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Barack Obama
Best Known
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Source: Fact Monster - Black History
Michelle Obama
Born: 1/17/1964 Chicago, IllinoisMichelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama is an American lawyer and writer. She is married to the 44th and current President of the United States, Barack Obama, and is the first African-American First Lady of the United StatesBusiness / Schooling: Awards / Achievements:
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Valerie Thomas
As a child, Valerie Thomas became fascinated with the mysteries of technology, tinkering with electronics with her father and reading books on electronics written for adolescent boys. The likelihood of her enjoying a career in science seemed bleak, as her all-girls high school did not push her to
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Source: Black History Resources
Angola
U.S. Department of State Background Note
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Source: Fact Monster - Black History
Sponsored by NSBE Boston
Donna Summer
Name at birth: LaDonna Adrian Gaines
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Source: Fact Monster - Black History
Pitre, Clayton (1924- )
Clayton Pitre is a long time Seattle, Washington-based community activist, former Chief Housing Developer for the Central Area Motivation Project (CAMP), and a retired Montford Point
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Source: Black Past
Barack Obama's Call to Service: One Woman Responds
In the following article University of Washington, Tacoma student Kayomi Wada describes how she and other Tacoma residents banded together to create a local project that reflects President Barack Obamas Call to
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Source: Black Past
Oprah Winfrey
Renowned television talk show host Oprah Winfrey is sometimes called the most influential woman of the 20th century, and perhaps rightly so, as she has her own globally viewed talk show, television network, magazine and millions of fans. Oprah Gail Winfrey was born on January 29, 1954 in Missouri
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Source: Black History Resources
Sponsored by BARBinc
Jan
29
1954
Percy Julian
Percy Julian was born on April 11, 1899 in Birmingham, Alabama, one of six children. His father, a railroad mail clerk, and his mother, a school teacher stressed education to their children. This emphasis would ultimately prove successful as two sons went on to become physicians and three daughters
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Source: Black History Resources
Sponsored by New York University
Lemon, Don (1966- )
Don Carlton Lemon is a prominent, award-winning black television anchor in the United States. In 2011, he publicly came out as a gay man. In so doing, he became the most prominent African American journalist to announce his sexual orientation and was immediately considered a major role model for
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Source: Black Past
Mar
1
1966
Scatman Crothers
Benjamin Sherman Crothers was an American actor, musician, singer and dancer. He was born on May 23, 1910 to Benjamin and Donnie Crothers in Terre Haute, Indiana. He got his nickname when he auditioned for a radio show in 1932 and the director told him he needed a catchy name, which is when he came
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Source: Black History Resources
May
23
1910
Barclay, Paris K.C. (1956- )
Paris K.C. Barclay is an award-winning American television director, producer, and LGBT rights activist.  In 2013, he broke new ground when he was named President of the Directors Guild of America, making him the first out gay male and the first African American to hold the
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Source: Black Past
Sponsored by Eastern Bank
Jun
30
1956
Dunbar-Nelson, Alice Ruth Moore (1875-1935)
Alice Ruth Moore, educator, author and social activist, was born on July 19, 1875 in New Orleans, Louisiana to Patricia (Wright) Moore and Monroe Moore.  She attended public school in New Orleans and enrolled in the teacher training program at Straight University in that city in 1890. Two years
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Source: Black Past
Sponsored by Pride Academy
Mar
6
1898
Abercrombie-Winstanley, Gina Kay (1957- )
Gina Abercrombie-Winstanley, the first woman diplomat to lead a U.S. consulate in the gender conservative Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, also serves as the U.S. Ambassador to Malta (appointed in 2011). Gina Kay Abercrombie was born in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, where her mother was a secretary and her
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Source: Black Past
Sponsored by Massachusetts Black Lawyers Association (MBLA)
Walker, George Theophilus (1922- )
Winning the Pulitzer Prize for Music is one of the multitude of richly deserved tributes to composer, pianist, and educator George TheophilusWalker. His prolific career continues into his 90s with his commissioned SinfoniaNo. 4 (Strands), premiered in 2012 by the New Jersey Symphony
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Source: Black Past
Sponsored by Concerned Black Men of Massachusetts
Jun
27
1922
Burdett, Dr. Samuel (1849- ? )
Home › African American History in the West
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Source: Black Past
Sponsored by APEX Museum
(1860) Frederick Douglass, “the Constitution of the United States: Is It Pro-Slavery or Anti-slavery?”
