black republican history

8/9/2019 Black Republican History

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Black Republican History

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Martin Luther King, Jr.

(1929-1968)

Martin Luther King, Jr. was born on January 15, 1929 at his family home in Atlanta,Georgia. King's grandfather was a Baptist preacher, and his father was pastor of Atlanta'sEbenezer Baptist Church. King earned his own Bachelor of Divinity degree from Crozier

Theological Seminary in 1951 and earned his Doctor of Philosophy from Boston Universityin 1955. As a Baptist Minister, he was an eloquent civil rights movement leader from themid-1950's until his death by assassination on April 3, 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee wherehe was there to support striking sanitation workers. King registered as a Republican in1956.

As pastor of a Baptist church in Montgomery, Alabama, King led a black bus boycott. Heand ninety others were arrested and indicted under the provisions of a law making it illegalto conspire to obstruct the operation of a business. King and several others were foundguilty, but appealed their case. A Supreme Court decision in 1956 ended Alabama'ssegregation laws enacted by Democrats. After this success, King was made president ofthe newly established Southern Christian Leadership Conference. King led the 1963 Marchon Washington where he delivered his most famous I Have a Dream speech. Kingbecame a national hero as he promoted non-violent means to achieve civil rights reform.He was awarded the 1964 Noble Peace Prize for his efforts, and President Ronald Reaganmade Kings birthday a national holiday.

Carter G. Woodson

(1875 - 1950)

"Switch parties if you are not being represented."

These are the words of Dr. Carter Godwin Woodson, distinguished Black author, editor,publisher, and historian. Carter G. Woodson believed that Blacks should know their past inorder to participate intelligently in the affairs in our country. He strongly believed that Blackhistory - which others have tried so diligently to erase - is a firm foundation for youngBlack Americans to build on in order to become productive citizens of our society.

Known as the father of Black history, Dr. Woodson at the peak of the Harlem Renaissance

established "Negro History Week" in 1926 during the second week of February tocommemorate the birthday of abolitionist and orator Frederick Douglass and President

Abraham Lincoln. Woodson sought to create a forum that later became Black HistoryMonth. He was also instrumental in the founding of the Association for the Study of NegroLife and History in 1915.


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Frederick Douglass

(1817 - 1895)

Frederick Douglass was one of the foremost leaders of the abolitionist movement whichfought to end slavery within the United States in the decades prior to the Civil War. Heeagerly attended the founding meeting of the republican party in 1854 and campaigned for

its nominees.

A brilliant speaker, Douglass was asked by the American Anti-Slavery Society to engage ina tour of lectures, and so became recognized as one of America's first great blackspeakers. He won world fame when his autobiography The Narrative of the Life ofFrederick Douglass, An American Slave, in which he gave specific details of his bondage,was publicized in 1845. Two years later, he began publishing an anti-slavery paper calledthe North Star. He was appointed Minister Resident and Consul General to Haiti byPresident Benjamin Harrison on July 1, 1889, the first black citizen to hold high rank in theU.S. government.

Douglass served as an adviser to President Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War andfought for the adoption of constitutional amendments that guaranteed voting rights andother civil liberties for blacks. After the Civil War, Douglass realized that the war forcitizenship had just begun when Democrat President Andrew Johnson proved to be adetermined opponent of land redistribution and civil and political rights for former slaves.Douglass began the postwar era relying on the same themes that he preached in theantebellum years: economic self-reliance, political agitation, and coalition building.Douglass provided a powerful voice for human rights during this period of American historyand is still revered today for his contributions against racial injustice.

Mary McLeod Bethune

(1875 - 1955)

Mary McLeod Bethune was an educator, presidential advisor, civil rights advocate, and oneof America's most influential African American leaders. As former slaves, Bethune's parentswere determined that she accept an offer from a Quaker woman to attend school whenfew educational opportunities were available to African Americans.

Bethune founded a school for African-American girls in Daytona, Florida, which in 1923became the co-educational Bethune-Cookman College. As college president until 1942, herefforts gained tremendous recognition. Bethune became a national leader and united allmajor black women's organizations across the nation into one powerful group, the NationalCouncil of Negro Women. As its president for 14 years, Bethune led campaigns againstsegregation and discrimination. Presidents Coolidge, Hoover, Roosevelt and Truman soughther advice on issues concerning black Americans, and Franklin Roosevelt appointed herdirector of the Division of Negro Affairs of the National Youth Administration. She was thefirst black woman to ever head a federal agency.


