People, Locations, Episodes

Michael Collins, Administrator born

*Michael Collins was born on this date in 1937. He was a Black educator and administrator.  Brother Michael Collins was the working-class son of Jacob Collins and Georgina Green in north Minneapolis. He graduated from De La Salle High School in 1955 and earned degrees in music and education from St. Mary’s University of Minnesota. […]

Colston Westbrook, Teacher, and Linguist born

*Colston Westbrook was born on this date in 1937. He was a Black teacher and linguist who worked in minority education and literacy.  Colston Richard Westbrook was born in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania.   His father was Sgt. Edward Cody Westbrook died in Germany while serving in World War II.  His mother, Virginia Ruth Colston, was a housewife […]

William Frantz Elementary School

*On this date in 1937 we affirm William Frantz Elementary School.   Along with McDonogh No. 19 Elementary School, it was involved in the New Orleans school desegregation crisis on that date.  This was an American elementary school located at 3811 North Galvez Street, New Orleans, Louisiana. The school was built in 1937. It was designed in understated Art Deco style by the school […]

Mary Frances Berry, Author, and Administrator born

*On this date in 1938 Mary Frances Berry was born. She is an African American lawyer, administrator, activist and author.

Berry was born in Nashville, Tennessee, where she attended public schools. She earned bachelors and master’s degrees at Howard University, a doctorate in history from the University of Michigan, and the jurist doctor degree from the University of Michigan Law School. She is a member of the Bar of the District of Columbia.

Reatha Clark King, Scientist, and Philanthropist born

Reatha Clark King was born on this date in 1938. She is an African American administrator, educator, scientist, and philanthropist.

From Pavo, Georgia, her father Willie was a farm laborer who left the family when Reatha was a child. Her mother, Ola Watts Campbell then moved the family to Moultree, Georgia where she worked as a domestic to support her three children. Clark-King spent her childhood years working in the cotton fields and on her aunt’s farm and on the property of landlords.

Gloria Randle Scott, Youth Administrator born.

*Gloria Randle Scott was born on April 14, 1938. She is a Black educator and youth administrator. Gloria Dean was born and raised in Houston, Texas; in 1959, she became the first African American to receive a degree in zoology from Indiana University and a Ph.D. in Higher Education in 1965. Dean was president of […]

Charles McDew, Activist and Educator born

*Charles McDew was born on this date in1938. He is an African American educator and activist.

From Massillion, Ohio, he led his first demonstration in the eighth grade, to protest violations of the religious freedom of Amish students in his hometown. As a student at South Carolina State College he became involved in the civil rights movement. This included a campaign against segregated lunch counters in Orangeburg, South Carolina in 1960.

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 […]

Morgan State University is Founded.

Morgan State College was founded on this date in 1938. It is one of over 100 Historically Black Colleges and Universities in America.

Reginald Buckner, Jazz Ambasador born

*Reginald Bucker was born on this date in 1938.  He was a Black musician and educator.   Born in Kansas City, Kansas, Reginal Tyrone Buckner grew up with an appreciation for the central location where many Jazz musicians of yore started.  He was also raised in the Strangers Rest Baptist church community.  Buckner was exposed […]

Howard Dodson Jr., Historian born

Howard Dodson, Jr., was born this date in 1939, in Chester, PA. He is an African American historian, writer, administrator, and lecturer.

Dodson attended West Chester State College, where he studied social studies and English with an emphasis on secondary education. He graduated in 1961 and went on to Villanova University, where he earned an M.A. in U.S. history and political science in 1963. A year later, Dodson went to Ecuador with the Peace Corps where he directed credit union education programs for the National Credit Union Federation.

Primus St. John, Writer, and Teacher born

*Primus St. John’s birth is celebrated on this date in 1939. He is a Black writer and educator.  Born in New York City, New York, St. John attended the University of Maryland and Lewis and Clark College. His collections of poetry include Communion: Poems, 1976-1998 (Copper Canyon Press, 1999), which won the Western States Book Award; Dreamer (1990), which […]

Julia Hare, Actress, and Author born

*Julia Hare was born on this date in 1939.  She was a Black educator, actress, author, and Black intellectual.   Julia Reed was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She earned her B.A. in Music from Langston University, her M.A. in music education from Roosevelt University, and her Ph.D. in education from California Coast University, Santa Ana.   She married psychologist […]

Doris Derby, Activist, and Educator born

*Doris Derby was born on this date in 1939. She was a Black activist, documentary photographer, director, and adjunct associate professor. Doris Adelaide Derby’s parents met in New York and married in the mid-1930s. She was raised in Williamsbridge, the outskirts of the Bronx. While in a predominantly white elementary school, she noticed a lack […]

Dave Dennis, Activist, and Author born

*Dave Dennis was born on this date in 1940.  He is a Black civil rights activist, author, and educator.  David J. Dennis was born on a plantation of sharecroppers in Omega, Louisiana, into a life of Jim Crow segregation.  He is the son of Thomas Dennis and Tizzie Perry Dennis Shepperd.  His family grew up in the Shreveport […]