Michael Spinks is a former professional boxer and Olympic gold medalist. He was born on November 3, 1956, to Leon Spinks Jr. and Kay Francis Spinks in St. Louis, Missouri. He is the younger brother of Leon Spinks, the professional boxer best known for defeating Muhammad Ali for the Undisputed Heavyweight Championship in 1978. Spinks attended Vashon High School in […]

Originally developed as a tool to help Black children attend better schools, school voucher programs now serve a different purpose. Drazen via Getty Images School voucher programs that allow families to use public funds to pay tuition to attend private schools have become increasingly popular. Thirteen states and the District of Columbia currently operate voucher programs. In addition, 15 states […]

The Negro Boys Industrial School Fire, also known as the Wrightsville Fire, occurred on March 5, 1959, at the Negro Boys Industrial School (NBIS), a juvenile correctional facility for Black male youth located near Wrightsville, Arkansas. On that tragic day, twenty-one African American boys died in a dormitory fire at the facility. The NBIS was originally established to house juvenile […]

Nyjah Imani Huston is an American professional skateboarder. He was born on November 30, 1994, to Adeyemi Huston and Kelle Huston in Davis, California. Huston and his siblings were raised in a strict Rastafarian lifestyle: they were vegans, and their mother homeschooled them. Huston began skateboarding at the age of five, introduced to the sport by his father, who was […]

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 […]