Category: History

Author, playwright, poet, academic, and feminist Ama Ata Aidoo, a towering figure in African Literature, was born Christina Ama Ata Aidoo on March 23, 1942, in Abeadzi Kyiakor, Gold Coast,…

Christine Mann Darden is an internationally renowned aerospace engineer. In 1967 she became the youngest National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) data analyst and African American female mathematicians, hired by…

The Berkley Square Housing Project, opened in 1953 in Las Vegas, Nevada, was a historically significant project for African Americans because of its unique design and financing. Berkley Square is…

The first African American major of Atlantic City, James Leroy Usry, was born February 2, 1922, in Athens, Georgia. Shortly after his birth, the family moved to Atlantic City, New…

Alvin Austin Attles Jr. was a basketball player for the National Basketball Association (NBA) who played his entire career with the Golden State (California) Warriors and later became one of…

James W. Holley III was the first African American mayor of his hometown, Portsmouth, Virginia. He was born in Portsmouth on November 26, 1926. His parents were Laura and James…

The Harlem Renaissance in New York City attracted African Americans from every part of the United States, the West Indies, and the African continent to participate in its massive production…

Alvin A. Brown, the first African American mayor of Jacksonville, Florida was born on December 15, 1961, in Beaufort, South Carolina and was reared with his four siblings by his…

Lincoln I. Mulkey and Dorothy J. Mulkey were the challengers in a major lawsuit, Reitman v. Mulkey, that reestablished housing discrimination laws in the state of California. Lincoln I. Mulkey…

William A. Johnson Jr., the first African American mayor of Rochester, New York, was born in Lynchburg, Virginia, on August 22, 1942. He attended Howard University from 1961 to 1967,…