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 : History Maker
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....
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...
Marcus Mosiah Garvey: Jamaica’s first National Hero
Marcus Mosiah Garvey, Jr. (ONH) was a Jamaican-born Black nationalist who created a ‘Back to Africa’ movement in the United States. He became an inspirational...
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor: Black British Composer and Political Activist
“Samuel Coleridge-Taylor is today all but forgotten in the country of his birth. The works of this talented composer are now out of fashion; and...
Bridget “Biddy” Mason: From Bondage to Wealth
Bridget “Biddy” Mason was an African-American nurse and a Californian real-estate entrepreneur and notable philanthropist. Mason who was born into the Maafa (slavery) become free...
Mary Francis Hill Coley aka Miss Mary: Healer and Midwife
[dropcap size=small]M[/dropcap]ary Francis Hill Coley (August 15, 1900 – March 1966) was an African American lay midwife who is best known for being featured in...
Ethel L. Payne: The First Lady of the Black Press
“I fought all my life to bring about change, to correct the injustices and the inequities in the system.” Ethel L. Payne was an African-American...