Those We Lost — November 7

Honoring those we lost on November 7 — remembered for what they gave, and for what they left behind.

Juliette Derricotte

Born April 1, 1897 — died November 7, 1931

Fisk University dean of women and YWCA leader

Juliette Derricotte of Athens, Georgia, was a national YWCA secretary, a trustee of Talladega College, and dean of women at Fisk University. On November 6, 1931, her car collided with another near Dalton, Georgia; the local hospital would not admit Black patients, and she lay in a private home for hours before an ambulance took her to Chattanooga, where she died the next day. The NAACP and YWCA investigated her death as a case of medical Jim Crow.

Vertner Woodson Tandy

Born May 17, 1885 — died November 7, 1949

First Black registered architect in New York; built Villa Lewaro

Vertner Woodson Tandy of Lexington, Kentucky, studied at Tuskegee and Cornell, where he helped found Alpha Phi Alpha, and became the first African American registered architect in New York State. He designed St. Philip’s Episcopal Church in Harlem and Villa Lewaro, Madam C. J. Walker’s mansion at Irvington-on-Hudson. He died of pneumonia in New York on November 7, 1949, at 64.

Charles Jackson French

Born September 25, 1919 — died November 7, 1956

Navy mess attendant who towed 15 shipmates to safety at Guadalcanal

Charles Jackson French, a Navy mess attendant from Foreman, Arkansas, tied a rope around his waist when the USS Gregory sank off Guadalcanal in September 1942 and swam through the night towing a raft of 15 wounded shipmates. The Navy gave him only a letter of commendation at the time; it awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal in 2022 and in 2024 announced a destroyer in his name. He died in San Diego on November 7, 1956, at 37.

Adelaide Hall

Born October 20, 1901 — died November 7, 1993

Harlem Renaissance jazz singer, ‘Creole Love Call’

Brooklyn-born Adelaide Hall made her debut in Shuffle Along in 1921, starred in Blackbirds of 1928, and created the wordless vocal on Duke Ellington’s ‘Creole Love Call’ in 1927. She settled in Europe in the 1930s, made London her home, and performed into her nineties. She died in London on November 7, 1993, at 92.

Joe Frazier

Born January 12, 1944 — died November 7, 2011

Heavyweight champion, ‘Smokin’ Joe’

Joe Frazier, born in Beaufort, South Carolina, won Olympic gold in 1964 and the undisputed heavyweight title in 1970. He handed Muhammad Ali his first defeat in the 1971 ‘Fight of the Century’, lost the title to George Foreman, and fought Ali twice more, including the 1975 ‘Thrilla in Manila’. He died of liver cancer in Philadelphia on November 7, 2011, at 67.

Edward J. Perkins

Born June 8, 1928 — died November 7, 2020

First Black U.S. ambassador to apartheid South Africa

Edward Perkins, born in Sterlington, Louisiana, rose through the Foreign Service to become ambassador to Liberia and, in 1986, the first Black U.S. ambassador to South Africa, where he openly challenged apartheid. He later served as director general of the Foreign Service, ambassador to the United Nations and ambassador to Australia. He died of complications of a stroke in a Washington hospital on November 7, 2020, at 92.