People, Locations, Episodes

Provident Hospital, (Florida) Opens

*On this date in 1938, Provident Hospital opened in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.   Located at 1409 Sixth Avenue, it was founded by two African American physicians, Von D. Mizell and James Sistrunk. During Jim Crow in the South, none of the existing hospitals in Fort Lauderdale would accept Black patients. In 1937, a young Black […]

Gloria Long Anderson, Chemist, and Administrator born

*Gloria Long Anderson was born on this date in 1938. She is a Black chemist, administrator, and professor. Gloria Long was born in Altheimer, Arkansas, where she was the fourth child and only girl in a family of six children. She is the daughter of Elsie Lee Foggie Long, a seamstress, and Charles Long, a […]

Genevieve Knight, Math Educator born

*Genevieve Knight was born on this date in 1939. She is an African American mathematician and teacher.

Clara Adams-Ender, Military Officer born

*Clara Adams-Ender was born on this date in 1939.  She is an African American U.S. Army General, Nursing advocate and author.

She was born in Willow Springs, North Carolina the fourth child of ten and grew up in a family of sharecroppers.   Her parents were Caretha Bell Sapp Leach and Otha Leach.  She attended North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University earning her B.S. degree in nursing in 1961. After that Adams-Ender joined the U.S. Army Nurse Corps.

Claudette Colvin, Activist born

*Claudette Colvin was born on this date in 1939.  She is a retired African American nurse aide and activist who pioneered the 1950s American civil rights movement.   The daughter of Mary Jane Gadson and C. P. Austin, she was born Claudette Austin. Her parents could not financially support her, so Mary Anne and Q.P. Colvin, great aunt and […]

Charles Crutchfield Sr., Obstetrician and Gynecologist born

*Charles Crutchfield was born on this date in 1939.  He is a retired Black Obstetrician and Gynecologist.  Charles Edward Crutchfield, born in Jasper, Alabama, is one of six children of Charles and Cessie Crutchfield. His siblings are Doris Jean, Albert, Dessie Lee, Napoleon, and Josephine. He attended Walker County Technical High School. In 1955, young […]

George Carruthers, Astrophysicist born

George R. Carruthers, an African American astrophysicist, was born on this date in 1939.

Carruthers grew up in Chicago and attended the University of Illinois, where he received a B.Sc. (1961) in aeronautical engineering, an M.Sc. (1962) in nuclear engineering and a Ph.D. (1964) in aeronautical and astronomical engineering. After graduation, Dr. Carruthers joined the rocket astronomy group at the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) in Washington where his work focused on ultraviolet observations of the Earth’s upper atmosphere and of astronomical phenomena.

William E. Cross, Psychologist born

*William Cross’s birth is celebrated on this date in 1940. He is a Black educator, theorist, and psychology researcher in ethnic identity development, specifically Black identity development. William E. Cross Jr. was born in Evanston, Illinois, the son of Bill and Margaret Cross. He was the fourth child and first son; his father was a […]

Black History And The Manhattan Project, a story

*On this date in 1941, we affirm the Manhattan Project and Black history.  This American project (Metallurgical Laboratory) led to the development of the atomic bomb, which ended World War II.  With lobbying from A. Phillip Randolph, Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Executive Order 8802 was issued that summer.  It stated, “There shall be no discrimination in […]

Hamilton Holmes, Physician born

*Hamilton Holmes was born on this date in 1941.  He was a Black orthopedic physician.   Hamilton E. Holmes was born in Atlanta, Georgia. His father, Alfred, was a businessman, and his mother, Isabella, was a teacher. His grandfather, Hamilton Mayo Holmes, was a physician and was one of Hamilton’s influences. His grandfather and uncle, Alfred Holmes, helped to […]

Charlene Drew Jarvis, Educator and Politician born.

*Charlene Drew Jarvis was born on this date in 1941. She is a Black educator, a scientific researcher, and a politician. From Washington, D.C., Charlene Rosella Drew) is the daughter of Charles Drew and the sister of Sylvia Drew Ivie. Jarvis earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from Oberlin College in 1962, a Master of […]

Winonah Beamer Myers, Activist and Health Practitioner born

*Winonah Beamer Myers was born on this date in 1941.  She was a white-American civil rights activist and Mental health practitioner.   Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Margaret Winonah Beamer attended Central State University in Wilberforce, Ohio, and joined the Freedom Riders in the summer of 1961.   Beamer joined four other activists on a train from Nashville, Tennessee, to Jackson, Mississippi, where they […]

Terrence Roberts, Sociologist born

*Terrence Roberts was born on this date in 1941. He is an African American Psychologist, sociologist, author and activist.

Gloria Cecelia Ray Karlmark, Chemist, Educator, and Activist born

*Gloria Cecelia Ray Karlmark was born on this date in 1942. She is a Black chemist, educator, and member of the Little Rock Nine. Born in Little Rock, she was one of the three children of Harvey C. and Julia Miller Ray; she was 15 when she attempted to enter Little Rock Central High School, where […]

Patricia Era Bath, Ophthalmologist born

*Patricia Era Bath was born on this date in 1942. She is an African American ophthalmologist, inventor and academic.

Bath is the daughter of Rupert and Gladys Bath. From in Harlem, NYC, as a child her parents encouraged her academically. Her father, an immigrant from Trinidad, was a newspaper columnist for the Amsterdam News, a merchant seaman and the first black man to work for the New York City Subway as a motorman. Her mother was an American citizen, whose direct descendants were African slaves and Cherokee Indians.