George Metcalfe was a civil rights leader in Natchez, Mississippi who led one of the most successful yet little-known movements in the Deep South. Metcalfe was born on September 20, 1911, in Franklin, Louisiana to parents Ernest Metcalfe and Alberta Simon Metcalfe. He was a … Read MoreGeorge Metcalfe (1911-1989)
Hilarius Gilges is the most well-known Afro-German activist who fought against the rise of the National Socialist German Workers’ (Nazi) Party in the early interwar period. The son of a textile worker named Maria Stüttgen and an African boatman working on the Rhine, Gilges was … Read MoreHilarius Gilges (a.k.a. Lari Gilges, 1909-1933)
Screenwriter, filmmaker, actor, and social critic Carlton Moss was born in Newark, New Jersey, on February 14, 1909. The son of Frederick Douglass Moss, a coachman for an affluent family, and Sarah Vincent Moss, he grew up both in New Jersey and North Carolina. As … Read MoreCarlton Moss (1909-1997)
Polish freedom fighter, jazz musician, and British citizen August Agboola Browne was born in British-controlled Lagos, Nigeria, on July 22, 1895. He was the son of Jozefina and Wallace Browne, a longshoreman. Browne traveled to London as a young man and found work in a … Read MoreAugust Agboola Browne (1895-1976)
In August of 1925, Ladipo Solanke, a Nigerian law student, and Herbert Bankole-Bright, a Sierra Leonean doctor, founded the West African Students’ Union (WASU) in the Camden Town section of London, England. WASU eventually become a powerful influence in both British and West African politics … Read MoreWest African Students’ Union (WASU)
Civil rights attorney Louis L. Redding was the first Black man admitted to practice law in Delaware. He argued one of the cases that formed part of the United States Supreme Court Brown v. Board of Education decision. Redding was born on October 25, 1901, … Read MoreLouis L. Redding (1901-1998)
Petty Officer 1st Class Charles Jackson French was hailed as the “hero of the Solomons” and the “Human Tugboat” after a heroic rescue in the Pacific during World War II. Along with Doris “Dorie” Miller, who received the Navy Cross for valor during the attack … Read MoreCharles Jackson French (1919-1956)
Aden Abdullah Osman Daar (popularly known as Aden Adde) was the first president of Somalia. He was born on December 9, 1908, in Beledweyne, Somalia while the country was colonized by the Italian government. Daar was orphaned at an early age and raised by members … Read MoreAden Abdullah Osman Daar (1908-2007)
Mohamed Naguib was the first leader of the Egyptian Republic. He was born in Khartoum, Sudan on February 20, 1901, to Youssef Naguib, an Egyptian army officer, and his wife Zohra Ahmed Othman. His secondary school education was at Gordon Memorial College in Khartoum, graduating … Read MoreMohamed Naguib (1901-1984)
Ahmed Ben Bella was a leader of the Algerian War of Independence who became the first Prime Minister, and later, the first President of independent Algeria. Ben Bella was born in 1916 in Maghnia (Marnia), Oran, Algeria (then a French colony), the son of a … Read MoreAhmed Ben Bella (1916-2012)
