People, Locations, Episodes

Reatha Clark King, Scientist, and Philanthropist born

Reatha Clark King was born on this date in 1938. She is an African American administrator, educator, scientist, and philanthropist.

From Pavo, Georgia, her father Willie was a farm laborer who left the family when Reatha was a child. Her mother, Ola Watts Campbell then moved the family to Moultree, Georgia where she worked as a domestic to support her three children. Clark-King spent her childhood years working in the cotton fields and on her aunt’s farm and on the property of landlords.

Charles McDew, Activist and Educator born

*Charles McDew was born on this date in1938. He is an African American educator and activist.

From Massillion, Ohio, he led his first demonstration in the eighth grade, to protest violations of the religious freedom of Amish students in his hometown. As a student at South Carolina State College he became involved in the civil rights movement. This included a campaign against segregated lunch counters in Orangeburg, South Carolina in 1960.

Gloria Long Anderson, Chemist, and Administrator born

*Gloria Long Anderson was born on this date in 1938. She is a Black chemist, administrator, and professor. Gloria Long was born in Altheimer, Arkansas, where she was the fourth child, and only girl, in a family of six children. She is the daughter of Elsie Lee Foggie Long, a seamstress, and Charles Long, a […]

Morgan State College is Founded.

Morgan State College was founded on this date in 1938. It is one of over 100 Historically Black Colleges and Universities in America.

Reginald Buckner, Jazz Ambasador born

*Reginald Bucker was born on this date in 1938.  He was a Black musician and educator.   Born in Kansas City, Kansas, Reginal Tyrone Buckner grew up with an appreciation for the central location where many Jazz musicians of yore started.  He also was raised in the Strangers Rest Baptist church community.  Buckner was exposed […]

Howard Dodson Jr., Historian born

Howard Dodson, Jr., was born this date in 1939, in Chester, PA. He is an African American historian, writer, administrator, and lecturer.

Dodson attended West Chester State College, where he studied social studies and English with an emphasis on secondary education. He graduated in 1961 and went on to Villanova University, where he earned an M.A. in U.S. history and political science in 1963. A year later, Dodson went to Ecuador with the Peace Corps where he directed credit union education programs for the National Credit Union Federation.

Primus St. John, Writer, and Teacher born

*The birth of Primus St. John is celebrated on this date in 1939. He is a Black writer and educator.  Born in New York City, New York, St. John attended the University of Maryland and Lewis and Clark College. His collections of poetry include Communion: Poems, 1976-1998 (Copper Canyon Press, 1999), which won the Western States Book […]

Julia Hare, Actress, and Author born

*Julia Hare was born on this date in 1939.  She was a Black educator, actress, author, and Black intellectual.   Born Julia Reed, she was from Tulsa, Oklahoma.  She earned her B.A. in Music from Langston University, her M.A. in music education from Roosevelt University, and her Ph.D. in education from California Coast University, Santa Ana.   She married psychologist […]

Doris Derby, Activist, and Educator born

*Doris Derby was born on this date in 1939. She was a Black activist, documentary photographer, director, and adjunct associate professor. Doris Adelaide Derby’s parents met in New York and married in the mid-1930s. She was raised in Williamsbridge, the outskirts of the Bronx. While in a predominantly white elementary school, she noticed a lack […]

Dave Dennis, Activist, and Author born

*Dave Dennis was born on this date in 1940.  He is a Black civil rights activist, author, and educator.  David J. Dennis was born on a plantation of sharecroppers in Omega, Louisiana, into a life of Jim Crow segregation.  He is the son of Thomas Dennis and Tizzie Perry Dennis Shepperd.  His family grew up in the Shreveport […]

Thelma Mothershed, Arkansas Activist, and Educator born

*Thelma Mothershed was born on this date in 1940. She is an African American educator and community activist.

Maulana Karenga, Educator, and Activist born

*Maulana Karenga was born on this date in 1941. He is an African American educator, writer and activist.

John Thompson, College Basketball Coach born

*John Thompson was born on this date in 1941. He was a Black basketball player and men’s college basketball coach.   John Robert Thompson Jr. was born and raised in Washington, D.C. As a child, his mother insisted on sending him to Catholic schools for educational opportunities and academic challenges. At Archbishop Carroll High School, Thompson emerged as a standout […]

Elizabeth Eckford, Education Activist born

*Elizabeth Eckford was born on this date in 1941. She is a Black news reporter, teacher, and activist. Elizabeth Ann Eckford was born in Little Rock, Ark; she is one of 6 children. Her father, Oscar, was a dining car maintenance worker, and her mother, Birdie, was a teacher at a segregated school for the […]

Rosalyn Terborg-Penn, Professor born

*Rosalyn Terborg-Penn was born on this date in 1941.  She was a Black professor of history and author.   Born Rosalyn Marian Terborg in Brooklyn, New York. Her mother, Jeanne Terborg, was a clerical worker from Indianapolis, and her father, Jacques A. Terborg, was a Suriname-born jazz musician.  In 1951 her family moved to Queens, where she graduated from John Adams High School in 1959. In 1963 […]