#africanexcellence

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Benjamin Sterling Turner (March 17, 1825 – March 21, 1894) was a businessman and politician who served in the House of Representatives representing Alabama's 1st congressional district in the 42nd Congress. He engaged in mercantile pursuits and set up a livery stable in Selma. In the 1870 Census, he reported an estate worth $10,000. He joined the Republican Party after the Civil War and was elected tax collector of Dallas County in 1867. He served as councilman of the city of Selma in 1869. Freedmen were granted voting rights after the Civil War. He was unanimously nominated to be the Republican candidate from Alabama's 1st congressional district, which at that point encompassed Southwest Alabama. He was elected as a Republican to the Forty-second Congress (March 4, 1871 - March 3, 1873). He complained that northern Republicans living in his district had not supported him enough in his run for office. He worked to restore political and legal rights to Confederates who had fought against the US in the ACW. He fought for the repeal of the tax on cotton because it hurt poor African Americans. He was elected in 1880 as a delegate to the RNC. After his political career, he engaged in agricultural pursuits. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence https://www.instagram.com/p/Cp42kfdL1Cd/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

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Lupita Amondi Nyong'o (March 1, 1983) is a Kenyan-Mexican actress. The daughter of Kenyan politician Peter Anyang' Nyong'o, she was born in Mexico City, where her father was teaching, and was raised in Kenya from the age of one. She is the recipient of several accolades, including an Academy Award, a Daytime Emmy Award, four NAACP Image Awards, and two Screen Actors Guild Awards. She has been nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award and a Tony Award. She attended college in the US, earning a BFA in Film and Theatre from Hampshire College. She began her career in Hollywood as a production assistant. In 2008, she made her acting debut with the short film East River and returned to Kenya to star in the television series Shuga. She wrote, produced, and directed the documentary In My Genes. She then pursued an MFA in acting from the Yale School of Drama. She had her first feature film role as Patsey in 12 Years a Slave, for which she received critical acclaim and won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She is the first Mexican actress to win an Academy Award. She made her Broadway debut as a teenage orphan in the play Eclipsed, for which she was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play. She went on to perform a motion capture role as Maz Kanata in the Star Wars sequel trilogy and a lead voice role as Raksha in The Jungle Book. Her career progressed with her role as Nakia in Black Panther and her starring role in the US. She supports historic preservation. She is vocal about preventing sexual harassment and working for women's and animal rights. She was named the most beautiful woman by People. She wrote a children's book named Sulwe, which became a number-one New York Times Best-Seller. She narrated the docu-series Serengeti, which earned her a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Narrator. She was named one of Africa's "50 Most Powerful Women" by Forbes. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence #womenhistorymonth https://www.instagram.com/p/CpP0R4WLXja/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

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Benjamin Tucker Tanner (December 25, 1835 – January 14, 1923) was an African American clergyman and editor. He served as a Bishop in the AME Church and founded the Christian Recorder, an important early African American newspaper. He studied for five years at Avery College, paying his expenses by working as a barber. He then studied for three years at Western Theological Seminary. He was appointed to Sacramento by Bishop Daniel A. Payne, but he could not afford to go, so he moved to DC where he organized a Sunday School for freed slaves in the Navy Yard. He became the pastor of a church in Georgetown. He was appointed principal of the Annual Conference School at Fredericktown, MD, and he organized a common school under the auspices of the Freedmen's Bureau. He was elected chief secretary of the general conference of the AME church and founded and became editor of the church newspaper, the Christian Recorder. He was given an AM by Avery College and he was given an honorary DD by Wilberforce University. He was made editor of the AME Review, and he was the author of several books and pamphlets, including: 'Apology for African Methodism;' 'The Negro's Origin; and Is He Cursed of God,' 'An Outline of our History and Government;' 'The Negro, African and American.' In 1889, he focused on missionary work in Haiti. He was a participant in the March 5, 1897 meeting to celebrate the memory of Frederick Douglass which founded the American Negro Academy led by Alexander Crummell. He was a participating member of this first major African American learned society, which was led by scholars, activists, editors, and bishops like him. It refuted racist scholarship, promoted African American claims to individual, social, and political equality, and studied the history and sociology of African American life. He was the father of artist Henry Ossawa Tanner and the grandfather of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Founder Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence https://www.instagram.com/p/CmmS46XLcXf/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

