February 2, 1994 Willie Mae Ford Smith, considered the greatest of the “anointed singers,” died. Smith was born June 6, 1906 in Rolling Fork, Mississippi, but raised in Memphis, Tennessee. In 1922, she and her sisters formed a gospel quartet called the Ford Sisters.
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January 31st in African American History – Benjamin Lawson Hooks
January 31, 1925 Benjamin Lawson Hooks, attorney, minister and civil rights leader, was born in Memphis, Tennessee. After graduating from Howard University in 1944, Hooks joined the Army where he found that the prisoners he was responsible for guarding could eat in restaurants from which he was barred. Hooks graduated from DePaul University College of […]
January 23rd in African American History – Thomas Andrew Dorsey
January 23, 1993 Thomas Andrew Dorsey, the father of gospel music, died. Dorsey was born July 1, 1899 in Villa Rica, Georgia. He learned to play blues piano as a young man. In the 1920s, Dorsey was known for playing the blues and is credited with composing more than 400 blues and jazz songs, including […]
January 8th in African American History – James Edward Cheek
January 8, 2010 James Edward Cheek, educator and theologian, died. Cheek was born December 4, 1932 in Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina. He served in the United States Air Force and was honorably discharged in 1951. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in sociology and history from Shaw University in 1955, his Master of Divinity […]
November 3rd in African American History – Saint Martin de Porres
November 3, 1639 Saint Martin de Porres, Dominican lay brother, died. De Porres was born December 9, 1579 in Lima, Peru. At the age of 15, he was admitted into the Dominican Convent of the Rosary as a servant boy. His piety and miraculous cures led his superiors to drop the racial limits on admission […]
October 30th in African American History – Wallace Delaney Muhammad (Warith Deen Mohammed)
October 30, 1933 Wallace Delaney Muhammad (Warith Deen Mohammed), Muslim leader and author, was born in Hamtramck, Michigan. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Mohammed served as a minister under his father, Elijah Muhammed, in Philadelphia before being excommunicated for denying the divinity of Wallace Ford Muhammad. In 1961, he was sent to federal […]
October 6th in African American History – Joseph Echols Lowery
October 6, 1921 Joseph Echols Lowery, minister and “the dean of the Civil Rights Movement,” was born in Huntsville, Alabama. Lowery earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from Paine College and his Bachelor of Divinity degree from Paine Theological Seminary in 1950. He later completed a doctorate of divinity degree at the Chicago Ecumenical Institute.