Richard Wright (author) Richard Nathaniel Wright (September 4, 1908 – November 28, 1960) was an African-American author of sometimes controversial novels, short stories, poems, and non-fiction.
Much of his literature concerns racial themes, especially those involving the plight of African Americans during the late 19th to mid-20th centuries. His work helped change race relations in the United States in the mid-20th century.
Athletes. Thurgood Marshall. Thurgood Marshall (July 2, 1908 – January 24, 1993) was an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court, serving from October 1967 until October 1991.
Marshall was the Court's 96th justice and its first African American justice. Before becoming a judge, Marshall was a lawyer who was best known for his high success rate in arguing before the Supreme Court and for the victory in Brown v. Board of Education, a decision that desegregated public schools. He served on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit after being appointed by President John F. Kennedy and then served as the Solicitor General after being appointed by President Lyndon Johnson in 1965. Early life Henry Highland Garnet School (P.S. 103), where Marshall attended elementary school. Ralph Ellison. Early life[edit] Ralph Ellison, named after Ralph Waldo Emerson,[3] was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, to Lewis Alfred Ellison and Ida Millsap.
Research by Lawrence Jackson, one of Ellison's biographers, has established that he was born a year earlier than had been previously thought. He had one brother named Herbert Millsap Ellison, who was born in 1916. Lewis Alfred Ellison, a small-business owner and a construction foreman, died when Ralph was three years old from stomach ulcers he received from an ice-delivering accident.[3] Many years later, Ellison would discover that his father hoped Ralph would grow up to be a poet. Writing career[edit] World War II was nearing its end when Ellison, reluctant to serve in the segregated army, chose Merchant Marine service over the draft.[8] In 1946, he married his second wife, Fanny McConnell.
Writing essays about both the black experience and his love for jazz music, Ellison continued to receive major awards for his work. Final years[edit] Booker T. Washington. Booker Taliaferro Washington (April 5, 1856 – November 14, 1915) was an African-American educator, author, orator, and advisor to presidents of the United States.
Between 1890 and 1915, Washington was the dominant leader in the African-American community. Booker T. Washington mastered the nuances of the political arena in the late 19th century which enabled him to manipulate the media, raise money, strategize, network, pressure, reward friends and distribute funds while punishing those who opposed his plans for uplifting blacks. His long-term goal was to end the disfranchisement of the vast majority of African Americans living in southern states, where most of the millions of black Americans still lived.[3] Overview Washington was born a slave in Virginia.
Washington attained national prominence for his Atlanta Address of 1895, which attracted the attention of politicians and the public, making him a popular spokesperson for African-American citizens. Career overview Marriages and children. W. E. B. Du Bois. William Edward Burghardt "W.
E. B. " George Washington Carver. Frederick Douglass. Frederick Douglass (born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, c.
February 1818[3] – February 20, 1895) was an African-American social reformer, orator, writer, and statesman. After escaping from slavery, he became a leader of the abolitionist movement, gaining note for his dazzling oratory[4] and incisive antislavery writing. He stood as a living counter-example to slaveholders' arguments that slaves lacked the intellectual capacity to function as independent American citizens.[5][6] Many Northerners also found it hard to believe that such a great orator had been a slave.[7] A firm believer in the equality of all people, whether black, female, Native American, or recent immigrant, Douglass famously said, "I would unite with anybody to do right and with nobody to do wrong. Life as a slave Douglass around 29 years of age. WikiMiniAtlas The exact date of Douglass's birth is unknown. He spoke of his earliest times with his mother: From slavery to freedom Abolitionist and preacher Autobiography.
Ralph Waldo Tyler. Ralph Waldo Tyler, Newspaper man, 19th–20th century Race man Early on, his journalistic skills placed him in constant dialog with Black political and business leaders in the Midwest who were engaged in improving the social standing of African Americans at the height of the Jim Crow laws.[2] In 1906, Tyler actively campaigned for an appointment as United States consul to Brazil.
His political activities drew the attention of prominent national Black figures, and in 1907, upon the advice of Booker T. Washington, Tyler was appointed by President Theodore Roosevelt to fill the post of Auditor of the Department of the Navy. He held this post until 1913, when during the early years of Woodrow Wilson's presidency—overlooking the advice of his colleagues—Tyler published a recalcitrant article in the Washington Evening Star speaking out against the President's segregationist policies.