Sheila Cecilia Escovedo, known under the stage name Sheila E., is an American singer and drummer. She began her career in the mid-1970s as a percussionist for the George Duke Band. After separating from the group in 1983, Sheila began collaborating with Prince and launched a solo career, starting with the release of her debut album in 1984, which included her biggest hit "The Glamorous Life". She also saw a hit with the 1985 single "A Love Bizarre". She is sometimes referred to as the "Queen of Percussion". In 2021, she received a Latin Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
Maywood is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States, in the Chicago metropolitan area. It was founded on April 6, 1869, and organized October 22, 1881. The population was 23,512 at the 2020 census.
Black Entertainment Television (BET) is an American basic cable channel targeting Black American audiences. It is currently owned by the BET Media Group, a subsidiary of Paramount Global's CBS Entertainment Group. Originally launched as a program block on January 25, 1980, BET would eventually become a full-fledged channel on July 1, 1983.
Robert Louis Johnson is an American entrepreneur, media magnate, executive, philanthropist, and investor. He is the co-founder of BET, which was acquired by Viacom in 2001. He also founded RLJ Companies, a holding company that invests in various business sectors. Johnson is the former majority owner of the Charlotte Bobcats. He became the first black American billionaire in 2001. Johnson's companies have counted among the most prominent black American businesses in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.
Gwendolyn Elizabeth Brooks was an American poet, author, and teacher. Her work often dealt with the personal celebrations and struggles of ordinary people in her community. She won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry on May 1, 1950, for Annie Allen, making her the first African American to receive a Pulitzer Prize.
Michael Richard Beschloss is an American historian specializing in the United States presidency. He is the author of nine books on the presidency.
Winsome Sears is an American politician and Marine Corps veteran serving as the 42nd lieutenant governor of Virginia. A member of the Republican Party, Sears served in the Virginia House of Delegates from 2002 to 2004. She also served on the Virginia Board of Education, and she ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. House of Representatives in Virginia's 3rd congressional district in 2004 and for U.S. Senate in 2018. In 2021, Sears was elected lieutenant governor of Virginia. Sears is a candidate for the 2025 Virginia gubernatorial election.
Sheila Yvette Oliver was an American politician who served as the second lieutenant governor of New Jersey from 2018 until her death in 2023. A member of the Democratic Party, Oliver was the first Black woman to serve as lieutenant governor of New Jersey and was the first woman of color elected to statewide office in New Jersey.
Robert Francis McDonnell is an American politician, attorney, businessman, academic administrator, and former military officer who served as the 71st governor of Virginia from 2010 to 2014. He is a member of the Republican Party.
Jean Case is an American businesswoman, author, and philanthropist who is chair of the board of National Geographic, CEO of Case Impact Network, and CEO of the Case Foundation. She is married to AOL co-founder Steve Case.
Kay Coles James is an American public official who served as secretary of the Commonwealth of Virginia from January 2022 to August 2023, and as the director for the United States Office of Personnel Management under President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2005. Previous to the OPM appointment, she served as Virginia secretary of health and human resources under then-Governor George Allen and was the dean of Regent University's government school. She is the president and founder of the Gloucester Institute, a leadership training center for young African Americans.
Yolande Cornelia "Nikki" Giovanni Jr. was an American poet, writer, commentator, activist and educator. One of the world's best-known African-American poets, her work includes poetry anthologies, poetry recordings, and nonfiction essays, and covers topics ranging from race and social issues to children's literature. She won numerous awards, including the Langston Hughes Medal and the NAACP Image Award. She was nominated for a 2004 Grammy Award for her poetry album, The Nikki Giovanni Poetry Collection. Additionally, she was named as one of Oprah Winfrey's 25 "Living Legends". Giovanni was a member of The Wintergreen Women Writers Collective.
The following offices were up for election in the United States Commonwealth of Virginia in the November 2009 general election:
Dovey Mae Johnson Roundtree was an African-American civil rights activist, ordained minister, and attorney. Her 1955 victory before the Interstate Commerce Commission in the first bus desegregation case to be brought before the ICC resulted in the only explicit repudiation of the "separate but equal" doctrine in the field of interstate bus transportation by a court or federal administrative body. That case, Sarah Keys v. Carolina Coach Company, which Dovey Roundtree brought before the ICC with her law partner and mentor Julius Winfield Robertson, was invoked by Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy during the 1961 Freedom Riders' campaign in his successful battle to compel the Interstate Commerce Commission to enforce its rulings and end Jim Crow laws in public transportation.
Creigh Deeds was the 2009 Democratic nominee for Governor of Virginia. He has been a Virginia State Senator since 2001 and was the Democratic Party's nominee for Attorney General of Virginia in 2005. He announced his candidacy for governor on December 13, 2007, in an online video. His primary opposition for the Democratic nomination was former Virginia House of Delegates member Brian Moran and former DNC chairman Terry McAuliffe. Deeds won the nomination by a large margin, taking about 50 percent of the vote in the June 9, 2009 Democratic primary. However, Deeds lost the gubernatorial race held on November 3, to Bob McDonnell, 41.25% to 58.61%.
Former Attorney General of Virginia Bob McDonnell was the Republican nominee for the 2009 gubernatorial race in the U.S. Commonwealth of Virginia. At the Virginia State Convention on May 30, 2009, he officially received the party's nomination, as Republican Lieutenant Governor Bill Bolling decided against opposing him. His opponent in the general election was State Senator Creigh Deeds, a Democrat from Bath County. Although the race was close in September, McDonnell began take a commanding leads in the poll heading into election day, when he defeated his opponent by a margin of 18 points. He was inaugurated on January 16, 2010, at the Virginia State Capitol.
Creola Katherine Johnson was an American mathematician whose calculations of orbital mechanics as a NASA employee were critical to the success of the first and subsequent U.S. crewed spaceflights. During her 33-year career at NASA and its predecessor, she earned a reputation for mastering complex manual calculations and helped pioneer the use of computers to perform the tasks. The space agency noted her "historical role as one of the first African-American women to work as a NASA scientist".
Dorothy Jean Johnson Vaughan was an American mathematician and human computer who worked for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), and NASA, at Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. In 1949, she became acting supervisor of the West Area Computers, the first African-American woman to receive a promotion and supervise a group of staff at the center.
Martha Johnson Patterson was the eldest child of Andrew Johnson, the 17th President of the United States and his wife, Eliza McCardle. She served as the White House hostess during her father's administration and directed the restoration of the White House following the American Civil War. A newspaper article published at the time of her death stated, "'Too much cannot be said in praise of her many virtues.'...president Johnson once told a United States Senator—still living in Washington—that Mrs. Patterson 'was the only child he had who had been a comfort to him, or taken pride in his career.'"
