Lyricist, Singer, dancer, arranger, and trumpeter Valaida Snow was born on June 2, 1905, in Chattanooga, Tennessee to John Snow, a minister who assembled a troupe of child performers known as the Pickaninny Troubadours who toured throughout the South performing on Black theater and vaudeville stages. Her mother was Etta Snow, a Howard University-educated music teacher, who taught her children […]

Civil Rights Attorney Michael Joseph, a first-generation Haïtien American and the first Black mayor to lead the city of North Miami in its 100-year history, was born on August 18, 1981, in Miami, Florida, at Jackson Memorial Hospital to Louis Joseph, a pastor, and Elvina Joseph, from Port-de-Paix, Haïti.  He and his sister, Lucy Joseph, were reared in the Little […]

Lyric Contralto Jazz artist Samara Joy (McLendon) was born on November 11, 1999, and raised in the Castle Hill neighborhood of the Bronx, New York, by her parents, Antonio McLendon, a rhythm-and-blues artist and bassist, and Ruth McLendon. Her grandparents, Elder Goldwire and Ruth McLendon led the Philadelphia gospel group the Savettes. Samara has a younger brother, Zachary McLendon. At […]

Super Bowl 41 was the first Super Bowl contest pitting teams led by two African American coaches, Tony Dungy, of the Indianapolis (Indiana) Colts and Lovie Smith of the Chicago (Illinois) Bears in the National Football League (NFL). The game was played on February 4, 2007, in Dolphin Stadium, Miami Gardens, Florida. Tony Dungy was born in Jackson, Michigan on […]

Monroe Nichols IV, born on September 24, 1983, is an American politician who was elected the first Black Mayor of Tulsa, Oklahoma. He assumed office on December 1, 2024, and is serving a four-year term. Nichols grew up in Waco, Texas, and is the son of Ramona Curtis, Ph. D., and Monroe Nichols III. His father and uncle were both […]

Andre Hill, a 47-year-old unarmed African American man became another Black Lives Matter victim when he was shot and killed by a white police officer, Adam Coy, of the Columbus, Ohio Police Department on December 22, 2020. Coy responded to a non-emergency call from a neighbor who reported suspicious activity involving someone sitting in an SUV and turning the vehicle […]

The story of Orville and Wilbur Wright and their first airplane flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina in 1903 is known to millions around the world. What is not known is that they had a rival in African American inventor Charles Frederick Page. See Page’s remarkable story, written by historian Kelly McCoy here. Charles Frederick Page Charles Frederick Page of […]

An active Texas frontier Army post between 1867 and 1889, Fort Concho at various times posted units from the Ninth and Tenth Cavalry Regiments and the Twenty-Fourth and Twenty-Fifth Infantry Regiments, outfits commonly identified today as Buffalo Soldiers. Established in 1867 near the convergence of the Main and North Concho Rivers in contemporary San Angelo, Texas, the fort was surrounded, […]

Olivette Miller, a harpist, vocalist, and actress, was born in New York City on February 2, 1914. Her parents were Flournoy Eakin Miller, an actor and playwright from Columbia, Tennessee, and Bessie Oliver Miller, an early 1900s chorus girl and a respected actress. Olivette, an only child, was reared in the Harlem’s famous Striver’s Row now known as the St. […]

In November 2023 Dontae Payne was elected mayor of Olympia, Washington. He is the first African American and openly gay mayor in Olympia’s 164 year history. Payne was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Soon after his birth the family moved to Allentown, Pennsylvania where Payne attended local schools. After graduating from high school Payne enlisted in the United States army. He […]