People, Locations, Episodes

Marie Van Brittan Brown, Inventor born

*Marie Van Brittan Brown was born on this date in 1922. She was an African American nurse and inventor.

Born Marie Van Brittan in Jamaica, Queens, New York City, in 1966 she had the idea for a home surveillance device. She applied for a patent along with her husband Albert Brown in 1966 for a closed circuit television security system. They created a system for a motorized camera to show images on a monitor. The patent, #3,482,037 was granted. Her devise was the forerunner to the modern home security system.

Ralph Gardner, Chemist born

On this date in 1922, Ralph Gardner was born. He was an African American scientist who specialized in the development of hard plastics.

Ralph Alexander Gardner’s was born in Cleveland to Vivian Hicks Gardner, a teacher and housewife, and Clarence Chavous Gardner, a musician and government worker. His mother earned a degree from the University of Illinois. While in the eighth and ninth grade Gardner realized that chemistry was his direction in life. Gardner attended the Cleveland Public Schools, graduating from John Adams High School.

Henry Washington Banks, Astronomer born

*Harvey Washington Banks was born on this date in 1923.  He was a Black Astronomer. Harvey Washington Banks was from Atlantic City, New Jersey. He attended Dunbar High School and Howard University. While at Howard, Banks earned his B.S. and M.S. in Physics in 1947 and 1948, respectively.  He remained at Howard, where he taught physics until 1952. […]

Beatrix A. Hamburg, Psychiatrist born

*Beatrix A. Hamburg was born on this date in 1923.  She was a Black Psychiatrist and advocate for children. Beatrix Ann McCleary was born to Minor McCleary and Beatrix Ann Downs in Jacksonville, Florida. Her father was a surgeon who died when she was young. They moved to Long Island in New York shortly after […]

J. Ernest Wilkins Jr., Math Educator born

*J. Ernest Wilkins, Jr. was born on this date in 1923. He was an African American mathematician and teacher.

Jewel Plummer Cobb, Biologist, and Educator born

*Jewel Plummer Cobb was born on this date in 1924. She is an African American Educator and Research Scientist.

Evelyn Granville, Math Educator born

Evelyn Boyd Granville was born on this date in 1924 in Washington, D.C. She is an African American mathematician, teacher, and scientist.

She attended a then-segregated Dunbar High School, and was encouraged in the subject by two of her mathematics teachers. Granville attended Smith College on a partial scholarship. In 1945, she graduated summa cum laude and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. She worked with Einar Hille, her Ph.D. faculty adviser at Yale University, in functional analysis.

Rufus Stokes, Pioneer of Environmental Justice born

*On this date, in 1924, Rufus Stokes was born.  He was a Black mechanic, scientist, and inventor.  Rufus Stokes grew up in the rural South and attended public school in Alabama until he was 18. On November 5, 1940, just before receiving his high school diploma, Stokes enlisted in the US Army at Fort Benning, Georgia, in the Quartermaster Corps.  While […]

The Afro American Sons and Daughters Hospital Opens

*On this date in 1924, the Afro-American Sons and Daughters Hospital opened. In Yazoo City, Mississippi, the Afro-American Hospital “offering death and hospitalization benefits to its members.” After being organized, it had 35,000 members by the 1930s. The Afro Americans Sons and Daughters members used the hospital on a fee basis for non-members. There were […]

Amílcar Cabral, Pan-African Activist born

*Amílcar Cabral was born on this date in 1924.  He was a Bissau-Guinean and Cape Verdean agricultural engineer and pan-African.  Amílcar Lopes da Costa Cabral was born in Bafatá, Guinea-Bissau, to Cape Verdean parents, Juvenal Antònio Lopes da Costa Cabral and Iva Pinhel Évora, both from Santiago, Cape Verde. His father came from a wealthy […]

Albert Antoine, Scientist, and Teacher born

Albert Cornelius Antoine was born on this date in 1925. He is an African American scientist and educator.

Carolyn Robertson Payton, Psychologist born

*Carolyn Robertson Payton was born on this date in 1925. She was an African American Psychologist and global peace administrator and advocate.

Franz Fanon, Writer born

*Frantz Fanon was born on this date in 1925.  He was an Afro Caribbean author, psychiatrist, and political philosopher.  Frantz Omar Fanon was born on the Caribbean island of Martinique.   His father, Félix Casimir Fanon, was a descendant of African slaves and worked as a customs agent. His mother, Eléanore Médélice, was Afro Martinique […]

Emmett Chappelle, Biochemist born

Emmett W. Chappelle, an African American scientist, was born on this date in 1925.

He was born in Phoenix, AZ. In 1950, he received a Bachelor of Science from the University of California. From 1950 to 1953, Chappelle an instructor in Biochemistry at the Meharry Medical College. A year later, he received a Master of Science from the University of Washington. Between 1955 and 1958, Chappelle was a research associate at Stanford University. He was appointed scientist and biochemist for the Research Institute of Advanced Studies at Stanford University, a post he held until 1963.

Hosea Williams, Activist born

On this date, Hosea Williams was born in, 1926. He was an African American civil rights activist.

Williams was the son of blind Black parents, from Attapulgus, Georgia. After studying at Morris Brown College and Atlanta University, he found employment as a research chemist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture.