James E. Anderson, Sr. was an educator and civic leader. Born in Springfield, Missouri, Anderson experienced early adversity, losing his parents at a young age. He was raised by relatives in Chanute, Kansas, before moving to Wichita as a high school student. There, he graduated from Wichita East High School, laying the foundation for an exceptional career in education and […]

The Negro Family: The Case For National Action Office of Policy Planning and Research United States Department of Labor March 1965 ________________________________________ Two hundred years ago, in 1765, nine assembled colonies first joined together to demand freedom from arbitrary power. For the first century we struggled to hold together the first continental union of democracy in the history of man. […]

Gilbert H. Bradley, Jr. was a pioneering politician who became the first African American mayor of Kalamazoo, Michigan. He was born on September 16, 1940, in Hodge, Louisiana, to Gilbert and Carrie Bradley. When he was three years old, his family moved to Inkster, Michigan. While much of Bradley’s early life remains undocumented, he attended Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, […]

Roscoe Dubois Draper, the last instructor of the Tuskegee Airmen, served during World War II and was a “triple-rated” Tuskegee Airmen Flight Instructor. He was born in Haverford, Pennsylvania, on May 4, 1919, to Edgar and Ethel Draper, the fourth of nine children. His siblings were Earl Draper, Cora Draper, Percy Draper, Marie Draper Pierce, Barbara Draper Newton, William Draper, […]

Malcolm-Jamal Warner was a talented actor, poet, musician, director, and producer, born on August 18, 1970, in Jersey City, New Jersey. He was named after the civil rights activist Malcolm X and the jazz legend Ahmad Jamal. His father, Robert Warner Jr., worked in drug intervention programs and graduated from Lincoln University in Pennsylvania. After his parents’ divorce, his mother, […]

Richard Gadson is an African American drag bike racer. He was born on March 8, 1986, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Much of Gadson’s early life is unknown, but he always had a passion for drag bike racing. Some of his earliest memories of the sport come from watching his uncle, Ricky, race in the Pro Stock Motorcycle class in the 1990s. […]

Carroll Napier Langston (1881-1972), lawyer, banker, and businessman, was one of the principal founders of the One-Cent Savings Bank in Nashville, Tennessee. Founded in 1904, it was the first Black institution of its kind and remains operational today as Citizens Savings Bank and Trust Company, the oldest continuously owned Black financial institution in the country. Langston was born in St. […]

Lucy Breckenridge, best known for her diary covering early Washington State History, was born March 18, 1857, in Staunton, Virginia. In 1870, when Lucy was 13 years old, she did domestic work at the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum in Weston, Virginia. Henry Breckenridge, born October 31, 1848, was a laborer at the asylum. Lucy and Henry married on December 21, 1871, […]

Mary Elliott Hill, a pioneer, educator and inventor, is known as one of the earliest African American women in the field of chemistry and is responsible (with her husband, Carl McClellan Hill) for the development of ketene synthesis. Hill’s research on ketene synthesis is described as a building block and significant in the science and medical community. Elliott—born January 5, […]

Charles Henry Carroll was born May 10, 1877, in Tazewell, Virginia, to Charles H. and Bettee Carroll, who was already widowed by 1880. He attended Virginia State College and went on to earn a medical degree from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine in 1906, where he was among the medical school’s first Black graduates.  A pioneering African American […]