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- )
Frances B. North was a Seattle civic leader known for her role uniting the business sector, public schools, and city government to end segregation. Her life transformed racial and gender barriers. As a member of Mount Zion Baptist Church from 1943 to 2017, her faith … Read MoreFrances B. North (1919-2017)
Minnie Julia Riperton-Rudolph, aka Minnie Riperton, was born on November 8, 1947, the youngest of eight children to Thelma and Salleh Riperton and grew up on the Southside of Chicago. Her professional career started as a back-up singer at Chess Records for such legends as … Read MoreMinnie Riperton (1947-1979)
Niara Sudarkasa, born Gloria Albertha Marshall, was an accomplished scholar, educator, and cultural anthropologist. She was born on August 14, 1938, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to Rowena Marshall. Her mother and maternal grandparents, a farmer and a housewife, who migrated from the Bahamas, raised her … Read MoreNiara Sudarkasa (1938-2019)
Clara Belle Drisdale, the first African American to graduate from New Mexico State University, was born to sharecroppers Isaac and Carrie Melinda Moppins Drisdale in LaGrange, Texas on October 29, 1885. She was first educated in a one room country school house near LaGrange but … Read MoreClara Belle Drisdale Williams (1885-1994)
Actress Tessa Lynne Thompson was born on October 3, 1983 in Los Angeles, California to Marc Anthony Thompson, Afro-Panamanian, and an unnamed mother, who was half-Caucasian and half-Mexican. She also has a half sister, Zsela Sterlin-Thompson, and a half brother, Jody Rome Thompson. Thompson attended … Read MoreTessa Lynne Thompson (1983- )
South African career trade unionist Lucy Buyaphi Mvubelo was a leading figure in the movement to improve conditions for workers in South Africa, although she saw that campaign as separate from the anti-Apartheid Movement. Lucy Mvubelo was born on January 20, 1920 in Spes Bona, … Read MoreLucy Buyaphi Mvubelo (née Twala) (1920-2000)
Azellia White was the first African American woman to earn her pilot’s license in Texas and a trailblazer in the aviation field. Jones was born in Gonzalez, Texas, on June 3, 1913. Her father was a sharecropper and her mother was a midwife. She attended … Read MoreAzellia Jones White (1913-2019)
Born October 26, 1935 in Sumter, South Carolina, Gloria Conyers Hewitt grew up persistent. Her father, Emmett C. Conyers, and her mother, Crenella Conyers, thought that their children should attend college as they believed that was the only opportunity for improvement for African Americans. While … Read MoreGloria Conyers Hewitt (1935- )
