Honoring those we lost on August 29 — remembered for what they gave, and for what they left behind. David “Honeyboy” Edwards Birth name: David Edwards Born Jun 28, 1915 — died Aug 29, 2011 Delta blues guitarist, singer, songwriter, storyteller, and living link to prewar blues. Edwards traveled and performed with Big Joe Williams, […]
Honoring those we lost on August 28 — remembered for what they gave, and for what they left behind. Albert Grant Brown Born 1881 — died Aug 28, 1924 Architect, professor, draftsman, and early Black design professional in West Virginia. Brown studied at West Virginia Colored Institute and Tuskegee before returning to teach mechanical and […]
Honoring those we lost on August 27 — remembered for what they gave, and for what they left behind. Janie Porter Barrett Full name: Janie Aurora Porter Barrett Born Aug 9, 1865 — died Aug 27, 1948 Educator, social reformer, clubwoman, and pioneer in care for Black girls. Barrett founded the Locust Street Social Settlement […]
Honoring those we lost on August 26 — remembered for what they gave, and for what they left behind. Amelia Boynton Robinson Birth name: Amelia Isadora Platts Born Aug 18, 1911 — died Aug 26, 2015 Voting-rights organizer, educator, businesswoman, and central leader of the Selma movement. Robinson and her family spent decades building Black […]
Honoring those we lost on August 25 — remembered for what they gave, and for what they left behind. William Greaves Full name: William Garfield Greaves Born Oct 8, 1926 — died Aug 25, 2014 Documentary filmmaker, actor, producer, writer, editor, and pioneering television journalist. Greaves produced more than 200 documentaries and helped establish Black […]
Honoring those we lost on August 24 — remembered for what they gave, and for what they left behind. Jan Ernst Matzeliger Born Sep 15, 1852 — died Aug 24, 1889 Inventor whose lasting machine transformed the American shoe industry. Matzeliger created a machine that mechanized the difficult process of shaping and attaching a shoe’s […]
Honoring those we lost on August 23 — remembered for what they gave, and for what they left behind. Esther Cooper Jackson Full name: Esther Victoria Cooper Jackson Born Aug 21, 1917 — died Aug 23, 2022 Civil rights activist, social worker, editor, and Black freedom movement organizer. Jackson helped lead the Southern Negro Youth […]
Honoring those we lost on August 22 — remembered for what they gave, and for what they left behind. Lucinda Bragg Adams Birth name: Lucinda Bragg Born Dec 4, 1860 — died Aug 22, 1932 Physician, educator, temperance leader, musician, writer, and school administrator. Adams combined medical training with a lifelong commitment to education, supervising […]
Honoring those we lost on August 21 — remembered for what they gave, and for what they left behind. Julia Hayden Born c. 1857 — died Aug 21, 1874 Reconstruction-era teacher and martyr to Black education. Hayden traveled from Nashville to teach formerly enslaved children in rural Tennessee during Reconstruction. White supremacists murdered the 17-year-old […]
Honoring those we lost on August 20 — remembered for what they gave, and for what they left behind. Sathima Bea Benjamin Birth name: Beatrice Bertha Benjamin Born Oct 17, 1936 — died Aug 20, 2013 South African jazz vocalist, composer, lyricist, and longtime New York recording artist. Benjamin carried the musical memory of Cape […]