African Americans

George W. McLaurin provided the Oklahoma civil rights case that irreparably damaged the “separate but equal” legal position established in Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896. He earned a master’s degree from the University of Kansas and taught at Langston University, an all-black institution, until 1948. NAACP attorney Thurgood Marshall, Oklahoma attorney Amos T. Hall, and Black Dispatch newspaper editor Roscoe …

Originally born in the USA, Eugene had decided on his eleventh birthday that he would run away to France, where he could escape racial injustice. A boxer and talented jazz musician, he made his way to Europe and was given the French nickname “L’Hirondelle noire”, meaning Black Swallow. In 1914, when the WWI started, he served under France. Bullard received …

Morrison, who performed under the stage name Sunshine Sammy, was most famous as one of the Dead End Kids/East Side Kids. As the oldest Our Gang cast-member Morrison earned $10,000 a year, making him the highest-paid Black actor in Hollywood. He made 28 episodes from 1922 to 1928 before he ditched Hollywood for New York’s vaudeville stages. He was featured …

Most of us use global positioning system (GPS) technology on a regular basis, whether it’s to add a location to a social media post or to ask our car’s navigation system to take us to our destination. We do it without giving a second thought to how or by whom GPS technology was invented. Of course, Albert Einstein is well-known, …

The hair of black women is frequently admired and appreciated. From the afro to braids, black hair’s texture extends itself to creating various styles. Even the mainstream media frequently imitates fashions invented for and catered to women with Afrocentric hair, often without acknowledgment. However, there was a time when black women couldn’t show their hair in public. Continue reading to …

Harriet Tubman (c. 1820–1913) escaped slavery to become a leading abolitionist. She led hundreds of enslaved people to freedom along the route of the Underground Railroad. Who Was Harriet Tubman? Harriet Tubman was born into slavery in Maryland and escaped to freedom in the North in 1849, becoming the Underground Railroad’s most renowned “conductor.” On this sophisticated hidden network of …

Ruby Bridges born in 1954 was the first African American child to integrate an all-white public elementary school in the South. She later became a civil rights activist. Who Is Ruby Bridges? When Ruby Bridges was six years old, she became the first African American child to attend a predominantly white Southern elementary school. Due to angry mobs, her mother …

Many people think, Washington, D.C., the U.S. headquarters. Originally designed by the white famous architects Pierre Charles L’Enfant, Andrew Ellicot finished the project in 1792 after the former left the building. U.S capital would not be the same if it wasn’t for Benjamin Banneker, the Black architect hired by George Washington, the first President of the United States, to design …

Henry “Box” Brown was born enslaved in Louisa County, Virginia in 1815. When he was 15, he was sent to Richmond to work in a tobacco factory. His life was filled with unrewarding drudgery, though he had it better than most of his enslaved peers. The loss of his freedom prevented him from living with his wife, Nancy, who was …

Who was Marie Van Brittan? Marie Van Brittan Brown was an African American inventor. She created the first home security system with the help of her husband Albert Brown. The patent for her invention was registered with the name of “Home Security System Utilizing Television Surveillance “ in 1966 and was accepted in 1969. The security system created by Marie …