Alexander T. Augusta (1825-1890)

Alexander T. Augusta (1825-1890)

Alexander Thomas Augusta was the highest-ranking black officer in the Union Army during the Civil War.  He was also the first African American head of a hospital (Freedmen’s Hospital) and the first black professor of medicine (Howard University in Washington, D.C.)....
Omar Ibn Said (1770-1864)

Omar Ibn Said (1770-1864)

Omar Ibn Said, also known as “Uncle Moreau” was unusual among enslaved people in the antebellum United States in that before he was captured he was highly educated and could read and write fluently at a time when most African slaves were illiterate. ...
Frank Silvera (1914-1970)

Frank Silvera (1914-1970)

Frank Silvera was an important 20th-century actor, director, producer, and teacher.  Born on July 24, 1914, in Kingston, Jamaica, he grew up in Boston, Massachusetts and went on to study law at Northeastern University Law School. He later attended Boston University,...
Audre Lorde (1934-1992)

Audre Lorde (1934-1992)

Audre Lorde, born February 18, 1934 in New York City, New York, was an American feminist poet.  The youngest of three daughters, Lorde was nearsighted to the point of legal blindness. She also didn’t speak till she was five, having first been inspired to speak...