November 23, 2006 Gerald Michael Boyd, the first African American metropolitan editor and managing editor at the New York Times, died. Boyd was born October 3, 1950 in St. Louis, Missouri. He won a scholarship to the University of Missouri-Columbia and after graduating in 1973 joined the St. Louis Post-Dispatch where he worked as a [...]
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November 21st in African American History – William Boyd Allison Davis
November 21, 1983 William Boyd Allison Davis, anthropologist and researcher, died. Davis was born October 14, 1902 in Washington, D. C. He graduated as class valedictorian from Williams College, earned two master’s degrees from Harvard University, and was the first African American to earn a Ph. D. from the University of Chicago.
September 14th in African American History – Constance Baker Motley
September 14, 1921 Constance Baker Motley, civil rights activist, lawyer and judge, was born in New Haven, Connecticut. Motley earned a B. A. degree from New York University in 1943 and her law degree from Columbia Law School in 1946. She began her career as a law clerk at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, eventually [...]
September 8th in African American History – Dorothy Jean Dandridge
September 8, 1965 Dorothy Jean Dandridge, singer and actress, was found dead from an overdose of antidepressants. Dandridge was born November 9, 1922 in Cleveland, Ohio. As a young child, she and he sister rarely attended school and toured the South with an act called The Wonder Children. Dandridge first appeared on screen in 1935 [...]
September 5th in African American History – Frank Garvin Yerby
September 5, 1916 Frank Garvin Yerby, novelist, was born in Augusta, Georgia. Yerby earned a B. A. degree in English from Paine College in 1932. Yerby was originally noted for writing romance novels set in the Antebellum South. In the 1940s, he embarked on a series of best selling historical novels ranging from the Athens [...]
September 5th in African American History – Claudette Colvin
September 5, 1939 Claudette Colvin, civil rights pioneer, was born in Montgomery, Alabama. On March 2, 1955 while returning from high school on the bus, Colvin refused to give up her seat to a White person, in violation of local law. As a result, she was removed from the bus by two police officers and [...]
September 3rd in African American History – Charles Hamilton Houston
September 3, 1895 Charles Hamilton Houston, former Dean of Howard University Law School and NACCP Litigation Director, was born in Washington, D. C. Houston graduated from Amherst College in 1915, where he was valedictorian. In 1917, he enlisted in the U. S. Army and served in Europe during World War I until 1919. He earned [...]