March 1, 1914 Ralph Waldo Ellison, novelist, literary critic and scholar, was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. In 1933, Ellison entered Tuskegee Institute on a music scholarship but after his third year he moved to New York City where he met Richard Wright who encouraged him to pursue a career in writing.
Tag Archives | Presidential Medal of Freedom
February 6th in African American History – Arthur Robert Ashe, Jr.
February 6, 1993, Arthur Robert Ashe, Jr., professional tennis player and civil rights activist, died. Ashe was born July 10, 1943 in Richmond, Virginia. In 1963, he became the first black player ever selected to the United States Davis Cup team. In 1965, Ashe won the National Collegiate Athletic Association tennis singles title. Ashe graduated […]
February 5th in African American History – Henry Louis “Hank” Aaron
February 5, 1934 Henry Louis “Hank” Aaron, hall of fame baseball player, was born in Mobile, Alabama. Aaron started his professional baseball career in 1951 with the Indianapolis Clowns of the Negro American League. In 1952, he signed a contract with the Boston (later to be the Atlanta) Braves and made his Major League Baseball […]
October 24th in African American History – Jack Roosevelt Jackie Robinson
October 24, 1972 Jack Roosevelt “Jackie” Robinson, the first African American Major League Baseball player of the modern era, died. Robinson was born January 31, 1919 in Cairo, Georgia. After graduating from Pasadena Junior College in 1939, Robinson transferred to UCLA where he became the school’s first athlete to win varsity letters in four sports, […]
October 24th in African American History – Rosa Louise McCauley Parks
October 24, 2005 Rosa Louise McCauley Parks, the Mother of the Modern Day Civil Rights Movement, died. Parks was born February 4, 1913 in Tuskegee, Alabama. On December 1, 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama, she refused to obey a bus drivers order to give up her seat to a White passenger and was arrested. Her arrest […]
October 16th in African American History – Leon Howard Sullivan
October 16, 1922 Leon Howard Sullivan, minister, civil rights leader and activist, was born in Charleston, West Virginia. Sullivan became a Baptist minister at 18 and moved to New York where he graduated from the Union Theological Seminary in 1945 and earned a Master’s in Religion from Columbia University in 1947.
October 10th in African American History – Frederick Douglass Patterson
October 10, 1901 Frederick Douglass Patterson, founder of the United Negro College Fund, was born in Washington, D. C. Patterson earned his bachelor’s degree from Prairie View State College in 1919, a Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine in 1923 and Masters in Science in 1927 from Iowa State University and a Ph.D in Bacteriology in 1932 […]