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Dr. Condoleezza Rice

With her appointment as the 66th Secretary of State on January 26, 2005, Dr. CondoleezzaRice became the first black woman in our countrys history to hold our nations highestcabinet office. She was first entrusted with the security of our nation as the National

Security Advisor on January 22, 2001 at a time of unprecedented threat, and was the firstwoman to hold that position. Her career in national security began in 1989 and lastedthrough March 1991, the period of German reunification and the final days of the SovietUnion. During this time, she served on the staff of the National Security Council forPresident George Herbert Walker Bush as Senior Director of Soviet and Eastern European

Affairs in the National Security Council and Special Assistant to the President for NationalSecurity Affairs.

Academia was Condoleezza Rices first career path. In June 1999, she completed a six-yeartenure as Stanford Universitys Provost, during which she was the institutions chief budgetand academic officer. As Provost she was responsible for a $1.5 billion annual budget andthe academic program involving 1,400 faculty members and 14,000 students. Beginning in1981, Dr. Rice was on the Stanford faculty as professor of political science and won two ofthe highest teaching honors: the 1984 Walter J. Gores Award for Excellence in Teachingand the 1993 School of Humanities and Sciences Deans Award for Distinguished Teaching.

Dr. Rice is well respected in academic circles, having earned her bachelors degree inpolitical science, cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, from the University of Denver in 1974; hermasters from the University of Notre Dame in 1975; and her Ph.D. from the GraduateSchool of International Studies at the University of Denver in 1981..

Alphonso Jackson

Secretary Alphonso Jackson is guiding the U.S. Department of Housing and UrbanDevelopment (HUD) in its mission of providing affordable housing and promoting economicdevelopment, an assignment to which he brings more than 25 years of direct experience inboth the private and public sectors. Jackson holds a bachelor's degree in political scienceand a master's degree in education administration from Truman State University. Hereceived his law degree from Washington University School of Law.

In nominating Jackson, President George W. Bush chose a leader with a strong backgroundin housing and community development, expertise in finance and management, and a deepcommitment to improving the lives of all Americans. The U.S. Senate unanimouslyconfirmed Jackson as the nation's 13th Secretary of HUD on March 31, 2004. Jackson first

joined the Bush Administration in June of 2001 as HUD's Deputy Secretary and ChiefOperating Officer. As Deputy Secretary, Jackson managed the day-to-day operations of the$32 billion agency and instilled a new commitment to ethics and accountability withinHUD's programs and among its workforce and grant partners.


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From January 1989 until July 1996, Jackson was President and CEO of the HousingAuthority of the City of Dallas, Texas, which consistently ranked as one of the best-managed large-city housing agencies in the country during his tenure. Prior to that,Jackson was Director of the Department of Public and Assisted Housing in Washington,D.C., and also served as Chairperson for the District of Columbia Redevelopment Land

Agency Board.

Rod Paige

Former Secretary of Education Rod Paige was the first school superintendent ever to servein that position. He was appointed by President George W. Bush and confirmed by theUnited States Senate on January 21, 2001. His vast experience as a practitioner, from theblackboard to the boardroom, paid off during the long hours of work needed to passPresident Bush's No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. The driving force behind his work washis shared belief with President Bush that education is a civil right, just as are the rights tovote and be treated equally.

Born in 1933 in segregated Monticello, Mississippi, Paige's accomplishments speak of hiscommitment to education. He earned both a master's and a doctoral degree from IndianaUniversity. Paige was elected in 1989 as a trustee and an officer of the Board of Educationof the Houston Independent School District where he served until 1994. Inside HoustonMagazine named Paige one of "Houston's 25 most powerful people" in guiding the city'sgrowth and prosperity. In 2001, he was named National Superintendent of the Year by the

American Association of School Administrators.

Clarence Thomas

Justice of the United States Supreme Court Clarence Thomas was born in Savannah,Georgia. He attended Conception Seminary from 1967 to 1968 and received an A.B., cumlaude, from Holy Cross College in 1971 and a J.D. from Yale Law School in 1974. He wasadmitted to law practice in Missouri in 1974, and served as an Assistant Attorney Generalof Missouri from 1974 to 1977. In President Ronald Reagans administration, he served as

Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights at the United States Department of Education from 1981to 1982 and Chairman of the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commissionfrom 1982 to 1990. He served as a Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the

District of Columbia Circuit from 1990 to 1991. President George W. Bush nominatedThomas, a brilliant jurist, as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, and he took hisseat on October 23, 1991.


