Vocalist Frankie Lymon (1942-1968) became the first black American teen heartthrob. He also inspired a number of younger musicians, including Michael Jackson. Born in Harlem, he became a singer of doo-wop, performing with his friends for donations ...
Posted Tuesday, September 13th 2011 at 2:51PM
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The first known black regular lecturer in the antislavery cause and the first major black abolitionist was Charles Lenox Redmond (1810-73). His fame soared, following a triumphant tour of England. He was one of the seventeen members of the New Engl ...
Posted Monday, September 12th 2011 at 4:13PM
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In 1968 Gordon A. Parks Sr. (1912-?) produced The Learning Tree, and he helped to break down racial barriers in Hollywood when he became the first black to produce, direct, and score a film for a major studio, Warner Bros. The film, Seven Arts, was ...
Posted Friday, September 9th 2011 at 4:45PM
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In 1954 Norma Merrick Sklarek (1928-?) became the first black woman registered architect in New York State. In 1962 she became the first black woman licensed in California. She was also the first black woman fellow of the American Institute of Arch ...
Posted Thursday, September 8th 2011 at 3:24PM
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Daniel Hale Williams (1856-1931) performed the world’s first successful heart operation on July 9, 1893. The open-heart surgery was executed at Provident Hospital in Chicago, Illinois, a hospital that Williams founded. He opened the chest of James ...
Posted Wednesday, September 7th 2011 at 1:47PM
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Charlotta Bass (1880-1969) is thought to be the first woman to own and publish a newspaper in this country. She bought the California Owl in 1912 and ran it for some forty years. Bass was the Progressive Party’s vice-presidential candidate in 1952, ...
Posted Tuesday, September 6th 2011 at 3:54PM
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In 1947 the first black to play in the NBA was Earl Lloyd (1928-?) of West Virginia State College, a forward for the Washington Capitols. Although he was recruited later than Charles Cooper and Nat “Sweetwater” Clifton, he became the first to play ( ...
Posted Friday, September 2nd 2011 at 3:34PM
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Ralph Waldo Ellison (1914-1994) was the first black to win the National Book Award for his novel, Invisible Man. Written in 1952, the book deals with a black man’s “place” in a white man’s world. Born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, he studied at Tuske ...
Posted Tuesday, August 30th 2011 at 3:02PM
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Greater Than AIDS and b Condoms are teaming up this fall to bring HIV awareness to the mid-Atlantic, South, and Southeast through the HBCU b Healthy Tour. The HBCU b Healthy Tour aims to inspire, unite, and leverage attendance at HBCU campuses, foo ...
Posted Monday, August 29th 2011 at 3:27PM
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Jack Johnson (1878-1946) knocked out Tommy Burns on December 26 in Sydney, Australia, in the fourteenth round to become the first black heavyweight boxing champion. He lost only five of his first ninety-seven fights. Born in Galveston ...
Posted Monday, August 29th 2011 at 3:01PM
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The Brandford Modeling Agency, founded by Edward Brandford (1908-?) was the first licensed black modeling agency in the country. Their models were known as “Brandford Lovelies.” Brandford was born in Jamaica, British West Indies, and was apprentice ...
Posted Friday, August 26th 2011 at 3:39PM
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In 1921 the Pace Phonograph Company, which used the Black Swan label, was the first record company owned and operated by a black. It was established in January 1921 by Henry Pace (1897-1943), who had been owner of a music publishing company with W.C ...
Posted Thursday, August 25th 2011 at 3:15PM
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By Courtney McCall:
The Harris-Stowe State University Board of Regents, Thelma Cook, chairwoman, has announced that Dr. Albert Walker will succeed outgoing president, Dr. Henry Givens Jr. Dr. Givens announced his plans to retire from Harris-Stowe ...
Posted Wednesday, August 24th 2011 at 5:20PM
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In 1881 Charles Burleigh Purvis (1842-1929), physician, medical educator and hospital administrator, became the first black surgeon-in-chief to head a hospital under civilian auspices. He received the appointment to the Freedmen’s Hospital in the na ...
Posted Wednesday, August 24th 2011 at 4:50PM
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In 1966 Spottswood Robinson (1916-98) became the first black judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C. Robinson was born in Richmond, Virginia. He attended Virginia Union University in Richmond for a while, but entered Howard University ...
Posted Tuesday, August 23rd 2011 at 2:10PM
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A study released last week by researchers from the University of Kansas revealed that African-American researchers are more than 30 percent less likely to receive funding for projects from the National Institutes of Health than their white, Hispanic ...
Posted Monday, August 22nd 2011 at 5:55PM
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By Dr. Kerry-Ann Hamilton:
Michael L. Lomax, Ph.D., president and chief executive officer of the United Negro College Fund (UNCF), will serve as keynote speaker at the University’s 144th Convocation, September 23 at 11 a.m. in Cramton Auditorium, ...
Posted Monday, August 22nd 2011 at 5:42PM
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In 1890 Ida Gray Nelson Rollins (1867-1953) became the first black woman to earn a doctor of dental surgery degree in the United States. She graduated from the University of Michigan in June. Nelson Rollins was born in Clarksville, Tennessee. Her ...
Posted Monday, August 22nd 2011 at 2:47PM
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By Hona Amer:
While the national debt ceiling is a topic on every news channel, another kind of debt is sabotaging the youth in America. Student loan debt is a silent predator. According to
the Wall Street Journal, America's college students in 2 ...
Posted Thursday, August 18th 2011 at 3:07PM
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By Samieh Shalash:
Dressed in a little black dress, stiletto-high platform heels and showing off toned legs, Miss Hampton University is listed as "The Dream Girl" in Ebony magazine's annual campus queens edition.
Desiree Williams, a 2011 HU gra ...
Posted Thursday, August 18th 2011 at 2:52PM
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In 1915 the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History was organized by Carter G. Woodson (1875-1950) as the first learned society specifically devoted to the professional study of black history. Its first meeting was on September 9, 1915, ...
Posted Thursday, August 18th 2011 at 2:34PM
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Data Solutions & Technology Incorporated (DST) today announced that it is making available its Alabama State University-Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) Conference white paper. The report addresses outcomes from the Conference hel ...
Posted Thursday, August 18th 2011 at 2:25PM
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The National Science Foundation-Center for Research Excellence in Science and Technology has awarded Alabama State University a five-year $1.75 million grant to continue its Historically Black College and Universities Undergraduate Program (HBCU-UP). ...
Posted Wednesday, August 17th 2011 at 6:38PM
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Cheyney State College sometimes referred to as the oldest black college in the United States, had its beginning in 1832. Richard Humphreys, a Philadelphia Quaker, willed $10,000 to a board of trustees to establish a school for blacks. A school for ...
Posted Wednesday, August 17th 2011 at 4:30PM
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