Bessie Head (1937-1986)

Bessie Head (1937-1986)

Acclaimed African writer Bessie Head was born on July 6, 1937, at Fort Napier Mental Institution in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. Her mother, Bessie Amelia Emery (from the wealthy South African Birch family) had suffered from mental illness and was confined there at...
Dorothy West (1907-1998)

Dorothy West (1907-1998)

Harlem Renaissance writer Dorothy West was born on June 2, 1907 in Boston, Massachusetts.  She was the only child of Rachel Pease Benson and Isaac Christopher West.  Isaac West was a former slave from Virginia whose small-business success afforded his daughter a...
Geoffrey Canada (1952- )

Geoffrey Canada (1952- )

Geoffrey Canada is an educator and social activist who has dedicated much of his life to reforming the educational system in Harlem, New York in order to provide poor and disadvantaged children the skills they need to attend colleges and universities.  Canada was born...
Robert Robinson (1906-1994)

Robert Robinson (1906-1994)

Robert Robinson was an engineer who became one of the most prominent Americans to live in the Soviet Union. Because of his presence in the U.S.S.R. in the 1930s, Robinson became an international celebrity, meeting often with many famous African Americans who lived in...