Idris Elba is a Concrete Cowboy

White, Portia (1911-1968)

Portia White was the first Afro-Canadian singer trained only in Canada to reach an international stage. As an African-Canadian, her popularity helped to open previously closed doors for talented blacks who

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Source: Black Past

Brownlee, Lawrence E., Jr. (1972- )

Larry Everston Brownlee, Jr., one of six children, wasborn on November 24, 1972 in Youngstown, Ohio. His father, a General Motors plant worker who was also choir director atPhillips Chapel Church of God in Christ, commanded his son to perform so oftenthat he later recalled, “I used to

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Source: Black Past

Nov

24

1972

Brown, Jesse (1944-2002)

Jesse Brown, wounded veteran and government official, was born on March 27, 1944 to Lucille Brown in Detroit, Michigan. His single-parent mother raised him in Chicago. Brown first attended Roosevelt University in Chicago and later graduated from Kennedy- King College in that same

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Source: Black Past

Dec

18

1992

Joe Louis

Having a sharecropper and a slave as his ancestors, the eighth child of Munn and Lilly Barrow, Joseph Louis Barrow, was born on May 14, 1914, in a cotton-field country near Alabama. Belonging to a financially weak family, Joe Louis received little education as a child and worked odd jobs in order

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Source: Black History Resources

May

14

1914

Second Baptist Church of Detroit (1836- )

The Second Baptist Church of Detroit, located in the Greektown district of downtown Detroit, is the oldest African American congregation in Michigan and, according to some sources, the

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Source: Black Past

Kilpatrick, Carolyn Cheeks (1945- )

Carolyn Jean Cheeks was born on June 25, 1945 in Detroit, Michigan. In 1972 she received a B.S. degree in education from Western Michigan University. Five years later she received an M.S. degree from the University of Michigan. After graduating Carolyn Cheeks taught Business Education in the

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Source: Black Past

Dec

6

2006

Allen Iverson

Iverson wore jersey number 3 until he went to Detroit, where he wore number 1… Besides “The Answer,” he is also nicknamed “AI”… In the 2006 trade, Philadelphia got guard Andre Miller, forward Joe Smith and two first-round picks. Denver got Iverson and rookie forward Ivan

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Source: Fact Monster - Black History

Parks, Rosa Louise

Parks, Rosa Louise, 1913–2005, American civil-rights activist, b. Tuskegee, Ala., as Rosa Louise McCauley. A seamstress and long-time activist-member of the Montgomery, Ala., chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), she sparked the Montgomery bus boycott

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Source: Fact Monster - Black History

Holland, Jerome Heartwell (1916-1985)

Educator, diplomat and businessman, Jerome Heartwell Holland was born on January 9, 1916 in Auburn, New York. The parents of Holland, and that of his twelve other siblings, were Robert Holland, a gardener/carpenter, and Viola Bagby Holland. For the entirety of his life, Holland maintained the

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Source: Black Past

Jan

13

1985

Hackley, Emma Azalia (1867-1922)

Emma Azalia Smith Hackley was an African American singer and Denver political activist born in Murfreesboro, Tennessee in 1867. Her parents, business owners Henry and Corilla Smith, moved to Detroit where she attended Washington Normal School, graduating in 1886. Smith, a child prodigy learned to

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Source: Black Past

Dec

13

1922

Alexander, Lincoln MacCauley (1922-2012)

Lincoln Alexander, prominent attorney and politician, was born on January 21, 1922 in Toronto, Ontario, the son of West Indian immigrants. His mother was a maid, and his father a carpenter by training. In Canada, however, he had to work as a railway porter, which in those days was one of the few

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Source: Black Past

Oct

19

2012

Bert Williams--a Leading Comedian

At the turn of the century Bert Williams was one of Americas top comedians. Comedian Eddie Cantor called him a comic genius, W.C. Fields, a comic genius himself, once described Williams as the funniest man I ever

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Source: Blackfacts.com

Mar

4

1922

Romar, Lorenzo (1958- )

Longtime University of Washington head basketball coach Lorenzo Romar was born November 13, 1958, and grew up in Compton, California, where he went on to play at Cerritos Community College after high school. After playing two years for Cerritos, he transferred and played for the University of

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Source: Black Past

Adams, Samuel Clifford, Jr. (1920-2001)

Samuel Clifford Adams, Jr., U.S. Ambassador to Niger was born in Waco, Texas on August 15, 1920, to Samuel Clifford Adams and Sarah Catherine (née Roberts) Adams. He grew up in the Fourth Ward section of

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Source: Black Past

Spingarn Medal: Coleman A. Young

Spingarn Medal awarded to Coleman A. Young in recognition of his singular accomplishments as mayor of the City of Detroit.

