Alberta Hunter was born in Memphis, Tennessee, but left for Chicago, Illinois at age 11 after her father died. She peeled potatoes in a boarding house until she could find a job singing blues, the first opportunity was at a Chicago brothel, as entertainment for … Read MoreAlberta Hunter (1895-1984)
Eartha Mae Kitt was born on January 26, 1928, in the city of North in South Carolina. Her sharecropper parents abandoned Kitt and her half-sister as young children, forcing them to live with a foster family until they moved to New York City, New York … Read MoreEartha Mae Kitt (1928-2008)
Carrie Meek was born on April 29, 1926, in Tallahassee, Florida. Her parents were sharecroppers and her childhood neighborhood was racially segregated. Meek attended and graduated from Florida A&M University. Graduate schools in Florida were still segregated at this time so she was forced to … Read MoreCarrie Meek (1926-2021)
Moranda Smith was a union organizer and rank-and-file leader of tobacco workers in North Carolina, who throughout the 1940s initiated a challenge to the racial discrimination, disfranchisement, and economic exploitation of workers in the South. The first African-American woman to sit on an international union’s … Read MoreMoranda Smith (1915-1950)
Miriam Matthews was the first African American librarian in the Los Angeles Public Library system. Hired in 1927, she served in the library until her retirement in 1960 where she was instrumental in preserving the history and cultural heritage of black Angelenos. Miriam Matthews was … Read MoreMiriam Matthews (1905–2003)
Era Bell Thompson was an author, editor and a pioneering female African American journalist. She was born in Des Moines, Iowa. When she was eight years old her family moved to North Dakota. Her father worked various jobs including farmer, messenger to the governor and … Read MoreEra Bell Thompson (1906-1986)
Victoria Earle Smith was an accomplished journalist, author, lecturer, clubwoman, social worker, and missionary. She was born on May 27, 1861 in Fort Valley, Georgia, to Caroline Smith, a slave, and a man who was believed to be the family’s master. Caroline fled the plantation … Read MoreVictoria Earle Matthews (1861-1907)
Image Ownership: Public Domain The third of ten children, Smiley was born in Gulfport, Mississippi on September 13, 1964, to Joyce Marie and Emory G. Smiley. At the age of two, he and his family moved to Indiana when his father, an Air Force non-commissioned … Read MoreTavis Smiley (1964- )
Democratic representative Katie Hall was elected to the United States Congress in 1983. Born in Mound Bayou, Bolivar County, Mississippi in 1938, she attended Mississippi Valley State University and Indiana University before teaching in the public schools of Gary Indiana. Hall was elected to the … Read MoreKatie Beatrice Hall (1938-2012)
Cardiss Robertson Collins was born September 24, 1931 in St. Louis, Missouri, the daughter of Findley Robertson and Rosa Mae Robertson. At the age of 10 her family relocated to Detroit and she spent the rest of her childhood there, eventually graduating from the Detroit … Read MoreCardiss Collins (1931- )
