Civil rights attorney Julius W. (Robinson) Robertson was born on July 23, 1916, to parents Richard Robinson and Fannie Mae Robinson, who were subsistence farmers in Green County, Georgia. In 1922, the family moved to Knoxville, Tennessee for better opportunities. Robertson joined the Civilian Conservation … Read MoreJulius Winfield Robertson (1916-1961)
Stayce D. Harris is the first African American woman to hold a three-star General rank, first Air Force Reservist to be promoted to the three-star rank other than the chief of the Air Force Reserve Command, and the first African American woman to serve as … Read MoreStayce D. Harris (1959- )
Angella Ferguson is best known as a medical researcher. Her pioneering research focused on the development of the sickle cell disease among African American infants. Eventually, she developed a blood test to detect sickle cell at birth and this test became standard for forty U.S. … Read MoreAngella Dorothea Ferguson (1925- )
James Wormley Jones is the first African American FBI agent in the United States. Jones was born on September 22, 1884 to John Bradford Jones and Sally Jones in Fort Monroe, Virginia. Jones had one sibling, a brother named Paul W. Jones. His family later … Read MoreJames Wormley Jones (1884-1958)
In the five years following the Civil War, the U.S. Congress passed and the states ratified the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution. These amendments permanently ended slavery and granted African Americans access to civil rights and suffrage as citizens of the United … Read MoreThe Enforcement Act of 1870 (1870-1871)
Dr. Warren Elliott Henry enjoyed a long and influential career in the field of physical chemistry, working in the public and private sectors and in academia. His areas of expertise included radar technology and solid-state physics. Henry conducted experiments on magnetism as well as metallurgy, … Read MoreWarren Elliott Henry (1909-2001)
William Henry Jernagin was a Baptist minister, civil rights advocate and Organizer of the Washington Bureau of the National Fraternal Council of Negro Churches. Born on October 13, 1869 in Mashulaville, Mississippi, to Allen and Julia Ruth Jernagin. He was educated in the public schools … Read MoreWilliam Henry Jernagin (1869-1958)
Rochester, August 29, 1868 Dear Harriet: I am glad to know that the story of your eventful life has been written by a kind lady, and that the same is soon to be published. You ask for what you do not need when you call … Read More(1868) Letter from Frederick Douglass to Harriet Tubman
James E. Walton, longtime professor of English at California State University, Fresno, was born on September 13, 1944 in Bessemer, Alabama to Willie Walton, Sr. and Mary Woods Cutts. Walton attended a two-room schoolhouse in Alabama. At age three, his grandmother taught him to read … Read MoreJames E. Walton (1944-2019)
Victorine Quille Adams was a Baltimore Public School teacher, business manager of the Charm Center, Founder of the Colored Women’s Democratic Campaign Committee, Co-Founder of Woman Power, Incorporated, and first African American Baltimore City Councilwoman. She was a native Baltimorean whose contributions sought to improve … Read MoreVictorine Quille Adams (1912-2006)
