The James Logan Courier

From wikipedia:

Frank Minis Johnson, Jr. (born October 30, 1918 in Haleyville, Alabama - July 23, 1999 in Montgomery, Alabama) United States Federal judge, made a number of landmark civil rights rulings that helped end segregation in the South. In the words of Bill Moyers, he "altered forever the face of the South."

Learn more about Frank M. Johnson, free from the Academy of Achievement.

Read an interview with Frank M. Johnson, free from the Academy of Achievement.

From wikipedia:
Eddie Harris (b. Chicago, October 20, 1934; died November 5, 1996) was best known for playing tenor saxophone, though he was also fluent on the electric piano and organ. Harris also came up with the idea of the reed trumpet, playing one for the first time at The Newport Jazz Festival of 1970 to mostly negative critical feedback. His most well-known composition was “Freedom Jazz Dance”, recorded and popularized by Miles Davis in the 1960s.

For more information about Eddie Harris and to hear samples of his work, visit www.eddieharris.com.

From wikipedia:
b>Amy Euphemia Jacques Garvey (December 31, 1895–July 25, 1973), born to George Samuel and Charlotte Henrietta (South) Jacques, in Kingston, Jamaica.

Amy Jacques Garvey was one of the pioneer Black women journalists and publishers of the 20th century, a fact that is often overlooked by historians. She came to New York in 1917 and soon after became involved with publishing of The Negro World newspaper in Harlem from its inception in August 1918. She became the second wife of Negro World publisher, Pan-Africanist and UNIA-ACL President General Marcus Garvey when they married on July 27, 1922, having been Amy Ashwood's bridesmaid at Marcus' first wedding. During her tenure from 1924 to 1927 as a Negro World Associate Editor, Amy Jacques Garvey added a page called "Our Women and What They Think". She is mother to Garvey's two sons, Marcus Jr. and Julius.

Read Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey, by Marcus Garvey, Amy Jacques Garvey, free from googlebooks.com.

From wikipedia:
Emmett W. Chappelle (October 25, 1925) is a scientist and researcher who made valuable contributions in several fields: medicine, biology, food science, and astrochemistry.

Emmett Chappelle was born in Phoenix, Arizona in 1925. Chappelle lived on a small farm which did not have electricity until he was twelve. He attended a one-room school for several years, but graduated from a small, segregated high school that was a part of the Phoenix Union High School District. He was the top graduate in his 25-student senior class.

Read more about Emmett Chappelle and his induction into the National Inventors Hall of Fame, free from Nasa.gov.

From wikipedia:
LaWanda Page, born Alberta Peal (October 19, 1920 - September 14, 2002) was an American actress, perhaps best known for her portrayal of Aunt Esther in the 1970s sitcom Sanford and Son.

Raised in St Louis, Missouri, Page started her career in show business in small clubs, working as "The Bronze Goddess of Fire," an act which included her lighting cigarettes with her fingertips. She performed this routine on an episode of Sanford and Son, in which Fred held a circus in his front yard.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/lawanda-page-643589.html

From wikipedia:
Ntozake Shange (pronounced En-toe-ZAHK-kay SHONG-gay) (born October 18, 1948) is an African American playwright, dancer, actor, director, author, lecturer, installation artist, and poet. As a self proclaimed black feminist, much of the content of her work addresses issues relating to race and feminism.

She is best-known for her Obie Award winning play For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf.

She also wrote Betsey Brown, a novel about an African American girl who runs away from home. Among her honors and awards are fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund, and a Pushcart Prize. Shange lives in Philadelphia.

Read more about Ntozake Shange, free from bridgesweb.com.

Lerone Bennett, Jr. (born October 17, 1928) is an American scholar, author and historian.

Bennett was born in Clarksdale, Mississippi the son of late Lerone Bennett Sr. and Alma Reed. When he was young his family moved to Jackson, Mississippi. He is most notable for his work as an editor for Ebony Magazine and for two historical texts: Before the Mayflower: A History of Black America, 1619-1962 and Forced into Glory: Abraham Lincoln's White Dream. The former discusses the contributions of African Americans in the United States, while the latter questions President Abraham Lincoln's role as the "Great Emancipator." Bennett is an alumnus of Morehouse College. Mr. Bennett is also a distinguished member of the Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc.

