Mount Nebo Missionary Baptist Church, located at 257 Carver Avenue in Philadelphia, Neshoba County, Mississippi, was a unique institution that not only served the needs of its parishioners but was also the headquarters for civil rights activity in that region of Mississippi in the 1960s. Founded in 1947 by the Reverend A.D. Adkins, it would eventually serve as a cornerstone […]

The first African American mayor of Fairbanks, Alaska, James C. Hayes was born in Sacramento, California on May 26, 1946. His parents were Caustella and Juanita Metoyer Hayes. In 1955, after his parents divorced, James and his mother relocated to Fairbanks, Alaska. As a teenager, James attended Austin E. Lathrop High School in Fairbanks. In 1964 he was a member […]

Jayne Kennedy Overton is a model, actress, and corporate spokeswoman. Kennedy was born Jayne Harrison on October 27, 1951, to Herbert and Virginia Harrison in Wickliffe, Ohio. She attended Wickliffe High School in Wickliffe, Ohio, and graduated in 1969. In 1970, Kennedy was crowned the 1970 Miss Ohio USA. Kennedy later competed in the Miss USA national contest that same […]

Jazz singer Betty Carter was born Lillie Mae Jones on May 16, 1929, in Flint, Michigan, to James Jones, a church musical director, and Bessie Jones, an active member of the NAACP. However, Betty was reared in Detroit and sang in the Hartford Avenue Baptist Church. At 16, she began singing in the choir at the Sidney D. Miller, a […]

Claude William Black Jr. was one of the most important advocates for civil rights and social justice in San Antonio, Texas. He was born on November 28, 1916, in San Antonio, Texas, to Claude William Black Sr., the Vice President of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, and Cora Lee Word Black, a homemaker from Midway, Texas. Claude had a […]

STUDENTS FOR FAIR ADMISSIONS, INC. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College certiorari to the united states court of appeals for the first circuit ________________________________________ No. 20–1199. Argued October 31, 2022—Decided June 29, 2023 ________________________________________ Harvard College and the University of North Carolina (UNC) are two of the oldest institutions of higher learning in the United States. Every year, tens […]

Television pioneer and Emmy-nominated actor John Amos was born John Allen Amos Jr. on December 27, 1939, in Newark, New Jersey, to John A. Amos, an automobile mechanic, and Annabelle P. Amos, a nutritionist. He was reared in East Orange, where he attended Stockton School and Columbian Junior High School before graduating from East Orange High School in 1958. Amos […]

Howard Nathaniel Lee made history in 1969 as the first African American to be elected mayor of any majority-white city in the South. Lee was born on July 28, 1934, in Lithonia, Georgia, to sharecroppers Howard Lee and Lou Temple who had six other children. Lee attended Flat Rock Church School near Lithonia, which was founded by his mother in […]

Abigail Noel FISHER, Petitioner v. UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN et al. No. 11-345. Supreme Court of United States. Argued October 10, 2012. Decided June 24, 2013. Bert W. Rein, Washington, DC, Petitioner. Gregory G. Garre, Washington, DC, for Respondents. Donald B. Verilli, Jr., for the United States as amicus curiae, by special leave of the Court, supporting the Respondents. […]

MILLIKEN, GOVERNOR OF MICHIGAN, ET AL. v. BRADLEY ET AL. No. 73-434. Supreme Court of United States. Argued February 27, 1974. Decided July 25, 1974.[*] CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT. Frank J. Kelley, Attorney General of Michigan, argued the cause for petitioners in No. 73-434. With him on the brief were Robert A. […]