Though overshadowed by and having received far less publicity than fabled Pearl Harbor hero Dorie Miller, Alonzo Alexander Swann Jr. performed similar action in the Pacific Theater and his all-black Navy gun crew. Their brave accomplishment and awful sacrifice would have gone relatively unnoticed had … Read MoreAlonzo Alexander Swann, Jr. (1925-2007)
Dr. John Baldwin West was one of a handful of African American pulp detective fiction writers. In the 1950s his books were described by critics as white life novels, placing him in a category with better-known writers such as Willard Motley, William Gardner Smith, and … Read MoreJohn Baldwin West (1905-1960)
One of a handful of women to become members of the Tuskegee Airmen, Sergeant Amelia Robinson Jones was born on July 3, 1919, on Daufuskie Island, South Carolina, the youngest of fourteen children of Sipio and Susan Robinson. The family moved to Savannah, Georgia in … Read MoreAmelia Robinson Jones (1919-2015)
Steward’s Mate First Class Charles Walter David was an African American Coast Guardsman, responsible for saving ninety-three people from a torpedoed naval cutter. David was born on June 20, 1917 in New York, New York. Many details about his early life are unknown. By the … Read MoreCharles Walter David Jr. (1917-1943)
The US Armed Forces were segregated until President Harry Truman issued Executive Order 9981 on July 26, 1948 which desegregated all the military service branches. That segregation during World War II helped create the Riot of Bamber Bridge in Great Britain in 1943. When US … Read MoreThe Riot of Bamber Bridge (1943)
The Double V campaign was a slogan championed by The Pittsburgh Courier, then the largest black newspaper in the United States, that promoted efforts toward democracy for civilian defense workers and for African Americans in the military. The Pittsburgh Courier newspaper, founded in 1907, had … Read MoreThe Double V Campaign (1942-1945)
Beatrice Coleman was a pioneering civil rights activist in Fairbanks, Alaska. In 1946 she challenged Jim Crow segregation in the city by calling for the enforcement of a recently-enacted anti-discrimination law. In 1952 Coleman was one of the founding members of the Fairbanks chapter of … Read MoreBeatrice Coleman (1908-1982)
Ernest Frederick Morrison was the first black child movie star signed to a long-term contract and is most famous for his role in the Our Gang/ Little Rascals series. Morrison was born on December 20, 1912 to Louise (Lewis) and Joseph Ernest Morrison, in New … Read MoreErnest Frederick Morrison (1912-1989)
Effa Louise Manley, a black woman, was one of the first women of any race to run a baseball team. She was co-owner, along with her husband Abe Manley, of the Negro League Baseball Team the Newark Eagles. Manley was born on March 27, 1897 … Read MoreEffa Louise Manley (1897-1981)
Monford Merrill Monte Irvin was a baseball player who played the left fielder and right fielder in the Negro Leagues and was one of the few who transitioned to Major League Baseball after the integration of the sport in 1947. Irvin played for the Newark … Read MoreMonford Merrill Monte Irvin (1919-2016)