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Camille Simoine Winbush (born February 9, 1990) is an actress and recording artist known for her roles as Emma Aimes on Minor Adjustments, Vanessa Thomkins on The Bernie Mac Show, and as Lauren Treacy on The Secret Life of the American Teenager. Her work in television has earned her three Image Awards and a Young Artist Award. She was born in Los Angeles, the only child of Anthony and Alice Winbush. She never attended public school, having been homeschooled and educated by an on-set tutor while acting as a child. She was a competitive gymnast during her childhood. She made her acting debut on the television series Viper in 1994, playing the role of Lucy Wilkes. The following year, she acted in her first film, Dangerous Minds. She reprised her role of Emma on Brotherly Love in a Halloween episode. She portrayed a young girl named Camille in Eraser (1996) and appeared as Pearline, a bookworm, in Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999). She had a recurring role on 7th Heaven and provided the voice of Ashley Tomossian on Recess. She has guest starred on Strong Medicine, Criminal Minds, That's Life, The Norm Show, NYPD Blue, and Any Day Now. In 2007, she appeared in an episode of Grey's Anatomy. She acted in the musical production of Geppetto. She was cast as Miriam in the web series The Choir. She provided the voice of Rhonda in Children of Ether and portrayed Syrena in Cannon Busters. In 2002, she recorded "One Small Voice" and "The Night Before Christmas Song" for the compilation album School's Out! Christmas. She sang on the soundtrack of Geppetto. As a teenager, she operated an ice cream shop she named Baked Ice, located in Pasadena. It opened in 2003 and an aunt supervised the store when she was unavailable. She received a Teenpreneur Award from Black Enterprise in 2004. The business was still extant as of 2005. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence https://www.instagram.com/p/CocXfa-LLyk/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

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Harry Haywood was born Haywood Hall, Jr., on February 4, 1898, in South Omaha to former slaves Harriet and Haywood Hall, from MO and West TN, respectively. They had migrated to Omaha because of jobs with the railroads and meatpacking industry, as did numerous other southern African Americans. South Omaha attracted White immigrants, and ethnic Irish had established an early neighborhood there. He was the youngest of three sons. In 1913 after their father was attacked by whites, the Hall family moved to Minneapolis. Two years later in 1915, they moved to Chicago. During WWI, he served with the Eighth Regiment, an African American regiment. Upon his return to Chicago, he was radicalized by the bitter Red Summer of 1919, especially the Chicago race riot, in which mostly ethnic Irish attacked African Americans on the South Side. He was influenced by his older brother Otto, who joined the Communist Party in 1921 and invited him to enter the secret African Blood Brotherhood. He was influenced by theories he read in Vladimir Lenin's State and Revolution as a teen. He stated, in his autobiography Black Bolshevik, that "this work was the single most important book I had read in the entire three years of my political search and was decisive in leading me to the Communist Party." #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence https://www.instagram.com/p/CoPoD46riHr/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

