Composer, conductor, flutist, saxophonist, and pedagogic Davey Yarborough was born in 1953 in Washington, DC. He attended Paul and Rabaut Junior High Schools, and in 1971, Yarborough graduated from Coolidge Senior High School in the city. Afterward, he enrolled in the University of the District of Columbia (UDC) and completed the Bachelor of Arts in Music Education. He also earned […]

Drazen Zigic/Shutterstock In the UK, out of 164 university vice-chancellors, only two are Black. Professor David Mba was recently appointed as the first Black vice-chancellor at Birmingham City University. There are 165 Black professors in the UK – out of 23,515. The disparity becomes even more alarming when examining the representation of Black female professors. Only 61 UK professors are […]

fizkes/Shutterstock A 2020 report on racial harassment published by industry body Universities UK drew attention to the “institutional racism and systemic issues that pervade the entire higher education sector”. In the same year, the Black Lives Matter movement drew attention to inequality faced by Black people across society. UK universities pledged to do more to root out racism. In 2022, […]

The most celebrated African artist of the 20th century was the modernist sculptor-painter from Onitsha, Anambra, Nigeria, born Odinigwe Benedict Chukwukadibia Enwonwu on July 14, 1917. One of the twin sons of cloth merchandiser Chinyelugo Nweze and Omenka Enwonwu, an engineer with the Royal Niger Company, he inherited a love for sculpting from his father, who delighted in carving wood […]

Alessandro Sinigaglia was among several notable anti-fascist and anti-Nazi partisan fighters in Europe during World War II who were of African descent. Sinigaglia, born in the town of Fiesole near Florence, Italy, on January 2, 1902, was the son of an Italian Jew, David Sinigaglia, a mechanic from Mantua, and an African American maid from St. Louis, Missouri, Cynthia White. […]

R&B superstar, rapper, lyricist, actor, and dancer Chris Brown, one of the most successful contemporary artists of the 21st century, was born Christopher Maurice Brown on May 5, 1989, in Tappahannock, Virginia to Clinton Brown and Joyce Hawkins. He has one older sister, Lytrell Bundy. Brown began performing for his church choir and community extravaganzas in Tappahannock as a child. […]

Guinean national political independence martyr, women’s rights activist, and national heroine of the Democratic Party of Guinea, M’Balia Camara was born in 1929 in the village of Posséya, Guinea, near Gonga Khimbéli and Yenguissa. Despite humble beginnings, she refused to allow herself to be limited and restricted to domestic activities. Instead, she joined and campaigned with anti-colonialist activists calling for […]

The Golden 14 were the first Black women to muster into the United States Navy. First recognized by scholar Kelly Miller in his 1919 book “Kelly Miller’s History of the World War for Human Rights,” but subsequently nearly lost to history after the war, the women were latter dubbed the Golden 14 in homage to World War II’s Golden 13, […]

Olga “Ollie” Burgoyne, also known as Ollie Burgoyne-Calloway, was a singer and dancer specializing in Russian and other ethnic dances. She was also an actress and businesswoman who gained popularity during the Harlem Renaissance and left her mark among the most influential African American dancers and choreographers of the time. Ollie Burgoyne was born in Chicago, Illinois on June 13, […]

Mmanthatisi was the chief military strategist of the Tlowka people in early 19th Century South Africa. Mmanthatisi was born in 1784 to Mothaha, chief of the Basia ethnic group, and unnamed mother. At a young age, Mmanthatisi was sent to marry her cousin, Mokotjo, who was the chief of the Batlokwa people. The couple had three children together, including a […]