People, Locations, Episodes

Heman M. Sweatt, Educator and Activist born

*Heman Sweatt was born on this date in 1912. He was an African American educator, postal worker and activist.

Juanita Mitchell, Lawyer born

Juanita Jackson Mitchell was born on this date in 1913. She was an African American lawyer, administrator, and activist.

Rosa Parks, Activist born

*Rosa Parks was born on this date in 1913. She was an African American civil rights activist.

Rosa McCauley grew up in Montgomery, Alabama and attended the all-Black Alabama State College. Rosa and her husband Raymond Parks were active in Montgomery’s chapter of the NAACP. She worked as the chapter’s youth adviser; on voter registration drives and was secretary of the NAACP’s Montgomery branch in 1943. As the 1950’s began, the segregated seating policies on public buses were growing as a source of resentment and bitterness within the Black community in Montgomery.

Gloster B. Current, Administrator born

*Gloster B. Current was born on this date in 1913. He was an administrator and activist. Born in Indianapolis, Indiana, his family came to Detroit in 1923. After graduating from Northwestern High School, he attended the Detroit Institute of Musical Arts and the Detroit Institute of Technology. He received his B.A. from West Virginia State College in […]

Trevor Huddleston, Bishop born

*Trevor Huddleston was born on this date in 1913. He was a white English Anglican bishop and racial justice activist. He was best known for his work against apartheid. Ernest Urban Trevor Huddleston was the son of Ernest Huddleston and was born in Bedford, Bedfordshire, and educated at Lancing College, Christ Church, Oxford, and Wells […]

Aimé Césaire, Writer, and Politican born

*Aimé Césaire was born on this date in 1913. He was an Afro Caribbean, Martinican poet, playwright, and politician.    His mother was a dressmaker in the small town of Basse-Pointe, and his father was the local tax inspector. Césaire was raised in Martinique with his five siblings. Although their father was well-educated, and they […]

Jewell Mazique, Journalist born

*Jewell Mazique was born on this date in 1913.  She was a Black and Native American Creek Cherokee journalist and activist.  Born in Georgia, Ms. Jewell Crawford graduated from Spelman College. She received a Master’s in African Studies from Howard University, where she wrote her thesis on the development of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland.  A member of Delta Sigma […]

Haywood Paterson, Scottsboro Boy born.

*Haywood Patterson was born on this date in 1913. He was one of the Scottsboro Boys. He was born in Elberton, Georgia. By age fourteen, he was riding the rails, looking for work. Patterson was in his late teens when he and eight other young black boys were accused of raping Victoria Price and Ruby Bates […]

Ray Alexander Simons, South African Activist, born.

*Ray Alexander Simons was born on this date in 1913. She was a white Jewish South African communist and anti-apartheid activist. Simons was born Rachel Ester Alexandrowich in Latvia. She was one of six children from Simka Simon and Dobe Alexandrowich. Her father taught her Russian and German languages and mathematics. He also ran a cheder […]

Charles K. Steele, Minister, and Activist born

*Charles K. Steele was born on this date in 1914. He was a Black preacher and a civil rights activist. Charles Kenzie Steele was the son of a coal miner and an only child from McDowell County, West Virginia. At a young age, he knew he wanted to be a preacher, and he started preaching […]

James Cameron, Holocaust Museum Founder born

*James Cameron was born on this date in 1914. He was an African American brewing worker, activist and founder of America’s Black Holocaust Museum.

From LaCrosse, Wisconsin he was the son of James Herbert Cameron and Vera Carter. After his father left the family they moved to Birmingham, Alabama, then to Kokomo, Indiana. When his mother remarried, the family resettled in Marion, Indiana. Young Cameron attended DaPayne School through the 8th grade where he was given the name “Apples” because he carried apples in his pockets for lunch.

Richard Mann, Businessman born

*Richard Mann was born on this date in 1914.  He was a retired Black businessman and community activist.  Richard Morris Mann was born in the Rondo Community of St. Paul, Minnesota.  He was the second child of Richard Matison Mann and Grace Starks Mann.  His other siblings included an older sister, Laura Mae, a younger […]

Myrtle Elizabeth Picou Sengstacke, Socialite and Activist born.

*Myrtle Elizabeth Picou Sengstacke was born on this date in 1914. She was a Black artisan, philanthropist, and activist. Myrtle Lorenza Picou was born to a New Orleans Creole family, including her father, Thomas W. Picou, Mother Mary E. Raggett (or Marie Raguette), Uncle Lewis W. Raggett, and brother Maurice (Morris) Picou. Her family moved […]

Abdias do Nascimento, Afro Brazilian Activist born

*Abdias do Nascimento was born on this date in 1914. He was an Afro Brazilian writer, scholar, activist and politician.

Anton Lembede, South African Lawyer and Activist born

*Anton Lembede was born on this date in 1914. He was a Black South African lawyer and activist. Anton Muziwakhe Lembede was born on the farm of Frank Fell near Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu Natal, South Africa. He was the eldest of seven children born to Mbazwana Martin and Martha Nora MaLuthuli Lembede. His father was a […]