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Selma Hortense Burke (December 31, 1900 – August 29, 1995) was a sculptor and a member of the Harlem Renaissance movement. She is known for a bas relief portrait of President Franklin D. Roosevelt that inspired the profile found on the obverse of the dime. She described herself as "a people's sculptor" and created many pieces of public art, often portraits of prominent African-American figures like Duke Ellington, Mary McLeod Bethune, and Booker T. Washington. She was awarded the Women's Caucus for Art Lifetime Achievement Award. She became involved with the Harlem Renaissance cultural movement through her relationship with the writer Claude McKay, with whom she shared an apartment in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood. She began teaching for the Harlem Community Arts Center under the leadership of sculptor Augusta Savage and would go on to work for the Works Progress Administration on the New Deal Federal Art Project. One of her WPA works, a bust of Booker T. Washington, was given to Frederick Douglass High School in Manhattan. She traveled to Europe twice in the 1930s, first on a Rosenwald fellowship to study sculpture in Vienna. She returned to study in Paris with Aristide Maillol. While in Paris she met Henri Matisse, who praised her work. One of her most significant works from this period is "Frau Keller", a portrait of a German-Jewish woman in response to the rising Nazi threat which would convince her to leave Europe later that year. With the onset of WWII, she chose to work in a factory as a truck driver for the Brooklyn Navy Yard. She returned to the US and won a scholarship for Columbia University, where she would receive an MFA. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence #deltasigmatheta https://www.instagram.com/p/Cm1U_72rr7A/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

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Sabrina Marie Le Beauf (born March 21, 1958) is an actress best known for her portrayal of Sondra Huxtable on The Cosby Show. She has voiced the character Norma Bindlebeep on Fatherhood, a show based on Bill Cosby's book of the same name. After high school she attended UCLA, earning her BA in Theater. During her time at UCLA she became frustrated by the lack of parts offered to African American students, and in response formed a Black students' theater group to allow them to put on their shows. She began graduate work at the Yale School of Drama, where she earned her MA in Acting. She was born in New Orleans, her family moved to Los Angeles soon after her birth. She appeared in the series Hotel and the TV movie Howard Beach: Making a Case for Murder. She had brief appearances as bridge officer Ensign Giusti on two episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation and on the comedy The Sinbad Show. She continued her work in the theater, starring as Rosalind in a production of Shakespeare's "As You Like It." She is a frequent leading lady performing with the Shakespeare Theatre Company in DC. She recently portrayed Katherine in The Taming of the Shrew with the Company in DC. She appeared in the off-broadway play “LOVE, LOSS AND WHAT I WORE” which ran from 2009-2012. Young Artist Awards 1989: Best Young Actor/Actress Ensemble in a Television Comedy, Drama Series, or Special The Cosby Show. She married businessman and producer Michael Reynolds (1987-1997). #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence #womenshistorymonth https://www.instagram.com/p/CqDIuQ5sdBJ/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

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Robert Calvin Bland (Robert Calvin Brooks; January 27, 1930 – June 23, 2013), known professionally as Bobby "Blue" Bland, was a blues singer. He developed a sound that mixed gospel with the blues and R&B. He was described as "among the great storytellers of blues and soul music... [who] created tempestuous arias of love, betrayal, and resignation, set against roiling, dramatic orchestrations, and left the listener drained but awed." He was sometimes referred to as the "Lion of the Blues" and as the "Sinatra of the Blues". His music was influenced by Nat King Cole. He was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1981, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992, and the Memphis Music Hall of Fame in 2012. He received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame described him as "second in stature only to B.B. King as a product of Memphis' Beale Street blues scene." #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence https://www.instagram.com/p/Cn6wkepriNF/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

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Oscar Stanton De Priest (March 9, 1871 – May 12, 1951) was a politician and civil rights advocate from Chicago. A member of the Illinois Republican Party he was the first African American to be elected to Congress in the 20th century. During his three terms, he was the only African American serving in Congress. He served as a Representative from IL’s 1st congressional district from 1929-1935. He was the first African-American Representative from outside the south, the first since the Reconstruction Era, and the first since the exit of NC representative George Henry White from Congress in 1901. Born in Alabama to freedmen parents, De Priest was raised in Dayton. He studied business and made a fortune in Chicago as a contractor, and in real estate and the stock market before the Crash. A successful local politician, he was elected to the Chicago City Council in 1914, the first African American to hold that office. In Congress in the early 1930s, he spoke out against racial discrimination, including at speaking events in the South; tried to integrate the House public restaurant; gained passage of an amendment to desegregate the Civilian Conservation Corps, one of the work programs under President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal; and introduced anti-lynching legislation to the House. He returned to Chicago and his successful business ventures, returning to politics when he was again elected Chicago alderman in the 1940s. He married the former Jessie L. Williams. They had two sons together. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence https://www.instagram.com/p/CpkRb1oLzX0/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

