Robert Smalls 1839-1915 a politician, publisher, businessman, and maritime pilot. Born into slavery, he convinced President Abraham Lincoln to accept Black soldiers into the Union Army.

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Enslaved Africans politically correct term coined for slaves who landed on the now U.S. shores in 1619.

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Floyd Cooper 1956-2021 children’s book illustrator.

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Recy Taylor 1919 – 2017 in 1944 was kidnapped and gang-raped by six white men in Alabama. Rosa Parks of the NAACP investigated, and no charges were brought against the men. In 2011 the Alabama Legislature apologized for the state’s failure to prosecute. A documentary film “The Rape of Recy Taylor” debuted in 2017.

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Legacy Museum established in 2018 in Montgomery, Alabama, the tag line is “from enslavement to mass incarceration.”

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Fred Thompson 1933 -2019. Lawyer and track and field coach. Founded Colgate Women’s games in 1974.

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Athing Mu born in 2002, track and field athlete, set the world under-20 record in the women’s indoor 800 m in 2021.

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Nikeisah Newton  chef and creator of “Meals for Heels” delivering food for sex workers.

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Steven Fullwood born 1966, archivist, editor and documentarian. Founded the In the Life Archive at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, part of the New York Public Library.

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Trini Ross nominated to lead the U.S. attorney’s office for the Western District of New York based in Buffalo, if confirmed she will be the first Black woman to head that office.

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