Barbara Charline Jordan was born in Houston Texas’s Fifth Ward on February 21, 1936. She received her education in public schools in Texas and graduated from Texas Southern University in 1956 with a B.A. in political science and history. Jordan then received her LL.B. from … Read MoreBarbara Jordan (1936-1996)
Harold Mills is a boat racing pioneer and award winning driver. Born August 16, 1953 in Seattle, Washington, he spent nine years in Houston, Texas as a child. He came back to Seattle and grew up as a fan of boat racing. In the late … Read MoreHarold Mills (1953- )
Former State Legislator and Mayor Willie Lewis Brown Jr. was born in Mineola, Texas, to Willie L. Brown, Sr., and Minnie (Boyd) Lewis on March 20, 1934. After migrating to San Francisco, California in 1951, Brown worked as a janitor in order to subsidize his … Read MoreWillie Brown, Jr. (1934- )
James Edward (“Jimmy”) Stewart was born in Plano, Texas on September 16, 1912, to laborer/minister Zena Thomas Stewart and Mary Magdeline Fegalee Stewart. Zena died of malaria in Oklahoma City in 1920, four years after he and his family moved there. Jimmy saw his poor … Read MoreJames Edward (Jimmy) Stewart (1912-1997)
It may be impossible today to understand fully the shock and outrage which alto saxophonist Ornette Coleman’s 1959 arrival in New York caused within the jazz community. Coleman’s innovations freed his quartet from traditional structures of form, chordal harmony, tonality, and rhythm, and though his … Read MoreOrnette Coleman (1930-2015)
Winston Elliott Scott, a former Navy Captain and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) astronaut, was born on August 6, 1950 in Miami, Florida to Alston Scott and Rubye Scott. Winston Scott graduated from Coral Gables High School in 1968 and received a B.A. degree … Read MoreWinston E. Scott (1950- )
Louise Jenkins Meriwether, a novelist, essayist, journalist and social activist, was the only daughter of Marion Lloyd Jenkins and his wife, Julia. Meriwether was born May 8, 1923 in Haverstraw, New York to parents who were from South Carolina where her father worked as a … Read MoreLouise Jenkins Meriwether (1923- )
Raymond (Ray) Merriwether, prominent Seattle, Washington African American architect, real estate developer, and newspaper owner, was born in Taylor, Texas on June 19, 1924 to Colie and Annie Merriwether. After graduating from high school Merriwether attended barber school and served a short time in the … Read MoreRaymond Merriwether (1924-2011)
Adam Clayton Powell, Sr. was born on May 5, 1865, in Franklin County, Virginia to former slaves of African American, Native American, and German ancestry. He was raised in a family of seventeen children. During his youth, Powell lived a reckless life filled with gambling. … Read MoreAdam Clayton Powell Sr. (1865-1953)
Born on February 6, 1898 in Moberly, Missouri, Melvin Beaunorus Tolson is known as one of the most significant African American modernist poets of his time. In addition, Tolson’s work as an educator led Langston Hughes to declare him “the most famous Negro Professor in … Read MoreMelvin B. Tolson (1898-1966)
