Booker Taliaferro Washington was an American educator,author,orator,and adviser to several presidents of the United States. Between 1890 and 1915,Washington was the dominant leader in the African-American community and of the contemporary Black elite. Washington was from the last generation of black American leaders born into slavery and became the leading voice of the former slaves and their descendants. They were newly oppressed in the South by disenfranchisement and the Jim Crow discriminatory laws enacted in the post-Reconstruction Southern states in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are institutions of higher education in the United States that were established before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with the intention of primarily serving African Americans. Most of these institutions were founded during the Reconstruction era after the Civil War and are concentrated in the Southern United States. During the period of racial segregation in the United States,the majority of American institutions of higher education served predominantly white students,and disqualified or limited black American enrollment. Later on some universities,either after expanding their inclusion of black people and African Americans into their institutions or gaining the status of minority-serving institution,became Predominantly Black Institutions (PBIs).
Charles Hamilton Houston was an American lawyer. He was the dean of Howard University Law School and NAACP first special counsel. A graduate of Amherst College and Harvard Law School,Houston played a significant role in dismantling Jim Crow laws,especially attacking segregation in schools and racial housing covenants. He earned the title "The Man Who Killed Jim Crow".
Sterling Allen Brown was an American professor,folklorist,poet,and literary critic. He chiefly studied black culture of the Southern United States and was a professor at Howard University for most of his career. Brown was the first Poet Laureate of the District of Columbia.
Carter Godwin Woodson was an American historian,author,journalist,and the founder of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH). He was one of the first scholars to study the history of the African diaspora,including African-American history. A founder of The Journal of Negro History in 1916,Woodson has been called the "father of black history." In February 1926,he launched the celebration of "Negro History Week," the precursor of Black History Month. Woodson was an important figure to the movement of Afrocentrism,due to his perspective of placing people of African descent at the center of the study of history and the human experience.
Benjamin Griffith Brawley was an American author and educator. Several of his books were considered standard college texts,including The Negro in Literature and Art in the United States (1918) and New Survey of English Literature (1925).
Paul Laurence Dunbar High School is a historically black public secondary school located in Washington,D.C. The school was America's first public high school for black students.
Alice Dunbar Nelson was an American poet,journalist,and political activist. Among the first generation born free in the South after the Civil War,she was one of the prominent African Americans involved in the artistic flourishing of the Harlem Renaissance. Her first husband was the poet Paul Laurence Dunbar. After his death,she married physician Henry A. Callis;and,lastly,was married to Robert J. Nelson,a poet and civil rights activist. She achieved prominence as a poet,author of short stories and dramas,newspaper columnist,activist for women's rights,and editor of two anthologies.
Eva Beatrice Dykes was a prominent educator and the third black American woman to be awarded a PhD.
Francis Cecil Sumner was an American leader in education reform. He is commonly referred to as the "Father of Black Psychology." He is primarily known for being the first African American to receive a Ph.D. in psychology. He worked closely with G. Stanley Hall during his time at Clark University,and his dissertation—published in Pedagogical Seminary,which later became the Journal of Genetic Psychology—focused on "Psychoanalysis of Freud and Adler."
Garnet Crummell Wilkinson was an American educator best known for running the African-American public school system in Washington,DC during segregation. During this time Washington,DC had the reputation of having the best public schools in the nation for African Americans. Wilkinson enjoyed a nearly 50-year career in Washington's public schools and served as assistant superintendent for 30 years. He also favored "separate,but equal" schooling.
Andrew Fowler was a Baptist minister,educator,school administrator,counselor,political and religious adviser,church statesman and civil rights activist in Washington D.C.
William Robert Ming Jr. was an American lawyer,attorney with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and law professor at University of Chicago Law School and Howard University School of Law. He presided over the Freeman Field mutiny court-martials involving the Tuskegee Airmen. He is best remembered for being a member of the Brown v. Board of Education litigation team and for working on a number of the important cases leading to Brown,the decision in which the United States Supreme Court ruled de jure racial segregation a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution.
M Street High School,also known as Perry School,is a historic former school building located in the Northwest Quadrant of Washington,D.C. It has been listed on the District of Columbia Inventory of Historic Sites since 1978 and it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986. The building escaped demolition with community support and the efforts of preservationists and is now a community center.
Roscoe Conkling Bruce,Senior was an African-American educator who was known for stressing the value of practical industrial and business skills as opposed to academic disciplines. Later he administered the Dunbar Apartments housing complex in Harlem,New York City,and was editor in chief of the Harriet Tubman Publishing Company.
May Howard Jackson was an African American sculptor and artist. Active in the New Negro Movement and prominent in Washington,D.C.'s African American intellectual circle in the period 1910-30,she was known as "one of the first black sculptors to...deliberately use America's racial problems" as the theme of her art. Her dignified portrayals of "mulatto" individuals as well as her own struggles with her multiracial identity continue to call for the interpretation and assessment of her work.
Emmett Jay Scott was a journalist,founding newspaper editor,government official and envoy,educator,and author. He was Booker T. Washington's closest adviser at the Tuskegee Institute. He was responsible for maintaining Washington's nationwide "machine," with its close links to the black business leadership,white philanthropists,and Republican politicians from the local level to the White House. After Washington's death,Scott lost his Tuskegee connection,but moved to Washington,D.C. as Special Adviser of Black Affairs to Secretary of War Newton D. Baker. Scott was the highest-ranking African-American in President Woodrow Wilson's administration. After 1919,he was less and less visible in national affairs,with the NAACP taking the leadership role that Booker T. Washington had dominated.
Neval Hollen Thomas was a civil rights activist,high school teacher,and president of the Washington,D.C.,local NAACP branch from 1925 to 1930.
Pauline Alice Young was an African-American teacher,librarian,historian,lecturer,community activist,humanitarian,and individualist.
Claude Albert Barnett was an American journalist,publisher,entrepreneur,philanthropist,civic activist,Pan-Africanist,and founder of the Associated Negro Press (ANP). He started the first international news agency for black newspapers. He was an advocate against segregation in the military and blood supply. He was an activist force in journalism. He promoted Pan-Africanism. The (ANP) documented the Civil Rights Movement in the United States of America,and struggles for independence in Africa. Associated Negro Press was a Pan-African news service. Claude Barnett,Robert S. Abbott,and John H. Johnson were three of the most influential African-American media entrepreneurs in the 20th century. They were based in Chicago,Illinois. Barnett is said to have advanced the role of the Black Press in press coverage,news sharing,advertising,public relations,and professionalism.
