Educator Janie Porter Barrett was the founder of the first Black Settlement House in Virginia, the State Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs in Virginia, and the Virginia Industrial School for Colored Girls. Janie Porter was born in Athens, Georgia, on August 9, 1865, the daughter of Julia Porter, a formerly enslaved domestic worker in a white household. Janie’s father is […]

Lewis A. Jackson was a Black aviator, Tuskegee Airman Instructor, and later an HCBU president. Jackson was born on December 29, 1912, to unnamed parents in Angola, Indiana. At eight, Jackson started working to contribute to his family’s income. He also constructed model airplanes and read about crosswind landings in encyclopedias. In 1927, at the age of 15, he had […]

In the following article, Amy Ballard, Senior Historic Preservation Specialist Emerita, Smithsonian Institution, describes the life of Russian-born James Lloydovich Patterson, who at the age of three was propelled to stardom in the 1936 Soviet classic film TSIRK (Circus). It was, in its own way, a critique of racial discrimination in the United States and other capitalist nations. It also […]

The founder and long-time owner of Taylor Electric Company, Samuel “Sam” Taylor, was born in Montgomery, Alabama, on April 9, 1896, the son of Rufus and Martha Taylor. His father and two brothers, William and Martin, and later Sam himself, worked in the coal mines in Pratt City, Alabama, a notoriously rough company town near Birmingham, memorialized by Bertha “Chippie” […]

Soviet agricultural specialist and one of the first popularizers of turkey breeding in the USSR, George Tynes was born in 1908 into a large African American family in Norfolk, Virginia. His father was a Methodist minister, and his mother was Native American. His cousin was the famous American opera singer Margaret Tynes. In his youth, Tynes attended lectures by W.E.B. […]

Edward Lee “Too Tall” Jones, is a former professional football player best known for playing for the Dallas Cowboys his entire career. Jones was born on February 23, 1951, to Abbie Jones and Jack Jones in Jackson, Tennessee. Growing up, Jones attended Merry High School (Now Jackson Central-Merry Early College High School), where he played baseball, basketball, and football. After […]

Choreographer, dancer, and teacher Lorraine Graves was born Lorraine Elizabeth Graves on October 5, 1957, in Norfolk, Virginia, to Tommy E. Graves Jr., founder and CEO of Graves Funeral Home, and Mildred Odom Graves, a public school teacher. Lorraine had one brother, Tommy E. Graves III. They were reared in segregated Huntersville, Virginia. At an early age, her mother noticed […]

This editorial by BlackPast.org Board Chair Douglas Bender, addresses the ongoing challenge for survival faced by Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). It is a reminder of their importance to not just African American but to the entire United States. It feels as if thought there is an outright assault being launched against anything having to do with the progress […]

Politician, philanthropist, and investor Benoni Wilfred Urey is one of the wealthiest Liberians and the founder of Lonestar Cell Mobile telecommunication corporation (MTN), Liberia’s largest nationwide mobile network. Urey was born on June 22, 1957, in Careysburg Montserrado County, the Republic of Liberia to Daniel Urey, an agriculturist, and Emma Boyce Urey. Benoni, the eighth of eleven children, graduated in […]

Nashville Sit-ins Courtesy U.S. Library of Congress   It is a story of strivers and achievers, of resilience and grace, of unthinkable pain and unbelievable triumph. It is Black history, and it is disappearing before our very eyes. Removed from school curricula, pulled from library shelves, vanished from public memory. Consider recent headlines: • In Virginia, the governor sets up […]