Black History Month: Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was born on January 15, 1929 in Atlanta, GA. His birth certificate listed his first name as Michael but this was later changed to Martin. King graduated from Morehouse College in 1948 with a degree in Sociology. He further received a Bachelor’s of Divinity in 1951 and then a Ph.D. from Boston College in 1955. It was in Boston where he met and later married Coretta Scott. They had two sons and two daughters together. Martin Luther King, Jr. was appointed the pastor of the Dexter…
Black History Month: Fannie Lou Hamer
Born Fannie Lou Townsend on October 6, 1917, in Montgomery County, Mississippi. The daughter of sharecroppers, Hamer began working the fields at an early age. Her family struggled financially, and often went hungry. Married to Perry “Pap” Hamer in 1944, Fannie Lou continued to work hard just to get by. In the summer of 1962, however, she made a life-changing decision to attend a protest meeting. She met civil rights activists there who were there to encourage African Americans to register to vote. Hamer became active in helping with the…
Black History Month: A. Philip Randolph
A. Philip Randolph was born Asa Philip Randolph on April 15, 1889, in Crescent City, Florida. He was the second son of James Randolph, a Methodist minister, and his wife, Elizabeth, both of whom were staunch supporters of equal rights for African Americans. In 1891, the Randolph family moved to Jacksonville, Florida, where Asa would live for most of his youth, and where he would eventually attend the Cookman Institute, one of the first institutions of higher education for blacks in the country. After graduating from Cookman, in 1911, Randolph…
Black History Month: Paul Robeson
Paul Robeson was born on April 9, 1898, in Princeton, New Jersey, to Anna Louisa and William Drew Robeson. Robeson’s mother died from a fire when he was 6 and his clergyman father moved the family to Sommerville, where the youngster excelled in academics and sang in church. When he was 17, Robeson earned a scholarship to attend Rutgers University, the third African American to do so, and became one of the institution’s most stellar students. He received top honors for his debate and oratory skills, won 15 letters in…
Black History Month: Dred Scott
Dred Scott was born in sometime around the turn of the century, often fixed at 1795, in Southampton County, Virginia. Legend has it that his name was Sam, but when his elder brother died, he adopted his name instead. His parents were slaves, but it is uncertain whether the Blow family owned them at his birth or thereafter. Peter Blow and his family relocated first to Huntsville, Alabama, and then to St. Louis Missouri. After Peter Blow’s death, in the early 1830s, Scott was sold to a U.S. Army doctor,…
