January 12, 1960 Jacques Dominique Wilkins, hall of fame basketball player, was born in Paris, France where his father was stationed in the United States Air Force. Wilkins led his high school basketball team to consecutive Class 3-A State Championships and entered the University of Georgia in 1979. He was named the SEC Men’s Basketball […]
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January 10th in African American History – James Forman
January 10, 2005 James Forman, civil rights leader, died. Foreman was born October 4, 1928 in Chicago, Illinois. He served in the United States Air Force in Okinawa during the Korean War and was discharged in 1952. Forman earned his undergraduate degree from Roosevelt University in 1957 and spent most of the late 1950s working […]
January 8th in African American History – Charles Young
January 8, 1922 Charles Young, the third African American graduate of West Point, died. Young was born March 12, 1864 in Mayslick, Kentucky. After graduating from high school at the age of 16, he taught at a black high school in Ripley, Ohio. In 1884, he entered the United States Military Academy at West Point […]
January 7th in African American History – Lowell W. Perry
January 7, 2001 Lowell W. Perry, the first African American assistant coach in the National Football League, died. Perry was born December 5, 1931 in Ypsilanti, Michigan. He played college football at the University of Michigan where he was an All-American receiver. After earning his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1953, Perry was selected by […]
January 3rd in African American History – Samuel Leamon Younge, Jr.
January 3, 1966 Samuel Leamon Younge, Jr. was shot to death after he tried to use the “Whites only” restroom at a Standard Oil gas station in Macon County, Alabama. This senseless death became the first black college student killed as a result of his involvement in the Civil Rights Movement. Younge was born November […]
January 2nd in African American History – Lloyd Augustus Hall
January 2, 1971 Lloyd Augustus Hall, chemist and inventor, died. Hall was born June 20, 1894 in Elgin, Illinois, but was raised in Aurora, Illinois. Hall earned his Bachelor of Science degree in pharmaceutical chemistry from Northwestern University in 1916 and went on to do graduate work at the University of Chicago.
December 27th in African American History – Vincent Dacosta Smith
December 27, 2003 Vincent Dacosta Smith, figurative painter, died. Smith was born December 12, 1929 in New York City. At the age of 15, he dropped out of high school and became a hobo working odd jobs and spending a year in the army. In 1953, he discovered his love of art and became a […]