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Michael S. Steele

In January 2003, Michael Steele made history when he became the first African Americanelected to a Maryland statewide office and the first ever Republican Lieutenant Governor inMaryland. After earning a law degree from Georgetown University Law Center in 1991, heattended the Augustinian Friars Seminary at Villanova University in Villanova, Pennsylvania,in preparation for the priesthood.

As Lieutenant Governor, Steeles top priorities include improving the quality of Marylandspublic education system, where he currently chairs the Governors Commission on QualityEducation; reforming the states Minority Business Enterprise program; expandingeconomic development and international trade; and fostering cooperation betweengovernment and community-based organizations to help those in need. In 2002, PresidentGeorge W. Bush appointed Steele to serve on the Board of Visitors of the United StatesNaval Academy.

He is a member of the Prince George's County Chapter of the NAACP and serves on theNAACP's 2001 Blue Ribbon Panel on Election Reform. Steele became Marylands first

African American County Republican Party chairman, and in 1995 he was selected MarylandState Republican Man of the Year. In December 2000, Steele became the first ever African

American to be elected as chairman of a state Republican Party and served as a member ofthe Executive Committee of the Republican National Committee.

Michael L. Williams

The son of public school teachers, Michael L. Williams earned a master's and law degree

from the University of Southern California. In 1990, President George H. W. Bushappointed Williams to be Assistant Secretary of Education for Civil Rights at the U.S.Department of Education.

He was initially appointed to the Texas Railroad Commission by former Governor GeorgeW. Bush in December 1998. He was elected by his fellow commissioners in September1999 to chair the commission and elected by the people of Texas in November 2002 toserve a six-year term. Williams is the first African American in Texas history to hold astatewide executive post and is the highest ranking African American in the Texas stategovernment.

He volunteered as the general counsel of the Republican Party of Texas and the chairmanof the Texas Juvenile Probation Commission. He served on the Board of Directors of the

Arlington Chamber of Commerce, the Texas Public Policy Foundation and Our Mother ofMercy Catholic School. He also served as Special Assistant to Attorney General RichardThornburgh at the U.S. Department of Justice from 1988 to 1989 and was awarded the

Attorney General's "Special Achievement Award" in 1988 by former U.S. Attorney GeneralEd Meese for the conviction of six Ku Klux Klan members on federal weapons charges.


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Alveda C. King

Dr. Alveda C. King is the daughter of the late civil rights activist, Rev. A. D. King and theniece of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. She founded King for America, Inc. "to assist people inenriching their lives spiritually, personally, mentally and economically." She is a formercollege professor, holding the M.B.A. degree from Central Michigan University and a lawdegree from Anslem College. She is the author of two books Sons of Thunder: The King

Family Legacy and I Dont Want Your Man, I Want My Own.

During the years of the Civil Rights Movement, led by her Uncle, Dr. Martin Luther King,Jr., Alveda's family home was bombed in Birmingham, Alabama, and her fathers churchoffice was bombed in Louisville, Kentucky. She was also jailed during the open housingmovement and has continued her long-term work as a civil rights activist. She believes thatSchool Choice is a pressing civil rights issue and that the most compelling issue of all is thelife of the unborn. The message that she carries to the world is that the key to positiveaction to have faith in God and commitment to fulfill His will for our lives, not faith ingovernment.

J. Kenneth Blackwell

Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell has a distinguished record of achievement asan educator, diplomat and finance executive. He is the states constitutional officer chieflyresponsible for elections, the management of business records, and the protection ofintellectual property and corporate identities.

Blackwells public service includes terms as mayor of Cincinnati, an undersecretary at the

U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development and U.S. Ambassador to the UnitedNations Human Rights Commission. In 1994, he became the first African American electedto a statewide executive office in Ohio when he was elected treasurer of state. Blackwellhas twice received the U.S. Department of States Superior Honor Award from theadministrations of Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton for his work in the field ofhuman rights.

