Important Figures

On August 14, 1923, Mayme was born to Jerry Agnew, Sr. and Mary Dorothy Agnew (née Knight) in Van Buren, Arkansas.  Her father, who successfully owned a general store, was the first African-American business owner in their city; this accompli... Continue Reading

On January 24, 1874, a baby boy was born to Carlos Federico and Maria Josefa Schomburg in Santurce, Puerto Rico; four days later, he would be christened Arturo Alfonso.  His father was a Puerto Rican merchant of German ancestry and his mother... Continue Reading

On Valentine’s Day, February 14, 1926, in Owensboro, Kentucky, Moneta Sleet, Sr. and Ozetta Sleet (née Allensworth) welcomed a son, Moneta, Jr.  When he was a young child of nine or ten years, he was gifted by his parents a box camera. ... Continue Reading

On August 14, 1911, Ethel Lois Payne was born to William A.  Payne and Bessie Payne (née Austin) in Chicago, Illinois; she was the fifth of their six children.  Her father, who worked as a Pullman porter, and her mother, a teacher of Lat... Continue Reading

Born on October 6, 1917, Fannie Lou was the last of twenty children born to her parents, James and Lou Ella Townsend.  Residing in Montgomery County, Mississippi, her parents worked as sharecroppers.  When she was two years old, her famil... Continue Reading

On April 15, 1889, a baby boy was born in Crescent City, Florida to Reverend James and Elizabeth Randolph.  The couple’s second son, they would name him Asa Philip.  His parents were professionals, his father being a minister in the Afr... Continue Reading

On September 3, 1895, Charles Hamilton Houston was born in Washington, D.C., to William Le Pré Houston and Mary Houston (née Hamilton).  William, whose parents had been enslaved, had become an attorney and Mary worked as a seamstress.  ... Continue Reading

On July 10, 1875, Mary Jane McLeod was born in Maysville, South Carolina to Samuel and Patsy McIntosh McLeod.  Her parents, having been enslaved, toiled in the cottonfields.  When the Civil War ended, her mother continued to work for the ... Continue Reading