Madame Sul-Te-Wan was born on September 12, 1873 as Nellie Conley in Louisville, Kentucky where her widowed mother worked as a laundress. Madame Sul-Te-Wan was a pioneering stage and film actress who became one of the most prominent black performers in Hollywood during the silent … Read MoreMadame Sul-Te-Wan (1873-1959)
Film and television actress, Louise Beavers, was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, where she was part of an act called “Lady Minstrels” before moving to Los Angeles to begin her film career in the silent films, “Gold Diggers” (1923) and “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” (1927). Beavers appeared … Read MoreLouise Beavers (1902-1962)
Kate Chapman was born February 19, 1870 in Mount City, Illinois. She began writing very early in life. Her family moved to Yankton, South Dakota where her father established a hunting dog breeding business valued at $50 to $100 and owned a home valued at … Read MoreKatherine Davis Chapman Tillman (1870-?)
Born 1855 in Trenton, Kentucky, Josephine Leavell was an accomplished pianist, organist and music teacher before marrying prominent Baptist minister, Rev. Allen Allensworth, in 1877. From 1886 to 1906, Josephine lived with her husband, one of the few African American chaplains in the U.S. Army, … Read MoreJosephine Leavell Allensworth (1855-1938)
Born on Aug. 6, 1865 in Chillicothe, Ohio to George R. and Mary Elizabeth (Gatliffe) Ryan, John Henry Ryan was one of twelve children. Ella (Alexander) Ryan’s origins are more unclear; however she was raised in Missouri as one of at least three children. John … Read MoreElla & John Ryan
John Alexander Somerville emigrated to the United States from Jamaica around 1900. He and his wife, Vada Watson Somerville, were both graduates of the University of Southern California School of Dentistry. Graduating with honors in 1907, he was the first black graduate, and his wife … Read MoreJohn Alexander Somerville (1882-1973)
Pauli Murray was born on November 20, 1910 in Baltimore, Maryland, the daughter of Agnes and William Murray. Her father, a Howard University graduate, taught in the Baltimore public schools. Both of Murray’s parents died when she was a child. Her mother suffered from a … Read MorePauli Murray (1910-1985)
In the late 1920s, Ophelia Settle Egypt conducted some of the first and finest interviews with former slaves, setting the stage for the Works Progress Administration’s (WPA) massive project ten years later. Born Ophelia Settle in 1903, she was a graduate of the University of … Read MoreOphelia Settle Egypt (1903-1984)
Born in Virginia in 1854, Olivia A. Davidson, the daughter of an ex-slave and freeborn mother, was the seventh of ten children. The family moved from Virginia to southern Ohio in 1857, then moved to the northern part of the state in Albany and Athens … Read MoreOlivia A. Davidson (1854-1889)
Nella Larsen, nurse, librarian, and, writer, was born Nella Marie Larsen in Chicago in 1891 to a Danish mother and a black West Indian father. Knowing little about her father after his death when she was two years old, she was reared in the home … Read MoreNella Larsen (1891-1963)
