Althea Gibson: Queen of Tennis
“I Always Wanted to Be Somebody.” Althea Gibson was the first African American tennis player to win a Grand Slam title (the French Open). In...
Tag : African-American
Joseph Douglass: The Black concert violinist
Joseph Douglass (1871–1935) was a groundbreaking African-American concert violinist. He was the grandson of abolitionist Frederick Douglas; and was widely viewed as Douglass’s favorite grandchild....
Arthur B. C. Walker, Jr.: The African American physicist who helped develop solar telescopes
[dropcap size=small]A[/dropcap]rthur Bertram Cuthbert Walker, Jr. was an African American physicist and educator who helped develop solar telescopes used in 1987 to capture the first...
Charles Ball: “Time Did Not Reconcile Me To My Chains”
Charles Ball was an enslaved African-American from Maryland, best known for his account as a fugitive, The Life and Adventures of Charles Ball (1837). Ball...
Asa Hilliard, III: The Pan-Africanist educator
“To know Dr. Hilliard was in some respects to know Africa.” Asa Hilliard, III was a world renowned Pan-Africanist educator who worked on indigenous ancient...
The Eliza Winston Case
On August 21, 1860, enslaved African American Eliza Winston was freed from her Mississippi enslaver in a Minneapolis court. After being granted legal freedom, however,...
George Bonga: African American fur trader
George Bonga was a fur trader of African-American and Native American heritage, and one of the first African Americans born in what is now Minnesota....
Mary Ellen Pleasant : The Mother of California’s early civil rights movement
[dropcap size=small]M[/dropcap]ary Ellen Pleasant was a 19th-century African American entrepreneur who used her fortune to further the abolitionist movement. She worked on the Underground Railroad...
Amelia Boynton Robinson: The Queen of Selma
“My idea, my belief, my intention is for the United States of America to be known as a UNITED States,” Amelia Platts Boynton Robinson is...
Archibald Henry Grimké: Early 20th century champion of equal rights
Archibald Henry Grimké was a leading African-American intellectual, activist, and author on racial equality in early 20th Century America. Grimké was born into the Maafa...