Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema is the current head of state of Gabon, serving as the transitional president since August 2023 but formally sworn in as president in May 2025 following an election. Born on March 3, 1975, in Ngouoni, Haut-Ogooué Province, Gabon, his rise to power marked the end of over five decades of Bongo family rule in the Central […]

Terrance Michael Drew, born on November 22, 1976, is a Kittitian medical doctor and politician who currently serves as the fourth Prime Minister of Saint Kitts and Nevis. Drew graduated from Clarence Fitzroy Bryant College in 1996. Early in his career, at the age of 19, he worked as a part-time teacher at Basseterre High School. His passion for medicine […]

Lena Richard was a chef, restaurateur, cookbook author, and frozen food entrepreneur. In 1949, she became the first African American woman to host her own television cooking show. Richard was born on September 9, 1892, to Francoise Laurent and Jean Pierre Paul in New Roads, Louisiana. At a young age, her family moved to New Orleans, where her mother and […]

Fatima Ahmed Ibrahim was a towering figure in Sudanese politics and a pioneering advocate for women’s rights. Born in Khartoum, her exact birth year varies in sources, ranging from 1928 to 1933. She was part of an educated and politically conscious family; her grandfather was a headmaster and imam, and her father, a teacher, was dismissed for refusing to teach […]

Julia C. Collins was an African American educator, novelist, and abolitionist best known for her work The Curse of Caste; or, The Slave Bride, considered the first novel written by an African American woman. Born in 1842 to unnamed parents, little is known about her early life, though many believe she was born a free woman in the northern United […]

Pioneering physician and cancer researcher Lucy Orintha Oxley was born on August 19, 1912, in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Her father, Edmund Oxley, a minister from Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, was the first Black graduate of Harvard Divinity School at Harvard University. Her mother, Esther Winifred Turner Oxley, was an educator from Washington, DC, and a graduate of Howard University. […]

Joan Little is an African American woman who was charged in 1974 with the murder of Clarence Alligood, a white prison guard at the Beaufort County Jail in Washington, North Carolina. Alligood attempted to rape Little, but she fought back and killed him in the process before escaping the facility. Her case became a cause célèbre among civil rights activists, […]

King Houegbadja was the first king and founder of the Kingdom of Dahomey, located in present-day Benin, ruling from 1645 to 1685. He is also credited with creating the Dahomey Amazons, an all-female military regiment of the kingdom. The exact date of Houegbadja’s birth and details of his early life are unknown. However, his rise to power is based on […]

Joseph Nyumah Boakai, the 26th and current President of Liberia, has a distinguished career spanning over 40 years in public service. Born on November 30, 1944, in the remote village of Worsonga, Foya District, Lofa County, Boakai’s journey to the presidency is marked by humble beginnings. Growing up in a rural setting, he attended primary and high schools in Sierra […]

In 1890, individuals from three different Baptist congregations in Tennessee moved to the newly opened Oklahoma Territory. After undergoing two name changes and a merger, Calvary Baptist Church was formed in 1900. The church was established in a part of Oklahoma City that would later become known as “Deep Deuce,” a historic African American neighborhood and the birthplace of famed […]