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Vanessa Lynn Williams (born March 18, 1963) is a singer, actress, and fashion designer. She gained recognition as the first woman of African-American descent to receive the Miss America title when she was crowned Miss America in 1984. A scandal arose the following year when, a few weeks before the end of her reign, she learned that Penthouse magazine would be publishing now "iconic" unauthorized nude photographs of her in an upcoming issue. She resigned as Miss America in July 1984 and was replaced by the first runner-up Miss New Jersey Suzette Charles. Thirty-two years later, Miss America CEO Sam Haskell offered her a public apology. She rebounded from the scandal with a successful career as a singer and actress. She released her debut studio album The Right Stuff whose title single saw moderate success before "Dreamin'" peaked at number 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart in the US. With her second and third studio albums, The Comfort Zone and The Sweetest Days, she saw continued commercial success and received multiple Grammy Award nominations—this included her number-one hit and signature song, "Save the Best for Last". Her later studio albums include Everlasting Love and The Real Thing. She enjoyed success on both stage and screen, receiving an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture for her portrayal of Teri Joseph in Soul Food. Her best-known television roles are that of Wilhelmina Slater on Ugly Betty, for which she was nominated three times for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series, and Renee Perry on Desperate Housewives. She is involved with several humanitarian causes. She is a supporter of LGBT rights and same-sex marriage, and in 2011 she participated in a Human Rights Campaign entitled "New Yorkers for Marriage Equality". She is partnered with Dress For Success, an organization that provides professional attire for low-income women to help support their job search and interview process. She is involved with The San Miquel Academy of Newburgh, a school for boys at risk. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence #womenhistorymonth #womenhistorymonth https://www.instagram.com/p/Cp7fErprG2m/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

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Anna Maria Horsford (born March 6, 1948) is an actress, known for her performances in television comedies. She is known for her roles as Thelma Frye on Amen (1986–91), and as Dee Baxter on The Wayans Bros. (1995–99). She had dramatic roles on The Shield playing A.D.A. Beth Encardi and on The Bold and the Beautiful as Vivienne Avant, for which she was nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Special Guest Performer in a Drama Series. She appeared in several movies, most notably as Craig Jones' mother Betty in Friday and its sequel Friday After Next. Her other film credits include Times Square (1980), The Fan (1981), Presumed Innocent (1990), Set It Off (1996), Along Came a Spider (2001), Our Family Wedding (2010), and A Madea Christmas (2013). She was born in Harlem to Victor Horsford, an investment real estate broker originally from the Dominican Republic, and Lillian Agatha Horsford, who emigrated from Antigua and Barbuda in the 1940s. She grew up in a family of five children. She is married to Daniel Wolf. On October 29, 2011, she was awarded the title of Ambassador of Tourism of Antigua. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence #sigmagammarho #womenhistorymonth https://www.instagram.com/p/CpcjmmwrSyK/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

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The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, usually referred to as simply the Freedmen's Bureau, was a US government agency from 1865 to 1872, after the Civil War, to direct "provisions, clothing, and fuel ... for the immediate and temporary shelter and supply of destitute and suffering refugees and freedmen and their wives and children." The Freedmen's Bureau Bill, which established the Freedmen's Bureau on March 3, 1865, was initiated by President Abraham Lincoln and was intended to last for one year after the end of the Civil War. The Freedmen's Bureau was an important agency of early Reconstruction, assisting freedmen in the South. The Bureau was made a part of the US Department of War, as it was the only agency with an existing organization that could be assigned to the South. Headed by Union Army General Oliver O. Howard. In its first year, its representatives found its tasks to be very difficult, partly because Southern legislatures passed laws for Black Codes that restricted movement, conditions of labor, and other civil rights of African Americans, nearly duplicating conditions of slavery. The Freedmen's Bureau controlled a limited amount of arable land. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence https://www.instagram.com/p/CpU95FUrq9x/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

