James Farley Ragland, Sr., pharmacist and poet, was born on August 24, 1904, in South Boston, Halifax, Virginia, in the Community Memorial Hospital, to Parham B. Ragland (1854-1909), a Baptist Preacher, and Lucy Ragland (1862-1943). James Ragland had one brother, Elijah Paul Ragland (1900-1962). The elder Ragland had other children: Leon Benson Ragland, and three sisters, Lizzy Ragland Lawrence, Kate […]

Youngstown, Ohio’s first African American mayor was Roy Koyo Jawara Williams, popularly known as “Jay” Williams was born in Youngstown on September 26, 1971, and attended public schools in the city. After high school graduation he attended Youngstown State University where he was awarded a bachelor’s degree in finance in 1989. After graduation, he worked for several local banks and […]

Award-winning flutist, composer, conductor, and the first woman president of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians Nicole Mitchell was born on February 17, 1967, in Syracuse, New York, to Joan Beard Mitchell, an artist and poet. She was reared in Anaheim, California. At nine, Mitchell began piano and viola and quickly excelled. During her teenage years, she began […]

Despite losing her father at the age of three, Mildred Katherine Ellis, born on September 20, 1906, in Johnson City, Tennessee, a renowned musicologist, composer, theorist, and pianist, began her piano studies early. Her academic journey began at Douglass Elementary School in Johnson City. On Sundays, however by her teenage years, she served as a pianist and accompanist for her […]

Nathaniel “Nat” Trives, the first African American mayor of Santa Monica, California, was born in 1934 or 1935 in Birmingham, Alabama. Shortly after his birth the family moved to Indiana, and later, Ohio. In 1949 the family relocated to Santa Monica, California where his father worked in real estate. After graduating from Santa Monica High School, Trives attended community college […]

Lucy Diggs Slowe was a trailblazer as an academic and athlete. In 1922, she was the first African American woman to serve as permanent Dean of Women and Professor of English at Howard University. Slowe established a separate women’s campus and three new dormitories to address women’s academic, physical, professional, and social development on the Howard campus. In 1917, however, […]

Dorie Ann Ladner was a lifelong Civil Rights Activist, beginning with becoming a Freedom Fighter in her youth. Ladner was born on June 28, 1942, in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. Her mother, Annie Woullard, was a homemaker, and her father, Eunice Ladner, was a dry cleaner. Ladner’s parents divorced when she was a toddler, and her mother later married a mechanic, William […]

In 2020, Ella Jones became the first Black and first female mayor of Ferguson, Missouri, the St. Louis suburb that became the focal point for national protests following the murder of teenager Michael Brown by a Ferguson police officer. After completing high school in 1972, Jones attended St. Louis Community College, Florissant Valley for two years. She then transferred to […]

Kenneth Cooper Alexander became Norfolk, Virginia’s first African American mayor, a historic milestone for the Commonwealth city founded in 1682. Born in Norfolk on October 17, 1966, to David Alexander, a funeral director and business owner, and Ruby Rebecca Cooper, a college graduate, professional clarinetist, and athlete, Kenneth was reared by his grandparents, Ruby Rose Cooper, a church secretary, and […]

World-renowned debate coach, philosopher, minister, and orator Thomas Freeman was born Thomas Franklin Freeman on June 27, 1919, in Richmond, Virginia, to Louis H. Freeman Sr. and Louise E. Willis. Young Thomas preached his first sermon at nine years old. He had seven brothers and three sisters. Freeman graduated from Armstrong High School in 1934 at 15 and received a Bachelor […]