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Source: Blackfacts.com

Nov

30

1981

Muhammad, Elijah

Muhammad, Elijah, 1897–1975, American black-nationalist and religious leader, b. near Sandersville, Ga. Originally named Elijah Poole, he left home at 16 and worked at various jobs. In 1923 he settled in Detroit and became an automobile assembly-line worker. In 1931 he became a follower of Wali

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Source: Fact Monster - Black History

Emmett Till

Emmett Till was an African American boy, who was murdered by two white men at the age of 14. His murder was one of the driving forces of the Civil Rights Movement. Till was born on July 25, 1941 to Mamie and Louis Till in Chicago, Illinois. He was nicknamed “Bobo” as a child and was

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Source: Black History Resources

Jul

25

1941

(1867) John Sella Martin, A Speech Before the Paris Antislavery Conference

Home

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Source: Black Past

Aug

27

1867

Cairo, Egypt (founded c. 969 C.E.)

Cairo, the current capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Middle East and Africa, has been a major cultural, religious and political center of the Arab, Islamic and African worlds for centuries. The year 2011 saw unprecedented civil and political upheaval in the city, as the world watched

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Source: Black Past

Berry, Halle (1968- )

Halle Berry, who was born Maria Halle Berry, is a multiracial model, actress, and former beauty queen who was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1968. Her mother Judith Hawkins Berry, who is white, worked as a psychiatric nurse in a Cleveland hospital. Berry’s African American father, Jerome Berry, was

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Source: Black Past

The Trillion Dollar African American Consumer Market: Economic Empowerment or Economic Dependency?

Collective African American net income (spending power) now exceeds $1 trillion dollars annually. Because of this economic reality, a wide variety of contemporary companies continually create marketing campaigns to effectively reach this important segment of the U.S. consumer market. Yet, in the

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Source: Black Past

African Americans in Medicine in the Civil War Era

Most Americans are now familiar with the contribution of nearly 300,000 black soldiers and sailors to the Union cause during the U.S. Civil War. Less well known is the role of a dedicated group of black doctors and nurses in uniform who worked diligently to save lives and fight disease. In

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Source: Black Past

Holly, James Theodore (1829-1911)

James Theodore Holly emigrationist, missionary, and bishop, was born in Washington, D.C on October 3, 1829. At age fourteen his family relocated to Brooklyn, New York. His father taught him the shoemaking trade. Then in 1848 he began working as an abolitionist with Lewis Tappan, one of the

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Source: Black Past

Oct

3

1829

Race riot, Sojourner Truth Homes, Detroit

Race riot, Sojourner Truth Homes, Detroit.

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Source: Blackfacts.com

Feb

28

1942

Stevie Wonder

Songs like Isnt She Lovely, Superstition and You Are the Sunshine of My Life won Stevie Wonder more than 20 Grammy Awards and made him one of the most popular rhythm and blues musicians of the 1960s and 1970s. Wonder grew up in Detroit, singing in church choirs and listening to early Motown

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Source: Fact Monster - Black History

May

13

1950

Larsen, Nella (1891-1963)

Nella Larsen, nurse, librarian, and, writer, was born Nella Marie Larsen in Chicago in 1891 to a Danish mother and a black West Indian father. Knowing little about her father after his death when she was two years old, she was reared in the home with her mother, remarried to a Danish man, and her

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Source: Black Past

May

3

1919

Slavery and Freedom on a Canadian Shore: Africa's Children in Nova Scotia, 1750-2009

In the account below Nova Scotian historian Sharon Robart-Johnson describes the research and writing that culminated in her book, Africans Children: A History of Blacks in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. Her book, the first history of Afro-Canadians in Nova Scotia, focuses on her community of

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Source: Black Past

Dec

27

1800

Ralph Bunche

Born: 8/7/1904 Detroit, MichiganDied: 12/9/1971 New York City, New YorkRalph Johnson Bunche was an American political scientist, academic, and diplomat who received the 1950 Nobel Peace Prize for his late 1940s mediation in Israel.Business / Schooling: Awards / Achievements:

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Source: Blackfacts.com

Documentary Films on Blackpast.org - African American History - Director

A&E Television Americas Black Warriors (on World War II) 1998

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Source: Black Past

Antananarivo, Madagascar (1600s- )

Antananarivo (formerly known as “Analamanga” and “Tananarive”) is the capital of the Republic of Madagascar and its largest city. It is located on a high plateau overlooking the Ikopa and Besiboka Rivers. In the southern part of the city lay Lake Anosy, an artificially

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Source: Black Past

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