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William Ellisworth Artis (February 2, 1914 – April 3, 1977) was an African-American sculptor, whose favorite medium was clay. The freedom of modeling gave him a broad range of expression. During the latter part of his life, he began to focus on potting. He was a pupil of Augusta Savage and exhibited with the Harmon Foundation. He was featured in the 1930s film A Study of Negro Artists, along with Savage and other artists associated with the Harlem Renaissance, including Richmond Barthé, James Latimer Allen, Palmer Hayden, Aaron Douglas, Lois Mailou Jones, and Georgette Seabrooke. He taught at the Harlem YMCA after finishing high school, then was involved with Works Progress Administration's artist project. He served in the Army during WWII. He earned his academic degrees. He studied at the Art Students League of NY and Syracuse University. After leaving Syracuse, he taught at Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in SD. He, with fellow artists Romare Bearden and Selma Burke, were together in the landmark Albany Institute of History and Art exhibit and over the next decade found the black artist making inroads in national exhibits and major galleries. He joined the faculty of Nebraska State Teachers College. He taught at Chadron State College, where he was a Professor of Ceramics, and at Mankato State College, as a Professor of Art. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence https://www.instagram.com/p/CoKUW6GLsZ9/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

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Jasmine Felicia Crockett (born March 29, 1981) is an attorney and politician serving as the Representative for Texas's 30th congressional district since 2023. Her district covers most of South Dallas County and parts of Tarrant County, including Dallas Love Field Airport. A member of the Democratic Party, she represented the 100th district in the Texas House of Representatives. In the 118th Congress, she serves as the Democratic freshman class representative between the House Democratic leadership and the approximately 35 newly elected Democratic members. She was born in St. Louis. She earned a BA in business from Rhodes College. She earned a JD from the University of Houston Law Center. After law school, she worked as a civil rights attorney. She worked as a public defender for Bowie County before establishing her law firm. During the George Floyd protests, she and her associates took on the pro bono cases of several Black Lives Matter activists. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence #deltasigmatheta #womenhistorymonth https://www.instagram.com/p/CqYGHpRr2X9/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

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Rust College is an HBCU in Holly Springs, Mississippi. Founded November 24, 1866, it is the second-oldest private college in the state. Affiliated with the United Methodist Church. Rust was founded by Northern missionaries with a group called the Freedman's Aid Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church. In 1870, the college was chartered as Shaw University 1870, honoring the Reverend S. O. Shaw, to avoid confusion with Shaw University, the institution changed its name to Rust University—a tribute to Rev. Richard S. Rust of Cincinnati, a preacher, abolitionist, and the secretary of the Freedmen's Aid Society, who helped found the college. In 1915, the institution assumed the name Rust College. It is the oldest of the 11 historically HBCUs associated with The United Methodist Church. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence #hbcu https://www.instagram.com/p/ClWI4ZLr3A5/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

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March 27, 1867 (during Reconstruction), after the end of the Freedmen’s meeting in Charleston, South Carolina, a group of African Americans decided to test their right to ride on the Charleston Street Cars. The Streetcar Company’s rules denied them this right. At 5 o’clock two to five African American men entered a streetcar on the King Street line and sat among the white customers. Conductor Rivers explained the rules of the company and that he had the right to forcibly remove them, yet the men did not move. Rivers called the police, but they failed to remove the men. At a meeting of its board of directors on May 3rd, 1867, the Charleston City Railway Company bowed to a combination of market forces and Federal pressure. Henceforth, they declared, all of Charleston’s streetcars would be open to all persons, regardless of color. This civil rights victory was one of many small steps forward during the era of Federal Reconstruction that, unfortunately, were erased by the rise of “Jim Crow” segregation in later decades. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence https://www.instagram.com/p/CqTbQ6gPelG/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=