Charles Edward Anderson, meteorologist, Air Force officer, and weather officer, was born August 13, 1919 in the inner suburbs of St. Louis, Missouri on a farm in University City. Both his mother and father were from Mississippi. Anderson resided in St. Louis until he graduated the valedictorian of the Sumner High … Read MoreCharles Edward Anderson (1919-1994)
Harry S. McAlpin was the first African-American reporter to attend a press conference at the White House. McAlpin was born in St. Louis, Missouri on July 21, 1906. He grew up in St. Louis and then attended the University of Wisconsin where he studied journalism and advertising and received his degree … Read MoreHarry S. McAlpin (1906-1985)
Louis Bennett Butler, Jr. became the first black justice on the Wisconsin Supreme Court in 2004 and served on the court until 2008. Butler also became Wisconsin’s first Public Defender to ever argue before the United States Supreme Court in 1988 during the trial of McCoy v. Wisconsin Court of … Read MoreLouis B. Butler, Jr. (1952- )
Born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma on December 30, 1949, Tom Colbert was the first African American Chief Justice of the Oklahoma Supreme Court. Raised by his single mother, Edith Colbert, with four other siblings, he grew up in Sapulpa, Oklahoma, a small town near Oklahoma City, and graduated from … Read MoreTom Colbert (1949- )
For more than 25 years the Innocence Project has been shedding light on systemic failures of the United States criminal justice system. The authors of the Bill of Rights in the 1780s and 1790s enumerated more than a dozen specific protections for criminal defendants including the right … Read MoreThe Innocence Project: A Short History Since 1983
On the afternoon at 3:30 p.m. of Saturday, August 13, 2016, in the Sherman Park area of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, a 23-year-old black man, Sylville K. Smith, was shot and killed by a 24-year-old black police officer. Smith, along with another 23-year-old male, were pulled over by two officers. They … Read MoreMilwaukee Riot (2016)
In 1982, Dr. Marsha Rhea Williams became the first African American woman to earn a Ph.D. in Computer Science. A successful educator and researcher in academia, Williams has also held positions in private industry and the public sector. Her scholarship examines a variety of topics, ranging from the … Read MoreMarsha Rhea Williams (1948- )
An accomplished organic analytical chemist, Dr. Betty Wright Harris is widely recognized as a leading expert on explosives, environmental remediation, and hazardous waste treatment. In 1986, she patented a simple and extremely sensitive spot test for the presence of 1,3,5-triamino-2,4,6-trinitrobenzene (TATB). Her innovation allowed the military and private … Read MoreBetty Wright Harris (1940- )
The shooting death of Sylville Smith, a 23-year-old African American man, by Dominique Heaggan-Brown, an African-American police officer in the Milwaukee (Wisconsin) Police Department, yet again intensified the national debate over the shooting of unarmed black citizens at the hands of police and reinforced the call by Black … Read MoreSylville Smith (1993-2016)
Born near Circleville, Ohio to Michael Miles and Mary Pompy, Alexander Miles is the 19th Century African-American inventor known best for patenting his design for improving the automatically opening and closing elevator doors. The patent was issued on October 11, 1887 (U.S. Patent 371,207). Miles moved to Winona, Minnesota in 1870 … Read MoreAlexander Miles (1838-1918)
