Antonio Briceño was born Juan Antonio Briceño on July 17, 1960, in Orange Walk Town, British Honduras (now Belize), to Elijio Eloy Briceño, a government minister. John had six brothers and three sisters. In 1978, he graduated from Muffles College in Belize City, and … Read MoreJohn Antonio Briceño (1960- )
On May 20, 2019, Reverend Lakeesha Walrond, Ph.D., made history when she was appointed President of the New York Theological Seminary (NYTS), founded in 1900 as the Bible Teacher’s College. Walrond is the first woman and first Black woman to serve as president of NYTS, … Read MoreLakeesha Walrond (1971- )
R&B bass guitarist and 6’ 9” professional basketball player Wayman Lawrence Tisdale was born on June 9, 1964, in Fort Worth, Texas, the youngest of six children of Louis Tisdale, a minister, and Deborah “Momma Tiz” Mathias Tisdale. He was reared, however, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, … Read MoreWayman Lawrence Tisdale (1964-2009)
Dr Robert Nobles is the Vice President for Research Administration at Emory University. His appoint began on December 1, 2019. Prior to that role, he was the Interim Vice Chancellor for Research and Engagement at the University of Tennessee until December 2019 and Associate Vice … Read MoreRobert Nobles (? -)
