Catherine Flon: Seamstress of the Haitian Nation
Catherine Flon holds a revered place in Haitian history as the woman most closely associated with the creation of the first Haitian flag and, by...
Category : History Makers
John Conyers: The Long Arc of a Civil Rights Legislator
John Conyers Jr. (1929–2019) was the longest-serving African American in congressional history. He was a central architect of Black political power in the late twentieth-...
Anacaona: The Golden Flower of Ayiti
Anacaona (c. 1474–1503) was a distinguished Taíno poet, and composer of sacred areitos, and a leading cacica of Xaragua—the westernmost and most culturally sophisticated of...
Juan Rodríguez: The First Non‑Indigenous New Yorker
Juan Rodríguez (Dutch: Jan Rodrigues; Portuguese: João Rodrigues) holds the distinction of being the first documented non-indigenous person to reside on Manhattan Island. He arrived...
Joe Louis: The Brown Bomber
Joe Louis, the “Brown Bomber,” was one of the most dominant heavyweight champions in boxing history and a national symbol of Black dignity, American patriotism,...
Lima Barreto: Brazil’s Sad Visionary
Afonso Henriques de Lima Barreto (1881–1922) was a distinguished Brazilian novelist, journalist, and short-story writer renowned for his incisive social criticism and satirical depictions of...
Kathleen Cleaver: ‘My Place is in the Revolution’
“Whatever path we seem to take, it always has one end: a racist bullet. A racist bullet murdered Malcolm X, murdered Martin Luther King, murdered...
Mazisi Kunene: Poet Laureate of Africa
How will I ever forget you, magic leaf Tormented as I am by your taunts The prodding jeers and the branding iron You command, “[Captive],...
Edward Kamau Brathwaite: Poet of the Tides
Edward Kamau Brathwaite — born Lawson Edward Brathwaite on May 11, 1930 — was a Barbadian poet, historian, linguist and cultural theorist who became one...
Jayne Cortez: Firespitter of the Black Arts Movement
Jayne Cortez (born Sallie Jayne Richardson) was a visionary African American poet, performer, and cultural activist whose fierce, music‑driven poetics made her a defining voice...