Raymond Lawrence Finch, a Federal District Court and contributor to the development of the Virgin Islands Legal System, was born on October 4, 1940 in Christiansted, St. Croix, to Wilfred Christopher Finch and Beryl Esther Bough Finch. His siblings were Gordon A. Finch, a former … Read MoreRaymond Lawrence Finch (1940-2023)
Raphael Bostic is the chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. In addition, he serves on the Federal Open Market Committee, The Federal Reserve’s chief monetary policy body. Bostic was born June 5, 1966 to Rafael Theodore Bostic of St. Croix and … Read MoreRaphael W. Bostic (1966- )
Aliyah Boston is a basketball player for the South Carolina Gamecocks of the University of South Carolina, who was named the 2022 NCAA Tournament Most Outstanding Player, Player of the year and Defensive Player of the Year. Boston was born on December 22, 2001, in … Read MoreAliyah Boston (2001 – )
The history of West Indian immigration can be traced back to the 17th century when enslaved Africans from Barbados, Jamaica, and Antigua were brought to the British North American colonies to work on plantations. The Haitian Revolution (1791-1804) sparked another wave of immigration with thousands … Read MoreWest Indian Immigration to the United States (1900- )
Joseph Auguste Anténor Firmin was a Haitian scholar, politician and civil servant who is best known for his anthropological text published in 1885, De l’égalité des races Humaines (On the Equality of Human Races). Born in Cap-Haitien to a working-class family on October 18, 1850, … Read MoreAnténor Firmin (1850-1911)
Breffu, an African woman from what is now the nation of Ghana, who was enslaved in the Danish West Indies, is credited with leading one of the longest recorded slave revolts in North American history. Denmark began its involvement in the African slave trade in … Read MoreBreffu (?-1734)
Stacey Plaskett is the current delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives for the Territory of the Virgin Islands. She achieved national notoriety as one of the House Impeachment Managers in the Second Impeachment Trial of former President Donald Trump in February 2021. Plaskett was … Read MoreStacey E. Plaskett (1966- )
In 1965, Cyril Michael became one of the first four judges to be elected in the newly instituted Municipal Court systems established in the United States Virgin Islands. Cyril Michael was born on the Caribbean island of St. Thomas, Danish West Indies to Andre and Wilhelmina Michael on January 22, 1898. He … Read MoreCyril Michael (1898-1978)
Professional boxer Emile Griffith was born February 3, 1938 on the island of St. Thomas, in the United States Virgin Islands. He moved to New York before he became a teenager. Griffith was 14 years old and working at a hat factory, when he asked his boss if he could … Read MoreEmile Alphonse Griffith (1938-2013)
