Milton Lee Olive III was a United States Army soldier and the first African American to receive the Medal of Honor for his service in the Vietnam War. At just 18 years old, he heroically sacrificed his life by falling on a grenade to save the lives of his fellow soldiers on October 22, 1965, an act of extraordinary bravery […]

Seh-Dong-Hong-Beh, a name that means ‘God Speaks True’ in the Fon language, was a remarkable leader of the Mino, also known as the Ahosi (the wives of the king) or the Dahomey Amazons. She was born in 1835 in the Kingdom of Dahomey, which is located in present-day Benin, West Africa. Ghezo, the eleventh king of Dahomey from 1818 to […]

Agriculture in ancient Egypt began in the Nile River Delta Region of northern Egypt and the fertile basin known as the Faiyum, in the Predynastic Period between 6000 BCE and 3150 BCE. Some evidence, however, shows Egyptians engaged in agriculture as far back as 8000 BCE. While Egyptians were not the world’s first farmers, their efficient use of the land […]

Larry Holmes is a former professional boxer. He was born on November 3, 1949, to John and Flossie Holmes in Cuthbert, Georgia, the fourth of twelve children. His family moved to Easton, Pennsylvania, when he was five years old. Growing up, they experienced financial hardship and relied on welfare. To help support his family, Holmes dropped out of school in […]

Flora Jean “Flo” Hyman was an American volleyball player and Olympic silver medalist, widely considered a major Black pioneer in the sport. She was born on July 31, 1954, to George W. Hyman and Warrene Hyman in Los Angeles, California, and was the second of eight children. Hyman began playing beach volleyball at the age of 12 with her sister […]

Karl Anthony Malone is a former National Basketball Association (NBA) player who spent 18 seasons as a power forward with the Utah Jazz and Los Angeles Lakers. Born on July 24, 1963, in Summerfield, Louisiana, Malone was the youngest of nine children born to Shirley Malone and Shedrick Hay. He grew up working on a farm, chopping trees, hunting, and […]

Ricardo Scofidio, an architect and co-founder of Diller Scofidio + Renfro (DS+R), was born Ricardo Merrill Scofidio on April 16, 1935, in New York City. He was the son of Earl Marco Scofidio, a talented jazz clarinetist from Hamden, Connecticut, and June May Matthews Scofidio, who embraced her African American heritage. He had one brother, Basilio Herbert Scofidio. Ricardo’s legacy […]

Chester Mornay Williams was a South African rugby union player best known for playing as a winger for the South African national rugby team and for being the only non-White player on the team during the nation’s transition from Apartheid. He was born on August 8, 1970, to Wilfred and Julene Williams in Paarl, South Africa. His father played for […]

The 1972 Olympics Black Power Salute took place when two African American track and field athletes, Vincent Matthews and Wayne Collett, staged a political protest during the medal ceremony for the Men’s 400 meters at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, West Germany. This event is often referred to as “The Forgotten Protest,” as it is not as widely recognized […]

On January 23, 1948, 27-year-old Wardell Heath Henderson was executed in the Oregon State Penitentiary gas chamber for the 1945 Vanport murder of Walter Poole, a white butcher. The conviction, handed down by an all-white jury, was widely criticized as racially biased and unsupported by physical evidence. Despite local and national petitions to commute the sentence and new evidence suggesting […]