In 1994, the Blackwells were honored as one of the National Council of Negro WomensFamilies of the Year, and, in 1996, they received the Martin Luther King, Jr. Dreamkeeper

Award. In 2004, Blackwell received the John M. Ashbrook Award given jointly by theAmerican Conservative Union and the Ashbrook Center for Public Affairs. Past recipients of

this award include President Ronald Reagan, Ambassador Jean Kirkpatrick and CharltonHeston.

J.C. Watts Jr

Congressman JC Watts was born the fifth of six children to Buddy and Helen Watts onNovember 18, 1957 in Eufaula, Oklahoma . He attended the University of Oklahoma and


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earned a B.A. in journalism in 1981. While at the University of Oklahoma, Watts wasquarterback for the Sooners, leading them to two consecutive Big Eight championships andOrange Bowl victories. He was voted the Most Valuable Player in 1980 and 1981 andinducted into the Orange Bowl Hall of Honor in 1992.

He was first elected to represent the fourth district of Oklahoma in the U.S. House ofRepresentatives in November 1994 and won re-election in 1996, 1998 and 2000. Fellow

congressmen quickly recognized his leadership qualities and elected him chairman of theHouse Republican Conference, the fourth-highest position in the House, in 1998 and againin 2000. Watts earned a solid reputation in Oklahoma and throughout the nation as aperceptive and passionate spokesman for redeveloping communities, exercising fiscaldiscipline, strengthening education, restoring values, and bolstering national defense.

Watts was commended for his efforts in Congress with numerous community awards,including the 1996 Junior Chamber of Commerces Ten Outstanding Young Americans

Award, the Jefferson Award for promoting economic prosperity and free enterprise, theChristian Coalitions Friend of the Family Award, the YMCAs Strong Kids, Strong Families,Strong Communities plaque, the 60 Plus Associations Guardian and Benjamin Franklinawards, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerces Spirit of Enterprise Award.

In 1996, he delivered a powerful, inspiring speech at the Republican National Convention.Soon thereafter, he was selected to give the Republican response to President Clintons1997 State of the Union Address. Watts also served as an honorary co-chairman at the2000 Republican National Convention. After an outstanding career in public service, hebecame chairman of GOPAC in March 2003, the premier training organization forRepublican candidates across America. He also serves on the board of the Fellowship ofChristian Athletes in Oklahoma.

Don King

"Only in America" boxing promoter extraordinaire Don King has been involved in well overa billion dollars in fight purses. He coined the phrase, "Only in America" because hebelieves that only in America can a Don King happen. King says that he loves Americanbecause America is the greatest country in the world and what he has accomplished couldnot have been done anywhere else. He came from the hard-core Cleveland ghetto andbeat the system to become the world's greatest promoter. He was inducted into the BoxingHall of Fame in 1997 and was the only boxing promoter named to Sports Illustrateds list of

the "40 Most Influential Sports Figures of the Past 40 Years."

King is one of the world's leading philanthropists and established the Don King Foundation,which has donated millions of dollars to worthy causes and organizations. He is also aninfluential civil rights activist and a longtime supporter of the NAACP, the United NegroCollege Fund (UNCF), and the Martin Luther King Jr. Foundation. The NAACP recognizedKing with its highest honor, the President's Award, and he received the Martin Luther KingJr. Humanitarian Award from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1987. All


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three major boxing organizations, the IBF, WBA and WBC, have proclaimed Don King the"Greatest Promoter in History."

Denzel Washington

Denzel Washington is an Oscar winner and is thought to be one of the finest actors of ourgeneration. His diverse range of roles has shown him to be one of Hollywood's most highlytalented leading men. He was born in 1954 in Mount Vernon, New York and was the middlechild of the three children of a Pentecostal minister father and a beautician mother. Aftergraduating from high school, Denzel enrolled at Fordham University intent on a career in

journalism. However, he caught the acting bug while appearing in student dramaproductions and upon graduation he moved to San Francisco and enrolled at the AmericanConservatory Theater (A.C.T.). He left A.C.T. after only one year to seek work as an actor.With his acting versatility and handsome features, he had no difficulty finding work innumerous television productions.

Jackie Robinson

Jackie Robinson is a hall of famer Brooklyn Dodger who in 1947 broke baseball's "colorbarrier," becoming the first African American in the major league baseball. He played forthe Dodgers from 1947 to 1956. His impact on the game was legendary, and he waschosen for his cool intelligence and high level of skill. He was also a pioneer in the nation'scivil rights movement and exemplified the utmost courage, determination, character andcompetitiveness. On March 2, 2005, Robinson was recognized posthumously with the

Congressional Gold Medal by President George W. Bush.

