Ada Beatrice Queen Victoria Louise Virginia Smith (“Bricktop”), vaudevillian actress, singer, nightclub owner, and international celebrity host, was born August 14, 1894 in Alderson, West Virginia, to Thomas and Hattie Thompson Smith. Her father passed away in 1898 and Mrs. Smith moved Ada and her … Read MoreAda “Bricktop” Smith (1894-1984)
Born in Elkhorn, West Virginia in 1905, Angie Lena Turner King was a chemist and mathematician who dedicated her life and career to teaching and mentoring students in the sciences. The eldest daughter of William and Laura Turner, Angie had two siblings, Sylvia and Irving. … Read MoreAngie Lena Turner King (1905-2004)
Abram Lincoln Harris, Jr., the grandson of slaves, was the first nationally recognized black economist. Harris was highly respected for his work that focused primarily on class analysis, black economic life, and labor to illustrate the structural inadequacies of race and racial ideologies. Harris’s major … Read MoreAbram Lincoln Harris Jr. (1899-1963)
William Anthony (Tony) Brown, a pioneer in television programming for African American audiences, was born in Charleston, West Virginia on April 11, 1933 to Royal and Katherine Brown. The youngest of five children, he did well in school, excelling in English and drama, and overcame … Read MoreTony Brown (1933- )
A former slave, Dangerfield Newby was one of several participants in John Brown’s raid on the federal arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia in October 1859. Newby was the son of his white slave master, Henry Newby, a Scots immigrant, and his slave, Ailsey/ Elsie Pollard. … Read MoreDangerfield F. Newby (1815-1859)
Historian, educator and clergyman Rev. Miles Mark Fisher was pastor of the White Rock Baptist Church in Durham, North Carolina from 1933 to 1965. He published a number of important scholarly works on African American culture and the Baptist missionary movement to Africa. In 1953 … Read MoreMiles Mark Fisher (1899-1970)
Jill Elaine Brown became the first African American woman to serve as a pilot for a major U.S airline when she was hired by Texas international Airlines at the age of 28. Her passion for flying began as a teenager, leading her into the U.S. … Read MoreJill Elaine Brown
Joshua Johnston, also known as Joshua Johnson, was a portraitist active in Baltimore, Maryland between 1790 and 1825, and the first African American to gain recognition as an artist. Primarily a painter of members of the slave-holding aristocracy, he was rediscovered by Baltimore genealogist and … Read MoreJoshua Johnston (ca. 1763-1832)
In 1906, one year after the Niagara Movement was founded, it held its second annual meeting at Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia. W.E.B. Du Bois, a founding member and its titular leader, gave the address below to the assembled civil rights activists. The men of the … Read More(1906) W.E.B. Du Bois, “Men of Niagara”
On October 16, 1859, John Brown led a racially mixed group of eighteen men in an attack on the U.S. Government arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia, in the hope of initiating a general uprising of enslaved people in Virginia and the rest of the South. … Read More(1859) John Brown, “Address to the Virginia Court at Charles Town, Virginia”
