Virginia Esther Hamilton (March 12, 1936 – February 19, 2002) was an award-winning author of children’s books. She wrote 41 books, including M. C. Higgins, the Great, for which she won the National Book Award in 1974 and the 1975 Newbery Medal. Hamilton’s first book, as a child was “The Novel”. Then came Zeely, published in 1967, and won numerous awards, including the Edgar Allan Poe Award, the Coretta Scott King Award, the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, the Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal, and the Hans Christian Andersen Award.
Daniel Hale Williams (January 18, 1858 – August 4, 1931) was an American surgeon. He was the first African-American cardiologist, and performed one of the first successful open-heart surgeries in the United States. He also founded Provident Hospital, the first non-segregated hospital in the United States.
Josephine Baker (June 3, 1906 – April 12, 1975) was a dancer, singer, and actress who found fame in her adopted homeland of France. Born in St Louis, Missouri. Baker was the first
African American female to star in a major motion picture, to
integrate an American concert hall, and to become a world-famous entertainer. She is also noted for her contributions to the
Civil Rights Movement in the United States (she was offered the unofficial leadership of the movement by
Coretta Scott King in 1968 following
Martin Luther King, Jr.‘s assassination, but turned it down)
Malcolm X (May 19, 1925 – February 21, 1965), born
Malcolm Little and also known as
El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, was an
African American Muslim minister and human rights activist. To his admirers, he was a courageous advocate for the rights of African Americans, a man who indicted white America in the harshest terms for its crimes against black Americans. Detractors accused him of preaching racism,
black supremacy,
antisemitism, and violence. He has been called one of the greatest and most influential African Americans in history.
Paul Laurence Dunbar (June 27, 1872 – February 9, 1906) was an
African American poet, novelist, and playwright of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Much of his popular work in his lifetime used a
Negro dialect, which helped him become one of the first nationally-accepted African American writers. Much of his writing, however, does not use dialect
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Virginia Esther Hamilton (March 12, 1936 – February 19, 2002) was an award-winning author of children’s books. She wrote 41 books, including M. C. Higgins, the Great, for which she won the National Book Award in 1974 and the 1975 Newbery Medal. Hamilton’s first book, as a child was “The Novel”. Then came Zeely, published in 1967, and won numerous awards, including the Edgar Allan Poe Award, the Coretta Scott King Award, the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, the Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal, and the Hans Christian Andersen Award.
Daniel Hale Williams (January 18, 1858 – August 4, 1931) was an American surgeon. He was the first African-American cardiologist, and performed one of the first successful open-heart surgeries in the United States. He also founded Provident Hospital, the first non-segregated hospital in the United States.