Lynn Swann

Wide Receiver - 5-11, 180(Southern California)

1974-1982 Pittsburgh Steelers

Born in Alcoa, Tennessee, on March 7, 1952, this hall of famer joined the Pittsburgh

Steelers in 1974 pick just as they were embarking on a winning binge that produced sixstraight AFC Central Division titles and four Super Bowls in six years. A former USC All-

American, Swann was the Steelers' No. 1 draft pick in the 1974 NFL Draft . Blessed withgazelle-like speed, fluid movements and a tremendous leaping ability, Swann became aregular at wide receiver in his second year. Immediately he demonstrated that he was acomplete player with phenomenal natural abilities. He was a three-time pro bowler andmost valuable player in Super Bowl X.


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Sammy Davis Jr

(1925-1990)

A veteran of Vaudeville, Broadway, motion pictures, Las Vegas shows and television,Sammy Davis is considered to have been the world's greatest entertainer. He thrilledmillions of fans worldwide for over 50 years with his dancing, singing and acting.

Davis was a member of the famed Rat Pack and was among the very first African-Americantalents to find favor with audiences on both sides of the color barrier He remains aperennial icon of cool. Born in Harlem on December 8, 1925, Davis made his stage debutat the age of three performing with Billie Holiday in Dixieland, a black vaudeville troupefeaturing his father and helped by his de facto uncle, Will Mastin. Dubbed "Silent Sam, theDancing Midget," Davis proved phenomenally popular with audiences and the act was soonrenamed Will Mastin's Gang Featuring Little Sammy. At the age of seven Davis made hisfilm debut in the legendary musical short Rufus Jones for President, and later received tap-dancing lessons courtesy of the great Bill "Bojangles" Robinson. In 1941, the Mastin Gangopened for Tommy Dorsey at Detroit's Michigan Theater where Davis first met Dorseyvocalist Frank Sinatra, the beginning of a lifelong friendship.

Edward William Brooke, III

In 1966, Edward William Brooke was elected as a Republican to the United States Senateand re-elected in 1972. He was the first African American Senator born in Washington, DCand the first African American Senator to serve since the Reconstruction era. He graduatedfrom Howard University in 1941 and from Boston University Law School in 1948. Brooke

moved to Massachusetts and became the first African American to win a statewide office inMassachusetts when he was elected attorney general in 1962. He was re-elected in 1964.Brooke was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom on June 23, 2004 by PresidentGeorge W. Bush.

William Thaddeus Coleman, Jr.

In 1959 President Dwight D. Eisenhower asked William T. Coleman, a longtime Republican,to serve on the President's Commission on Employment Policy, which dealt with increasing

minority hiring in the government. In addition to service as secretary of transportation inthe Ford Administration, Coleman held a number of other public service and nationalcommunity positions.

An ardent civil rights activist and public servant, Coleman was co-author of the NAACPLegal Defense and Educational Fund's (LDF) brief on Brown vs. Topeka, Kansas Board ofEducation (1954) and helped to defend freedom riders and other civil rights workers. Hesuccessfully argued cases that compelled the admission of blacks to previously segregateduniversities and established the constitutionality of interracial marriages. Coleman began


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Booker T. Washington

(1856 - 1915)

Rising up from slavery and illiteracy, Booker T. Washington became the foremost educatorand leader of African Americans at the turn of the century. Born into slavery, Washingtonwas the most prominent spokesperson for African Americans after the death of Frederick

Douglass. After graduation from the Hampton Institute in 1875, he first taught in WestVirginia and then studied at the Wayland Seminary before returning to teach at Hampton.

In 1881 he left Hampton to begin the single most important undertaking of his life:founding the Tuskegee Normal School in Alabama. Washington, his small staff, and theirstudents worked as carpenters to build Tuskegee. In its first year of operation Tuskegeehad 37 students and a faculty of three. When Washington died in 1915, Tuskegee had1,500 students, a faculty of 180, and an endowment of $2,000,000.

A. Philip Randolph

(1889 - 1979)

As a Philip Randolph became one of Americas foremost labor leader and civil rightspioneer. He was born in Crescent City, Florida in 1889. In 1925 he organized and served asthe first President of the Black International Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. Randolphwas the first African American to serve as an International Vice-President of the AFL-CIO in1957, and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Lyndon Johnson in1964.

He organized two major marches on Washington, D.C. in 1941 and 1963, which resulted inimportant advances in black civil rights. The 1963 march made Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.into a national figure. About the 1963 March Randolph once said:

"By fighting for their rights now, American Negroes are helping to make America a moraland spiritual arsenal of democracy. Their fight against the poll tax, against lynch law,segregation, and Jim Crow, their fight for economic, political, and social equality, thusbecomes part of the global war for freedom.

Harriet Tubman

(1821 - 1913)

Harriet Tubman was heralded as the "Moses" of black people, leading approximately 300slaves to freedom during nineteen trips. Her work became even more dangerous with thepassage of the Fugitive Slave Law and the offer of awards by slave owners for her capture.She learned about the Underground Railroad which was a secret network of abolitionists,


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freed blacks, sympathetic whites and Quakers who helped runaway slaves. Tubmanbecame the most influential of the black conductors. After the outbreak of the Civil War,she served with distinction as a soldier, spy, and a nurse, spending time at Fort Monroe,where Jefferson Davis was later imprisoned.

Sojourner Truth

(1797 - 1883)

Sojourner Truth was born as a slave in Hurley, New York and became a nationally knownspeaker on human rights for slaves and women. At the time of her birth, New York andNew Jersey were the only northern states that still permitted slavery. After gaining herfreedom, she took the name Sojourner Truth to signify her role as a traveler telling thetruth about slavery. She set out on June 1, 1843, walking for miles and gaining fame.Truth's popularity was enhanced by her biography The Narrative of Sojourner Truth: ANorthern Slave written by the abolitionist Olive Gilbert, with a preface written by WilliamLloyd Garrison. She was the first prominent African American woman to become directlyinvolved with the white womens suffrage movement. She gave her famous speech, Aint Ia Woman? in the 1851 Convention on Womens Rights in Akron, Ohio in response to aclergymans remarks ridiculing women as too weak and helpless to entrust with the vote.

In 1864, she was invited to the White House, where President Abraham Lincoln personallyreceived her. Later she served as a counselor for the National Freedman's Relief

Association, retiring in 1875 to Battle Creek, Michigan.

George Washington Carver

(1860 - 1943)

One of the best known agricultural scientists of his generation, Carver was born intoslavery near Diamond Grove, Missouri. Although Carver had to work and live on his ownwhile still a boy, he managed to finish high school and became the first African Americanstudent to enroll at Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa. Later earned a Master of Sciencefrom the Iowa Agricultural College. In 1896, Carver joined Booker T. Washington at theTuskegee Institute.

Carver encouraged Southern farmers to diversify from cotton only and also plant sweetpotatoes and peas to end leaching the soil of nutrients. In order to make these crops moreprofitable, Carver did extensive research, producing more than 300 derivative productsfrom the peanut and 118 from the sweet potato. In 1923 Carver won the Springhamaward, the highest annual prize given by the National Association for Colored People. In1938 he took $30,000, virtually his entire life's savings, and founded the GeorgeWashington Carver Foundation to continue his work after his death.


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Hiram Rhodes Revels

(1822 1901)

Hiram Rhodes Revels of Mississippi was the first black United States senator serving from

1870-1871 as a Republican. The only other African American to serve as United StatesSenators in the nineteenth century was Blanche K. Bruce also a Republicans fromMississippi. Revels completed the unfinished term of Jefferson Davis who was the formerpresident of the confederacy. In the Senate, Revels supported civil rights for blacks. Bornin Fayetteville, North Carolina attending Knox College, he became a minister of the AfricanMethodist Episcope Church. After completing his term in the United States Senate, Revelswas named president of Alcorn University (now known as Alcorn State University).

