Born on January 7, 1891, in Notasulga, Alabama, writer Zora Neale Hurston created several acclaimed works of fiction, including the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God. She was also an outstanding folklorist and anthropologist who worked to record the stories and tales of many cultures, including her own African-American heritage. Hurston was the daughter of two former slaves. Her father, John Hurston, was a pastor, and he moved the family to Florida when Hurston was very young. Following the death of her mother, Lucy Ann (Potts) Hurston, in 1904, and her father’s subsequent remarriage, Hurston lived with an assortment of family members for the next few years.…

    Katherine Dunham was born June 22, 1909 in Glen Ellyn, Illinois. She formed a dance group that performed in concert at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1934 and with the Chicago Civic Opera company 1935–1936. In 1938 she joined the Federal Theater Project in Chicago and composed a ballet. Two years later she formed an all-black company, which began touring extensively by 1943. Source

    Source Samuel Cornish, an abolitionist and editor, was born in Sussex County, Delaware and raised in Philadelphia and New York City.  Since both of his parents were free African Americans Cornish was born free.  After graduating from the Free African School in Philadelphia Cornish began training to become a Presbyterian minister and was ordained in 1822.  Shortly afterward he moved to New York City where he organized the first black Presbyterian Church in Manhattan. In addition to his duties as pastor, Cornish also became a journalist.  Working with fellow African American John B. Russwurm, he founded the first African American newspaper in the United States, Freedom’s Journal. Cornish…

    James Forten was born on September 2, 1766 in Philadelphia, PA. A free African-American, he joined the Continental navy at age 15. After service, Forten apprenticed as a sail-maker and eventually became a wealthy businessman and a leader of the black community in pre-Civil War Philadelphia. He devoted much of his time and money to the abolitionist cause and he refused to supply rigging to slave-trade vessels. Forten died in 1842. Sail-maker and social activist James Forten was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. A free African-American, he joined the Continental navy at age 15 and was among those taken prisoner when his ship, the Royal Louis, was captured by…

        Boxer. Widely considered one of the greatest and most beloved boxers in the sport’s history, Joseph Louis Barrow was born May 13, 1914 in the cotton-field country near Lafayette, Alabama. The son of a sharecropper, and the great-grandson of a slave, he was eighth child of Munn and Lilly Barrow. Louis’s family life was shaped by financial struggle. The Louis kids slept three to a bed and Louis’ father was committed to a state hospital when he was just two years old. Louis had little schooling and as a teen took on odd jobs in order to help out his mother and siblings. The family eventually…

        Born February 17, 1936, on St. Simons Island, off the southern coast of Georgia, James Nathaniel Brown experienced a childhood shaped by struggle. He was just two weeks old when his father abandoned the family. His mother soon departed from his life as well, taking a job as a maid in Manhasset, New York, and leaving the care of her young son in the hands of Brown’s great-grandmother. Brown was 8 years old when his mother finally sent for him to come live with her in New York. In his new home, Brown did well, thriving on the football field for the largely white Manhasset High…

        American baseball icon Hank Aaron, nicknamed “Hammerin’ Hank,” is widely regarded as one of the greatest hitters in the history of the sport. For nearly 23 years (1954–76), Aaron played as an outfielder for the Braves and the Milwaukee Brewers, setting several records and winning a number of honors along the way. Aaron continues to hold many of baseball’s most distinguished records today, including runs batted in (2,297), extra base hits (1,477), total bases (6,856) and most years with 30 or more home runs (15). He is also ranked one of baseball’s Top 5 players for career hits and runs. For more than two decades, Aaron…