Charity Still: Who twice liberated herself from the Maafa
Charity Still, the mother of William Still, twice liberated herself from the Maafa/Atlantic slavery with her children. After her first self-liberation, she was recaptured with...
Category : African American
Daniel Hale Williams: The first African-American Cardiologist who performed the first successful open heart surgery
“A people who don’t make provision for their own sick and suffering are not worthy of civilization.” –Daniel Hale Williams Daniel Hale Williams was one...
Ona Judge: The First Lady’s personal maid who freed herself from bondage and was ‘Never Caught’
Ona Judge, known as Oney Judge Staines after marriage, was a bondwoman who worked on George Washington’s Mount Vernon labor camp/plantation, in Virginia. Beginning in...
Cudjoe Kossula Lewis: The “last African-American ancestor?”
Born in Africa as Oluale Kossula, he died in America in 1935 as Cudjoe Lewis. Ouale Kossula is widely recognised as the last known person...
Paul Belloni Du Chaillu: The “African” Zoologist who became known as the first modern European to confirm the existence of gorillas
“In such a wild country as Africa one does not go far without adventures. The traveler necessarily sees what is strange and wonderful, for every...
Isaac Burns Murphy: One of the Greatest American Jockeys of All Time
Isaac Burns Murphy was an African-American Hall of Fame jockey, who is considered one of the greatest riders in American Thoroughbred horse racing history. Murphy...
William DeHart Hubbard: The first African American to win an Olympic gold medal in an individual event
[dropcap size=small]W[/dropcap]illiam DeHart Hubbard was the first African American in Olympic history to win an individual gold medal, when he won the long (broad) jump...
Jackie Ormes: The first professional African American woman cartoonist
Jackie Ormes (August 1, 1911 – December 26, 1985) was born Zelda Jackson in a small town outside Pittsburgh. She was a self-taught artist who...
Elizabeth Jennings Graham: A 19th Century Rosa Parks
Elizabeth Jennings Graham (March 1827 – June 5, 1901) was an African-American teacher and civil rights activist, who challenged segregation on public transportation, a full...
Sterling Allen Brown: Harlem Renaissance Poet
“I wanted to understand my people. I wanted to understand what it meant to be a [Black]. What the qualities of life were. With their...