*Who Speaks for the Negro? It was published on this date in 1965. This is a book of interviews by Robert Penn Warren conducted with 20th-century American Civil Rights Movement activists. In preparation for the book, Warren traveled throughout the United States in early 1964 and spoke with many men and women who were involved […]
learn more*Marian Croak was born on May 14, 1955. She is a Black engineer and inventor known for her voice-over IP (VoIP) related inventions. Dr. Marian Rogers Croak was born and raised in New York City. She credits her lifelong interest in technology to her father. While he did not have formal education beyond elementary school, […]
learn more*On this date in 1849, we celebrate Colored School #4. This school was built in New York City as an early segregated education building for Black students. The former Colored School No. 4 is a three-story mid-block brick school building constructed in 1849-50 on West 17th Street in the Chelsea neighborhood. It is the only […]
learn more*Joan Howard was born on this date in 1848. She was a Black educator and principal. Joan Imogen Howard was born in Boston. Her father, Edwin Frederick Howard, was a well-known citizen of that City, and her mother, Joan Louise Turpin Howard, was a native of New York. She had one sister, Adeline Turpin Howard, […]
learn more*Charles Walter David Jr. was born on this date in 1917. He was a Black sailor. David served as a Steward’s Mate in the United States Coast Guard and died of pneumonia after rescuing other sailors from the frigid North Atlantic. He was assigned to the USCGC Comanche during World War II, where he was […]
learn more*John Alcindor was born on this date in 1873. He was a Black British physician and activist. John Alcindor was born in Port of Spain, Trinidad, and educated at Saint Mary’s College. After winning one of the four Island Scholarships, he studied medicine at Edinburgh University, Scotland, graduating with a medical degree in 1899. He […]
learn more*Bessie Mae Downey Rhoades Martin was born on this date in 1900. She was a Black teacher and sorority administrator. Bessie Mae Downey was the youngest of six children raised in Indianapolis, IN. She graduated from Manual Training High School and the City Teachers Normal School. In 1943, Martin earned her bachelor’s degree from Butler […]
learn more*Hattie Mae Annette Dulin was born on this date in 1896. She was a Black teacher and sorority administrator. Hattie Mae Annette Dulin was born in Greenville, Kentucky. Her parents were James and Mary Elizabeth Dulin. Like a growing number of African Americans in the early twentieth century, her family left the South for the […]
learn more*Nannie Mae Johnson was born on this date in 1904. She was a Black teacher and sorority administrator. Johnson was a product of the Indianapolis Public School System and received both B.S. and M.S. degrees from Butler University. In 1922, she met the teachers who became her best friends and founders of Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc. In […]
learn more*The birth of Cubena McClure is celebrated on this date in 1901. She was a Black teacher and sorority administrator. Cubena McClure was born in Indianapolis, IN. Graduated from Shortridge High School in 1919 and later began teaching in the IPS at Schools Nos. 24 and 26. She hosted the Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority’s first initiation in […]
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