James Earl Chaney was a civil rights activist and a member of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). On June 21, 1964, Chaney, along with CORE members Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner, were murdered by members of the Ku Klux Klan in Philadelphia, Mississippi. Chaney was born on May 30, 1943, to Fannie Lee and Ben Chaney in Meridian, Mississippi. […]

Gospel musician, lyricist, and composer Bishop Rance Lee Allen was born on November 20, 1948, in Monroe, Michigan, to Thomas Allen from Nash County, North Carolina, and Emma Pearl Allen McKinney Mendez from Wiggins, Mississippi. Rance had six sisters, Anita Marie Allen Rocker, Judy Rocker, Annie Ford, Cecilia Chapman, Teresa Mendez, and Linda Mendez, and five brothers, Thomas Allen, Esau […]

Clarence E. Sasser was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his outstanding service in the Vietnam War. He was born in Chenango, Texas on September 12, 1947. Sasser grew up on a farm with a brother, a sister, four stepsiblings, his mother, and stepfather, who helped raise him. In 1970, Sasser married Ethel Morant, and they raised three sons, […]

On September 6, 1966, Charles DeLesline Foster became the first African American to enroll in The Citadel Corps of Cadets, the military institution in Charleston, South Carolina, founded in 1842. Foster was born on November 26, 1948, at St. Luke’s Hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to William C. Foster, Sr., a Korean War Veteran, and Blanche DeLesline Foster, a high school […]

Actress, composer, vocalist, dancer, and harpist Asnaketch Worku is also known as Asnaqètch Wèrqu. She was born in 1935 in Sidist Kilo, a community in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Her mother died during her childhood when she was three, and she did not know her father. Worku had one older sister, Elfinesh Marefia. A godmother reared them. Much of their youthful […]

Meaza Ashenafi Mengistu, a human rights activist, broke barriers in Ethiopia when, in 2018, she became the first woman to hold the position of President of the Federal Supreme Court of Ethiopia. Mengistu was born on July 25, 1964, in the Asosa Zone of Benishangul-Gumuz, Ethiopia, to Ashenafi Mengistu, former city mayor, and Askalech Tegegne. Meaza has eight siblings. In […]

Robert Charles O’Hara Benjamin, also known as R.C.O. Benjamin, was a Caribbean-born political activist, newspaper editor, minister, poet, teacher, author, and lawyer. He was born on the island of St. Kitts on March 31, 1855. Information about his parents is unknown, but we do know that Benjamin was sent to England as a young boy to study at Oxford and […]

Charles F. Booker was an Army veteran, civil servant, and community activist who fought against racially discriminatory schools in Plainfield, New Jersey. A native of Plainfield, Booker was born on May 26, 1923, and was raised by his aunt, Mrs. Martha Neal. In 1949, he married Anna Jane Downing, and they raised two children, Charles B. (Sharif) Booker and Beverly […]

Glanis Changachirere is a Zimbabwean feminist, human rights activist, and scholar. Changachirere is the founding Director of the Institute for Young Women Development (IYWD) and the founding Coordinator of the African Women’s Leader Forum (AWLF). She received a master’s degree in international relations (Gender) and Politics from the University of Birmingham in Great Britain and a master’s degree in public […]

Dr. Joyce A. Ladner, activist, sociologist, educator, mentor, and author worked fervently for equality and justice. Ladner was born Joyce Ann Ladner on October 12, 1943, in Hattiesburg, Mississippi to Annie Ruth Perryman. Joyce was raised with four brothers and four sisters, one of whom was activist Dorie Ladner with whom she worked closely during the 1960s Civil Rights Movement […]