Blanche Bruce

(1841 - 1898)

Blanche Bruce was elected as a Republican to the United States Senate and served fromMarch 4, 1875 to March 3, 1881. He was the first African American to serve a full term inthe United States Senate. He was born in slavery near Farmville, Virginia . At the beginningof the Civil War, he taught school in Hannibal, Missouri and later attended Oberlin Collegein Ohio. After the Civil War, he became a member of the Mississippi Levee Board, a sheriffand tax collector of Bolivar County from 1872 to1875. He was appointed register of thetreasury by President James Garfield in 1881 and was appointed to that position again in

1897. He served as the recorder of deeds for the District of Columbia from 1891to1893.

Ida B. Wells

(1862 - 1931)

Ida B. Wells was a journalist, advocate for civil rights and an anti-lynching crusader. Shewas born in Springfield, Mississippi and helped to found the National Association of ColoredWomen in 1896 and the Negro Fellowship League. She worked with the white Republicans

who started the National Association for the Advancement for Colored People on February12, 1909.

She was forced off of a train for refusing to sit in the Jim Crow car designated for blacksand was awarded $500 by a circuit court. That decision was overruled by the TennesseeSupreme Court in 1887, a rejection that ultimately strengthened her resolve to devote herlife to upholding justice. She reported in two black newspapers, the New York Age and theChicago Conservator, about the violence and injustices being perpetrated by Democratsagainst African Americans. In honor of her legacy, a low-income housing project in Chicago


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was named after her in 1941, and in 1990, the U.S. Postal Service issued an Ida B. Wellsstamp.

Mary Terrell

(1863 - 1954)

Mary Terrell was a civil rights pioneer and lifelong political activist who fought for equalrights for African American women. Terrell was born in Memphis, Tennessee in 1863. Bothher parents were former slaves, but her father became very successful in real estate,making it possible for her to have a privileged childhood. In 1884 she graduated fromOberlin College and in 1886 began teaching in Washington's M Street High School (laterknown as Dunbar High School). She her husband, Robert Terrell, Washington's first black

judge, were the second black family to move into LeDroit Park in 1894.

In 1896 she began president of the National Association of Colored Women . She wasactive in the National American Suffrage Organization, and later she became activelyinvolved in the NAACP. At the age of 90 she was still an activist, playing an instrumentalrole in the boycott of Washington, DC restaurants that refused to serve blacks. She carriedthat fight to the Supreme Court in 1953, which upheld the right of blacks to equal servicein DC restaurants. The decision set in motion the desegregation of the capital. Terrell'sautobiography, A Colored Woman in a White World, is the first full length publishedautobiography by an American black woman.

Thomas Sowell

Thomas Sowell is the Rose and Milton Friedman Senior Fellow on Public Policy at theHoover Institution at Stanford university. He writes on economics, history, social policy,ethnicity, and the history of ideas. Over the past three decades, Sowell has taughteconomics at various colleges and universities, including Cornell, Amherst, and theUniversity of California at Los Angeles, as well as the history of ideas at BrandeisUniversity. He has also been associated with three other research centers, in addition tothe Hoover Institution. He was project director at the Urban Institute from 1972 to 1974, afellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University in197677, and was an adjunct scholar of the American Enterprise Institute in 1975-76.

Sowell was awarded the National Humanities Medal in 2002. In 2003, Sowell received theBradley Prize for intellectual achievement. Sowell received his bachelors degree ineconomics (magna cum laude) from Harvard in 1958, his masters degree in economicsfrom Columbia University in 1959, and his Ph.D. in economics from the University ofChicago in 1968.

Sowell's journalistic writings include a nationally syndicated column that appears in morethan 150 newspapers from Boston to Honolulu. Some of these essays have been collected


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in book form, most recently in Controversial Essays published by the Hoover InstitutionPress. Sowells current research focuses on cultural history in a world perspective, a subjecton which he began to write a trilogy in 1982. The trilogy includes Race and Culture (1994),Migrations and Cultures (1996), and Conquests and Cultures (1998).

His most recent books on economics include Affirmative Action Around the World (2004)(2004), Basic Economics (2004), and Applied Economics (2003). Other books on economics

he has written include Classical Economics Reconsidered (1974), Says Law (1972), andEconomics: Analysis and Issues (1971). On social policy he has written Knowledge andDecisions (1980), Preferential Policies (1989), Inside American Education (1993) and The

Vision of the Anointed (1995).

On the history of ideas he has written Marxism (1985) and Conflict of Vision (1987). Hismost recent books are Barbarians Inside the Gates (1999) and The Quest for CosmicJustice (1999). Sowell also wrote Late-Talking Children (1997). He has also written amonograph on law titled Judicial Activism Reconsidered, published by the HooverInstitution Press. His writings have also appeared in scholarly journals in economics, law,and other fields.

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