Dr. John Henrik Clarke: 20th Century Griot
“I had to work against all the odds to succeed, but succeed I did.” Dr. John Henrik Clarke was a Pan-Africanist scholar and historian and...
Category : Biographies
John Lee Love: Inventor of the portable pencil sharpener
John Lee Love was an African American inventor best known for patenting a portable pencil sharpener, widely known as the “Love Sharpener.” Very little is...
Jean-Michel Basquiat: Neo Expressionist Pop Icon
Jean-Michel Basquiat, known for his raw gestural style of painting with graffiti-like images and scrawled text, was the African American artist who emerged from the...
The Hanging of Celia
On December 21, 1855, at 2.30pm, Celia an enslaved woman was hanged for the murder of her abusive enslaver, Robert Newsom. In 1850, Celia was...
Carter G. Woodson: The Father of Black History
Carter G. Woodson, known as The Father of Black History, was the African American historian who first opened the long-neglected field of Black studies to...
Benjamin O. Davis, Jr: The First African American General in the U.S. Air Force
Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., born on December 18, 1912, in Washington, D.C., was a pioneering pilot, officer, and administrator who broke barriers as the first...
Ossie Davis: The Distinguished Actor and Activist
Ossie Davis was one of the most recognized and influential African American performers and activists of the late twentieth century. The acclaimed actor, director, producer,...
Maria W. Stewart: Powerful Public Orator for Black Women’s Rights
Maria W. Stewart, essayist, teacher, and political activist, is thought to be the first woman in America and the first African-American woman to make public...
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...
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....