Rosa Louise McCauley Parks was an American activist in the civil rights movement best known for her pivotal role in the Montgomery bus boycott. The United States Congress has honored her as "the first lady of civil rights" and "the mother of the freedom movement". Parks became a NAACP activist in 1943, participating in several high-profile civil rights campaigns. On December 1, 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, Parks rejected bus driver James F. Blake's order to vacate a row of four seats in the "colored" section in favor of a White passenger, once the "White" section was filled. Parks was not the first person to resist bus segregation, but the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) believed that she was the best candidate for seeing through a court challenge after her arrest for civil disobedience in violating Alabama segregation laws, and she helped inspire the Black community to boycott the Montgomery buses for over a year. The case became bogged down in the state courts, but the federal Montgomery bus lawsuit Browder v. Gayle resulted in a November 1956 decision that bus segregation is unconstitutional under the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
Claudette Colvin is an American pioneer of the 1950s civil rights movement and retired nurse aide. On March 2, 1955, she was arrested at the age of 15 in Montgomery, Alabama, for refusing to give up her seat to a white woman on a crowded, segregated bus. This occurred nine months before the more widely known incident in which Rosa Parks, secretary of the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), helped spark the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott.
The Montgomery bus boycott was a political and social protest campaign against the policy of racial segregation on the public transit system of Montgomery, Alabama. It was a foundational event in the civil rights movement in the United States. The campaign lasted from December 5, 1955—the Monday after Rosa Parks, an African-American woman, was arrested for her refusal to surrender her seat to a white person—to December 20, 1956, when the federal ruling Browder v. Gayle took effect, and led to a United States Supreme Court decision that declared the Alabama and Montgomery laws that segregated buses were unconstitutional.
Jay Silverheels was an Indigenous Canadian actor and athlete. He was well known for his role as Tonto, the Aboriginal companion of the Lone Ranger in the American Western television series The Lone Ranger.
Betty Marion White was an American actress, comedian and producer. A pioneer of early television with a career spanning eight decades, she was noted for her vast television appearances acting in sitcoms, sketch comedy, and game shows. She produced and starred in the series Life with Elizabeth (1953–1955), thus becoming the first woman to produce a sitcom.
Anthony Dwayne Montgomery is an American film and television actor, as well as graphic novelist. He is best known for his portrayal of Ensign Travis Mayweather on the UPN science fiction television series Star Trek: Enterprise. Montgomery played Andre Maddox on the ABC daytime soap opera General Hospital from 2015 to 2019. He is the grandson of guitarist Wes Montgomery.
An African American is a citizen or resident of the United States who has origins in any of the black populations of Africa. African American-related topics include:
Richard Masur is an American character actor who has appeared in more than 80 films. From 1995 to 1999, he served two terms as president of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG). He is best known for playing David Kane on One Day at a Time (1975-1976), Nick Lobo on Rhoda (1974-1977), Clark in The Thing (1982), Stanley Uris in the miniseries It (1990), and Edward L. L. Moore on Younger (2016-2018).
Shemar Franklin Moore is an American actor. His notable roles include Malcolm Winters on The Young and the Restless, Derek Morgan on Criminal Minds (2005–2016), and the lead role of Sergeant II Daniel "Hondo" Harrelson on S.W.A.T. (2017–2024) all on CBS. Moore was also the third permanent host of Soul Train from 1999 to 2003.
Alaina Reed Hall was an American actress and singer who portrayed Olivia Robinson, Gordon's younger sister, on the PBS children's television series Sesame Street, and Rose Lee Holloway on the NBC sitcom 227.
Anne of Green Gables (1956) is a Canadian television film directed by Don Harron. The film was based upon the 1908 novel, Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery.
Lynn Chen is a Taiwanese-American actress and singer. She is best known for playing Vivian Shing in the film Saving Face, a role for which she won the "Outstanding Newcomer Award" at the 2006 Asian Excellence Awards. She writes the popular food blog The Actor's Diet. Chen was named a 2013 "New Change Agent" by Marie Claire.
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is a 1972 British musical film directed by Australian filmmaker William Sterling, based on Lewis Carroll's 1865 novel of the same name and its 1871 sequel, Through the Looking-Glass. It had a distinguished ensemble cast and a musical score composed by John Barry with lyrics written by Don Black. In addition, make-up artist Stuart Freeborn created film visuals based on the original drawings by John Tenniel from the first edition of the novel.
Anthony Mandler is an American film director, music video director, television commercial director and photographer.
Five on the Black Hand Side is a 1973 African American comedy film based on the 1969 play of the same name by Charlie L. Russell. It was shot in Los Angeles, California. Leonard Jackson appeared as John Henry Brooks. He was cast in Steven Spielberg's The Color Purple fifteen years later.
Bolingbrook High School or The Brook is a public four-year high school located in Bolingbrook, Illinois, a western suburb of Chicago, Illinois, in the United States. Bolingbrook High School is the second high school in the Valley View Community Unit School District 365U.
The Inevitable Defeat of Mister & Pete is a 2013 American drama film directed by George Tillman Jr. and written by Michael Starrbury. The film stars Anthony Mackie, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Jennifer Hudson, Jordin Sparks and Jeffrey Wright. It is a coming-of-age story about two inner-city youths, who are left to fend for themselves over the summer after their mothers are taken away by the authorities. Skylan Brooks and Ethan Dizon star in the title roles as Mister and Pete, respectively.
Ronald "RJ" Cyler II is an American actor. He is best known for his roles in the films Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (2015), Power Rangers (2017), The Harder They Fall (2021), and Emergency (2022) as well as the Showtime series I'm Dying Up Here (2017–2018) and Scream: Resurrection (2019).
Morgan Jerkins is an American writer and editor. Her debut book, This Will Be My Undoing (2018), a collection of nonfiction essays, was a New York Times bestseller. Her second book, Wandering in Strange Lands, was released in August 2020. She is currently an adjunct professor at Columbia University.
Sekou Andrews also known as Sekou, is an American actor, writer, producer, and innovator of "Poetic Voice".
