People, Locations, Episodes

Amílcar Cabral, Pan-African Activist born

*Amílcar Cabral was born on this date in 1924.  He was a Bissau-Guinean and Cape Verdean agricultural engineer and Pan-African.  Amílcar Lopes da Costa Cabral was born in Bafatá, Guinea-Bissau, to Cape Verdean parents, Juvenal Antònio Lopes da Costa Cabral and Iva Pinhel Évora, both from Santiago, Cape Verde. His father came from a wealthy […]

Carolyn Robertson Payton, Psychologist born

*Carolyn Robertson Payton was born on this date in 1925. She was an African American Psychologist and global peace administrator and advocate.

Franz Fanon, Writer born

*Frantz Fanon was born on this date in 1925.  He was an Afro Caribbean author, psychiatrist, and political philosopher.  Frantz Omar Fanon was born on the Caribbean island of Martinique.   His father, Félix Casimir Fanon, was a descendant of African slaves and worked as a customs agent. His mother, Eléanore Médélice, was Afro Martinique […]

Emmett Chappelle, Biochemist born

Emmett W. Chappelle, an African American scientist, was born on this date in 1925.

He was born in Phoenix, AZ. In 1950, he received a Bachelor of Science from the University of California. From 1950 to 1953, Chappelle an instructor in Biochemistry at the Meharry Medical College. A year later, he received a Master of Science from the University of Washington. Between 1955 and 1958, Chappelle was a research associate at Stanford University. He was appointed scientist and biochemist for the Research Institute of Advanced Studies at Stanford University, a post he held until 1963.

Dr. William Conan Davis, Biochemist born

*Dr. William Davis was born on this date in 1926.  He was a Black research scientist, professor emeritus (biochemistry), and inventor.   William Conan Davis was born in Waycross, Georgia, to Kince Charles Davis and his wife Laura Jane (née Cooper. Kince Davis’ family was Ethiopian Jews, and he read Hebrew but not English.  He was a railway construction engineer and crew boss, a position that […]

James Forte, Chemical Lab Assistant born

*James Forte was born on this date in 1927. He was a Black Lab Assistant and health director. From Brooklyn, New York, Forde, in 1944, was hired by the Union Carbide and Carbon Company and began working on the Manhattan Project. He worked at the Nash Garage Building at Columbia University, where scientists worked on […]

Morris Miller, Nurse, and Health Care Advocate born

Morris Miller was born on this date in 1927. He was an African American nurse and health care advocate.

Florence Saunders Farley, Psychologist and Educator born

*Florence Saunders Farley was born on this date in 1928.  She was a Black psychologist, educator, politician, and community activist. Florence Saunders was born in Roanoke, Virginia, to Neoda and Stacious Saunders. She attended Harrison Elementary School in Roanoke. After graduating as the salutatorian of her class from Lucy Addison High School in 1946, Farley […]

Alyce Gullattee, Activist born

*Alyce Gullattee was born on this date in 1928.  She was a Black psychologist, educator, and activist.  Born and raised in Detroit, her family had moved from Georgia during the Great Migration. Neither of her parents made it to high school, and her father worked at a Chrysler plant as a furnace stoker. But Gullattee’s […]

Eugene Hickman Sr., Pharmacist, and Educator born

*The birth of Eugene Hickman Sr. is celebrated on this date in 1928. He was a Black Pharmacist and educator. From Louisiana, Hickman excelled in his pre-collegiate education in the segregated public schools of Louisiana and Texas. After a tour of duty in the United States Army, he enrolled at Texas Southern University. He completed […]

Mary Munson Runge, Pharmacist born

*Mary Munson Runge was born on this date in 1928.  She was a Black Pharmacist and medical rights advocate.  She was born Mary Lowery in Donaldsonville, Louisiana. Runge’s father, John Harvey Lowery, was a pharmacy owner and physician who was notable for running the first pharmacy in Donaldsonville.   Runge graduated from the Xavier University […]

Betty Smith Williams, Nurse, and Administrator born

*Betty Smith Williams’s birth is celebrated on this date in 1929. She was a Black nurse and administrator. Betty Smith was born in South Bend, Indiana. Her father was a minority rights activist and member of the NAACP chapter. She was raised to advocate for equality and did just that. In 1954, Williams earned her […]

Eleanora Green, Mathematician born

*Eleanor Green was born on this date in 1929. She was a retired Black mathematician and educator.   From Norfolk, VA, she was one of six children of Lillian Vaughn Green, a former domestic worker, and George Herbert Green, a postal letter carrier. Though neither of her parents attended college, they raised all six children […]

Meredith Gourdine, Physics Researcher, and Engineer born

Meredith C. Gourdine was born on this date in 1929. He was an African American physicist, and engineer.

He was born in Newark, N.J. he received a B.S. in Engineering Physics from Cornell University in 1953, and a Ph.D. in Engineering Physics from the California Institute of Technology in 1960. While at Cornell, he ran track and won a silver medal in the long jump at the Olympic Games in 1952.

Ida Owens, Biochemist, and Researcher born

On this date in 1929, Ida Stephens Owens was born. She is an African American biochemist.

She was born in Newark, and received a Ph.D. in Biology-Physiology from Duke University in 1967. At the National Institutes of Health (NIH), biochemist Dr. Owens conducted studies in the genetics of detoxification enzymes. This research was aimed at shedding light on how the human body defends itself against poison.

Owens is currently with the Section of Genetic Disorders of Drug Metabolism, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Bethesda, MD.