People, Locations, Episodes

Phyllis Mae Dailey, Nurse and Officer born

*The birth of Phyllis Mae Dailey is celebrated on this date in 1920. She was a Black nurse and naval officer. From New York City, she was a graduate of the Lincoln School of Nursing in New York and a student of public health at Teachers College, Columbia University. Dailey initially wanted to enter the […]

Errol W. Barrow, Barbadian Politician born

*Errol Walton Barrow was born on this date in 1920. He was a Barbadian politician.

Daniel “Chappie” James, Aviator born

*Daniel “Chappie” James was born on this date in 1920. He was an African American pilot and military commander.

From Pensacola, Florida, he learned to fly while attending the Tuskegee Institute and after graduation in 1942 continued civilian flight training until he received appointment as a Cadet in the Army Air Corps in January 1943. He was commissioned in July 1943 and throughout the remainder of World War II he trained pilots for the all-Black 99th Pursuit Squadron while working in other assignments. James was next stationed in Ohio and in the Philippines.

Robert Friend, Tuskegee Airman born

*Robert Friend was born on this date in 1920.  He was a Black military officer and Tuskegee Airman.  Born in Columbia, South Carolina, Friend was interested in aviation from a young age. He read stories of World War I pilots in old magazines and made his makeshift airplanes for imaginative play. Friend had wanted to enlist […]

Walter P. Manning, Military Officer born

*Walter P. Manning was born on this date in 1920. He was a Black military officer and pilot. Walter Peyton Manning was born in Baltimore, Maryland, and grew up in Philadelphia, PA. When World War II started, Manning wanted to serve, but in 1942, he was rejected for military service because of a hammertoe. Manning […]

Lawrence Everett Dickson, Tuskegee Pilot born

*Lawrence Everett Dickson was born on this date in 1920. He was a Black soldier and Tuskegee Airman pilot.   He was a native of South Carolina, taught himself how to play the guitar, and spent two years studying chemistry at the City College of New York. Phyllis and Lawrence Dickson were married in November 1941. She was […]

Joseph Gomer, Tuskegee Airman born

*Joseph Gomer was born on this date in 1920. He was an African American businessman and former WW II Tuskegee Airman fighter pilot.

William Coleman Jr., Policy Administrator born

*William T. Coleman Jr. was born on this date in 1920. He was an African American lawyer, political cabinet member and administrator.

Hans Hauck, Black German Soldier born

*Hans Hauck was born on this date in 1920. He was a Black German soldier who served in the Wehrmacht during the Nazi regime in Germany. He was born in Frankfurt am Main. Hans Hauck’s father, Benmansur Belabissi, was a Black Algerian stationed in the occupied Saarland as a soldier in the French army; his mother […]

Nancy Leftenant, Nurse and Officer born

*Nancy Leftenant was born on this date in 1920. She was a Black nurse and military officer. Also known as “Lefty,” she was born in Goose Creek, South Carolina, to James and Eunice Leftenant. She graduated from Amityville High School, Amityville, New York, in 1939 and New York’s Lincoln School of Nursing in 1941. She […]

Byron De La Beckwith, Klansman born

*On this date in 1920, Byron De La Beckwith Jr. was born. He was a white-American white supremacist and a member of the Ku Klux Klan.  De La Beckwith was born in Colusa, California, the son of Susan Southworth Yerger and Byron De La Beckwith Sr., the town’s postmaster.   His father died of pneumonia when he was 5.  One year later, he […]

Walter Morris, Paratrooper born

*Walter Morris was born on this date in 1921. He was an African American Paratrooper and Brick Mason Supervisor.

Rosanell Eaton, Educator, and Public Policy Advocate born

*Rosanell Eaton was born on this date in 1921.  She was a Black teacher and voting rights activist.  She was born on a farm outside Louisburg, North Carolina, a granddaughter of slaves and the youngest of seven children. After her father died when she was 2, Eaton’s mother became a sharecropper.  In the early years of her life, Eaton farmed for […]

Charles Bussey, Military Officer born

*Charles Bussey was born on this date in 1921.  He was a Black officer and a Korean War hero.    Charles Bussey was born in Kern, CA., and grew up in Bakersfield, California.  After graduating high school, Bussey attended Los Angeles City College for two years before enlisting in the US military.  Bussey was assigned to fly […]

William Morgan, Dentist, and Tuskegee Airman born

*William Morgan was born on this date in 1921. He was an African American dentist and Tuskegee Airman.

William Bethel Morgan Jr. was from Wyano, Pennsylvania (Westmoreland County), a small coal mining community. His father was William Bethel Morgan, Sr., a coal miner, and his mother was Susie Harris Morgan a farmer. When he was just 8, in 1929, Morgan’s father died in a Wyano coal mining accident. Young Morgan and his mother moved onto a farm in Yukon, Pennsylvania as the only black family in town.