Watch a video interview with Lerone Bennett, Jr., free from VisionaryProject.com.

From the University of Minnesota, Mankato:

Allison Davis led a long thoughtful life trying to help many others along on his journey. It all started on October 14, 1902, when William Allison Davis was born to John and Gabrielle Davis. They raised him on a farm in Virginia with his two siblings, Dorothy and John Jr. By the time he was a teenager the family moved to Washington DC. As a young child Allison Davis felt that he had to do something about the discrimination towards African Americans, so he devoted his life to trying to make a difference among the equal treatment children of different races.

Visit the Allen Davis Garden online.

Edith Spurlock Sampson (13 October 1901? – 8 October 1979) was an American lawyer and judge, and the first Black U.S. delegate appointed to the United Nations.

Sampson was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S. to Louis Spurlock and Elizabeth A. McGruder. Despite family financial difficulties, she graduated from Peabody High School in Pittsburgh. She then went to work for Associated Charities, and studied at the New York School of Social Work. One of her instructors, George Kirchwey of Columbia, encouraged her to become an attorney. She studied law while working as a social worker in Chicago, taking night courses at John Marshall Law School, from 1922 to 1925.

From wikipedia:
Ann Petry (October 12, 1908 – April 28, 1997) was an African American author.

Ann Lane was born as the youngest of three daughters to Peter Clark Lane and Bertha James Lane in Old Saybrook, Connecticut. Her parents belonged to the Black minority of the small town. Her father was a pharmacist and her mother was a shop owner, chiropodist, and hairdresser. Ann and her sister were raised “in the classic New England tradition: a study in efficiency, thrift, and utility (…) They were filled with ambitions that they might not have entertained had they lived in a city along with thousands of poor blacks stuck in demeaning jobs.”

Read more about Ann Petry, free from Department of English at the University of Minnesota.

From the Frederick D. Patterson Research Institute:
Two extraordinary activists of their respective times resided within three blocks of each other in the Anacostia section of the District of Columbia: the great nineteenth century pioneer, Frederick Douglass, last lived in the Cedar Hill neighborhood; Frederick Douglass Patterson (October 10, 1901 - April 26, 1988), a namesake to the former slave, was born in the BuenaVista Heights neighborhood. Not only did Frederick Douglass Patterson take on the philosopher’s name, but he was also similarly imbued with a gift for launching sweeping societal advancements.

Visit the United Negro College Fund website.

From wikipedia:
Henri Christophe (October 6, 1767 – October 8, 1820) became a career officer and general in the military forces that became the Haïtian Army, leading the rebellion and achieving independence for Haiti. Creating a separate nation in the north, Christophe was elected President of the State of Haiti on February 17, 1807. He then created a kingdom in the north, where he was proclaimed Henri I, King of Haïti on March 26, 1811. Christophe committed suicide on October 8, 1820.




Read more about Henri Christophe, free from nathanielturner.com.

From wikipedia:
Nat Turner (Nathaniel Turner, October 2, 1800 – November 11, 1831) was an American slave who started the largest slave rebellion in the antebellum southern United States, in Southampton County, Virginia. His methodical slaughter of white civilians during the uprising makes his legacy controversial. At birth he was not given a surname, but was recorded solely by his given name, Nat. In accordance with a common practice, he was often called by the surname of his owner, Samuel Turner.

Read more about Nat Turner's rebellion, free from PBS.org.

From wikipedia:
John Brown Russwurm (1799-1851) was an African American abolitionist from Jamaica, known for his newspaper, Freedom's Journal. He moved from the United States to govern the Maryland section of an African American colony in Liberia, dying there in 1851.

Russwurm was born on October 1st, 1799, in Port Antonio, Jamaica to a white merchant father and an unknown black slave. The family stayed in Jamaica until 1807 when Russwurm was sent to Quebec for his education. In 1812, father and son moved to Portland, Maine, where the elder Russwurm married widower Susan Blanchard in 1813. Blanchard (now Russwurm) insisted her husband grant 'John Brown', as he was then known, his full birth name. His father did so, and the now named 'John Brown Russwurm' lived with his father, stepmother and her children from a previous marriage, accepted as part of the family. The elder Russwurm died in 1815 but his son stayed close to his stepmother, even after she re-married to become Susan Hawes.

Read Freedom's Journal, free from wisconsinhistory.org.