Home Image Ownership: Public Domain Teaching American History.org http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/index.asp?document=1128
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Source: Black Past
After the Underground Railroad: Finding the African North Americans who Returned from Canada
The Underground Railroad which fugitive slaves followed from the antebellum South to Canada is now a well-known story. But what of those who returned?  In his ongoing research, University of Texas at El Paso historian Adam Arenson explores this little-known aspect of nineteenth- century African
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Source: Black Past
Whitfield, Lynn (1953– )
Lynn Whitfield is an American actress and producer. Whitfield is best known for her performance as Josephine Baker in the HBO biographical drama film, The Josephine Baker Story (1991), where she won a Primetime Emmy Award for outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries and a movie along with a Golden
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Source: Black Past
May
6
1953
A Marxist Scholar Analyzes the American Legal System
In the following article Professor Malik Simba, an historian at California State University, Fresno describes his professional and personal odyssey that led to the writing of his book, Black Marxism and American Constitutionalism: From the Colonial Background through the Ascendancy of Barack
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Source: Black Past
Eric Holder
Eric Himpton Holder, Jr. was the first African American Attorney General of the United States. He was born on January 2, 1951, to Eric and Miriam Holder in New York City. Eric and Miriam had both migrated from Barbados. Eric worked as a real estate agent and Miriam worked as a telephone
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Source: Black History Resources
Jan
2
1951
Black History Month 2014: 101 African American Firsts
Click Here For Previously Posted Annual Black History Month Projects on BlackPast.org
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Source: ThoughtCo
The Blood of Entertainers: The Life and Times of Jimi Hendrix's Paternal Grandparents
In the following article, Janie L. Hendrix, President and CEO of Experience Hendrix and  the younger sister of music legend Jimi Hendrix, reflects on the lives of their grandparents, Bertram Philander Ross Hendrix and Zenora Moore.  Her article reminds us of the rich entertainment heritage dating
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Source: Black Past
Running for President: George Edwin Taylor, 1904
In the article below Bruce Mouser, professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin, La Crosse, discusses his new book, For Labor, Race, and Liberty: George Edwin Taylor, His Historic Run for the White House, and the Making of Independent Black Politics which describes his efforts to chronicle the
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Source: Black Past
Egypt
President Morsi faced his first test in early August 2012, when militants shot and killed 16 Egyptian soldiers at an army checkpoint in Egypts Sinai Peninsula, which borders Israel. Several of the militants then drove into Israel, where their vehicle was destroyed by the Israeli military. Despite
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Source: Fact Monster - Black History
Jan
25
2013
Fort, Syvilla (1917-1975)
Syvilla Fort, born on July 3, 1917 in Seattle, was a professional dancer in the 1930s and early 1940s and prominent dance instructor in New York City for three decades between 1948 and 1975.  Her dance style, which combined African, Caribbean, and American rhythms, influenced hundreds of
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Source: Black Past
Nov
8
1975
Brown, Wesley (1927-2012)
Wesley Brown earned distinction in 1949 as the first African American to graduate from the United States Naval Academy.  Wesley Brown grew up in Washington, D.C. and attended Dunbar High School.  A “voracious reader,” Brown joined the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History
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Source: Black Past
Massey, Walter E. (1938 - )
Prominent educator Walter Eugene Massey was born in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, on April 5, 1938.  His father, Almar, was a steelworker and his mother, Essie, a teacher.  Massey had an exceptional mind, even at an early age.  By the time he finished 10th grade, his skills in mathematics were strong
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Source: Black Past
Apr
5
1938
George Carruthers
Often, greatness is determined by the times in which one finds oneself. For George Carruthers, growing up in the earliest stages of the space race, he like most other boys was fascinated with space travel. Unlike most of those boys, he would ultimately go on to make some of the greatest
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Source: Black History Resources
Nov
26
2012
Arroyo, Martina (1936- )
Born to a Puerto Rican father and African American mother, Martina Arroyo was a world-renowned operatic soprano from the 1960s through 1989, the year of her professional retirement. She and her contemporaries were the first generation of African American opera soloists to attain international
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Source: Black Past
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