Jimmie Lee Jackson: Civil Rights Martyr
Activist Jimmie Lee Jackson is remembered for his tragic death at 26 years old at the hands of an Alabama state trooper during a small...
Category : African American
Henry Armstrong: First Boxing Champion in Three Separate Divisions
Henry Armstrong was the first boxer to hold simultaneous world championship titles in three different divisions: the featherweight, welterweight and lightweight world champion in 1938....
Fred “Duke” Slater: Football Trailblazer
Fred “Duke” Slater was the greatest African American football player of the first half of the 20th century. But his pioneering influence extended beyond the...
Sammy Davis Jr: Mr. Entertainment
For a staggering 60 years, from his debut as a four year old child star in the late 1920’s to his untimely death in 1990...
Ralph Gardner-Chavis: Chemist and Scientist on the atomic bomb
Ralph Gardner-Chavis, who was a pioneer in plastic chemistry, owns the distinction of being one of the scientists and technicians who worked on the Manhattan...
Lewis Hayden: Heroic Abolitionist
Lewis Hayden was an African-American leader who escaped with his family from the Maafa (slavery) in Kentucky to Boston, where he became an abolitionist and...
Richard Pryor: Comic Genius
Richard Pryor was one of the most influential stand-up comedians of his generation, and starred in a number of hit films and comedy recordings. He...
Jerry Lawson: Inventor of the video game cartridge
“The whole reason I did games was because people said, ‘You can’t do it.’ I’m one of the guys, if you tell me I can’t...
Gordon Parks: Renaissance Man
He was born stillborn — no heartbeat, declared dead by the family doctor, and put aside for later burial. Another doctor in the delivery room...
Shirley Chisholm: Pioneering African American Politician
Shirley Chisholm was a pioneering African-American politician, who became the first Black woman to serve in the United States Congress. Chisholm was also the first...