United States – Virginia
Jane Serepta Dean (1848-1913)
Jane Serepta “Jennie” Dean, a former slave, missionary, and pioneering educator, founded the Manassas Industrial School for Colored Youth in...
Douglas Palmer (1951- )
Douglas Palmer, the first Black mayor of Trenton, New Jersey, was born Douglas Harold Palmer on October 19, 1951, in...
James W. Holley III (1926-2012)
James W. Holley III was the first African American mayor of his hometown, Portsmouth, Virginia. He was born in Portsmouth...
William A. Johnson, Jr. (1942- )
William A. Johnson Jr., the first African American mayor of Rochester, New York, was born in Lynchburg, Virginia, on August...
Alonzo Harding Mourning Jr (1970- )
Alonzo Harding Mourning Jr is a former National Basketball Association (NBA) star and, more recently, a cancer survivor. Born on...
Sharon Y. Bowen (1956- )
Sharon Y. Bowen, the first Black woman to head the New York Stock Exchange, was born on July 23, 1956,...
Mary Smith Kelsey Peake (1823-1862)
Mary Smith Kelsey Peake, a pioneering educator, is one of few African American women to have a school, The Mary...
Nathan Hare (1933-2024)
Nathan Hare, the founder of The Black Scholar: A Journal of Black Studies and Research and called by many scholars...
Robert Charles O’Hara Benjamin (1855-1900)
Robert Charles O’Hara Benjamin, also known as R.C.O. Benjamin, was a Caribbean-born political activist, newspaper editor, minister, poet, teacher, author,...
