August 3, 1937 Roland Wallace Burris, the first African American elected to statewide office in Illinois, was born in Centralia, Illinois. Burris earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from Southern Illinois University in 1959 and a Doctor of Jurisprudence degree from Howard University School of Law in 1963. After graduating from law […]
Archive | August, 2011
August 3rd in African American History – Naomi Ruth Sims
August 3, 2009 Naomi Ruth Sims, the first African American supermodel, died. Sims was born March 30, 1948 in Oxford, Mississippi. Sims’ early attempts to get modeling work through established agencies were frustrated by racial prejudice with some telling her that her skin was too dark. Her first break came in August, 1967 when she […]
August 2nd in African American History – William Henry Thompson
August 2, 1951 William Henry Thompson was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor, the military’s highest decoration, for his actions during the Korean War. Not much is known of Thompson’s early life other than he was born August 16, 1927 in New York City. On August 6, 1950, he was serving as a private first […]
August 2nd in African American History – Fela Anikulapo Kuti
August 2, 1997 Fela Anikulapo Kuti, multi-instrumentalist, composer and human rights activist, died. Fela was born Olufela Olusegun Oludotun Ransome-Kuti on October 15, 1938 in Abeokuta, Nigeria. In 1958, Fela was sent to London to study medicine, but decided to study music instead at the Trinity College of Music. In 1963, he moved back to […]
August 1st in African American History – Ronald Harmon Brown
August 1, 1941 Ronald Harmon Brown, the first and only African American to serve as United States Secretary of Commerce, was born in Washington, D.C. Brown earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from Middlebury College in 1962. He served in the United States Army from 1963 to 1967 rising to the rank of captain, and […]
August 1st in African American History – Barbara Ross-Lee
August 1, 1993 Barbara Ross-Lee became the first African American woman to head a medical school in the United States when she was appointed dean of the Ohio University College of Osteopathic Medicine. Ross-Lee was born in 1942 in Detroit, Michigan and graduated from Wayne State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry […]