Margaret James Strickland Collins (September 4,1922-April 27,1996)

Was an African American child prodigy, entomologist (zoologist) specializing in the study of termites, and a civil rights advocate.Margaret was nicknamed.the "Termite Lady" because of her extensive research on termites.Together with David Nickle,she identified a new species of termite called Neotermes luykxi.When Margaret earned her PhD., She became the first African American female entomologist and the third African American female zoologist.She was born Institute, West Virginia. Margaret started college at age fourteen and graduated with a bachelor of Science degree in Biology from West Virginia State University in 1943.Her Doctor of Philsophy degree was awarded by the University of Chicago in 1950,becoming only the third African American woman zoologist in the country.Her mentor was Alfred Edwards Emerson Jr.Her disseration was Difference in toleration of dying between species of termites (reticulitermes),with an article based on this work in Ecology,the journal of the Ecological Society of America.

She taught at Florida  A&M University and at Howard University.She saw herself primarily as a field scientist,and did extensive field work in North and South America,specializing in the insects of Guyana and Florida.

From the late 1970s through 1996,Margaret was a research associate in the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History,Department of Entomology.Her primary area of study was termites of the Caribbean.

Her life research regarding termites included: the evolution of desiccation resistance in termites;various termites species' tolerance of high temperatures; defensive behavior in South America termites,including chemical defenses; termite ecology; species abundance in virgin and disturbed tropical rain forests;and behavioral ecology,taxonomy,and entomology. 

Margaret was born in Institute,West Virginia.She was the fourth child of Rollins James,& Luella James.Institute was described as an-black town and a college town. As a result,there were many educated African-Americans in 

Institute,West VIrginia.Her daddy,earned his bachelor's degree from West Virginia State University and his master's degree from Tuskegee Institute,

both historically African-American universities.With these degrees,he worked with George Washington Carver for a while.He then taught Vocational Agriculture at West Virginia State,ran the poultry program at West Virginia State,taught at West Virginia State's laboratory high school, and was a county agent for the USDA.Margaret's mama Luella James,wanted to become an archaelogist her studies at West Virginia State were limited because of gender,she later dropped out of college.

From an early age Margaret was fascinated by zoology.Inspired by naturalist Ernest Thompson Seton's books,Two Little Savages and Rolf in the Woods,Margaret would explore the woods and barn near her childhood home in order to collect insects.When she was just 6 years old,Margaret was recognized as a child prodigy; as a result of this achievement,she was given access to the book collections at West Virginia state University's Library. 

Margaret impressive intellect and university level reading skill allowed her to skip two grades and graduated high school early.

At 14years old,Margaret graduated from West Virginia State University's Laboratory High School. 

After her early graduation from High School,Margaret continued her education until she received a PhD.in zoology in 1950.In 1936 she started her first year at West Virginia State Univesity,a historically African-American University,on an academic scholarship. She faced a lot of difficulties as an undergraduated at West Virginia State University due to her gender.Margaret struggled to find a mentor in Biology,which was a 

predominantly male-field.She eventually received mentorship from Toye Davis  & Frederick Lehner,who were both professors at West Virginia University.Together Toye Davis & Frederick Lehner,helped Margaret find 

opportunities in the field of Biology.In 1943,she gained her Bachelor of Science degree in Biology with minors in Physics and German.Later in 1943 Margaret enrolled in the University of Chicago graduating in 1950 

with a PhD in zoology.Alfred  E.Emerson, a termite expert,mentored her 

at the University of Chicago.Alfred assisted Margaret in her studies and shielded her from racism; he did not let her do fieldwork because he throught women were irritating during scientific expeditions. Alfred helped Margaret develop and complete her dissertation,Differences in Toleration of Drying among Species of Termmites  (Reticulitermes).

Margaret dissertation is well regarded in the field of entomology and is cited very often.She also wrote an article based on her dissertation in 

Ecology,the journal of the Ecological Society of America.

When Margaret received her PhD., she became the third African-American female zoologist and the first African-American female entomologist.

She was employed as an assistant professor at Howard University in 

Washington District of Columbia while her first husband,Bernard Strickland attended Howard University's Medical School. She later divorced Bernard and left Howard University because it did not treat its 

women and men faculty members equally.She started working for Florida  A&M University and while there married her second husband 

Herbert L.Collins.They had two sons.She was appointed a full-time professor at Florida  A&M,becoming chair of the Biology department in 1953.She often went on collecting trips in Evanglades National Park with her family.During her time in Florida,she was invited to guest lecture at 

local predominantly white university on Biology and equality. The lecture 

was cancelled due to a bomb threat.

Margaret also volunteered to drive people to work during the Florida A&m

Student Council's bus boycott.She was watched closely by the police and the FBI because of her actions against inequality.Her advocacy for equal 

rights limited her scientific work from 1952-1957 and she did not publish any papers at this time.

Margaret applied for and received a grant from the National Science Foundation to study at the University of Minnesota for a year.FROM 1961-1962,    Margaret was research associate at the Minnesota Agricultural 

Experimental Station in St.Paul where studied North American termites.

In 1964,she moved back to Washington, D.c., and returned to Howard University as a ful-time professor.Margaret also took a tenured position 

at Federal City College (now known as University of District of Columbia)

for ten years.additionally,she became president of the Entomological Society of Washington during her time in Washington, D.C., and a research associate at the Smithsonian Institute.

In 1968 with grants from the Smithsonian and the Graduate School of Howard University,Margaret led an expedition to Mexico.In 1972 she took a research trip to the Sonoran Desert in Arizona which was supported by the United States IBP Desert Biome Project and the National Science Foundation.In that same year,she was invited to the Clark Lectureship 

at Scripps College; She lectured about her research experiences.

While involved in field research in Guyana,Margaret reopened the Alfred 

Emerson research station in 1979.Also, in 1979 she orchestrated a symposium for the American Association for the Advancement of Science.The symposium's focus was on Science and the Question of Human Equality.After the symposium she published a book with the same title as the symposium's focus,Science and the Question of Human Equality.1979 was a very busy year for Margaret because she also started researching the defense mechanism of termites with Glen D.Prestwich.

From the late 1970s to 1996,she researched termites in the Caribbean 

through the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History,Department of Entomology,especially the termites of Guyana.

During these expeditions,Margaret informed Guyana's military of 

ways to build that would avoid termite damage and how to use termite 

excretions to strenghthen building materials.Margaret contributed 

greatly to the Smithsonian's termite collection.the materials she collected were curated as the Collins Collection at the National Museum of Natural History.

Margaret was still doing research when she died in the Cayman Islands.She died of heart failure,and , as she had hoped to,while on a field trip.

 

"Alberta-Jones" (November 12,1930-August 5,1965)

Was born to Sarah (Sadie)  Frances Crawford  & Odell Jones,in Louisville,Kentucky.Alberta attended Louisville Central High School and the Louisville Municipal College for Negroes,which in 1951 merged with the University of Louisville.She graduated third in her class.

In 1956 she became the first African American to  attend the University of Louisville Law School,Alberta transferred to Howard University School of Law in her second year.She graduated fourth in her class from Howard in 1958 and the next year she became one of the first African American women to pass the Kentucky Bar.In 1959 she returned to Kentucky and opened a law office in downtown Louisville.

Alberta was the first attorney for the rising boxer Cassius Clay ( later Muhammad Ali),negotiating his first professional fight contract in 1960.
She was a member of the Fall City Bar Association,the Louisville Bar Association,and the American Bar Association.Alberta was also a member of Eta Zeta Chapter of  Zeta Phi Beta Sorority.She participated in 1963 civil rights marches in Louisville and in the March on Washington on August 28 of that year.

In her hometown,in 1960 became an advocate for increased African American political participation.She created the Independent Voter's Association which 
registered 6,000 African Americans. She rented voting machines and held classes in her office on "how to vote four your candidate." Her efforts resulted in a major political shakeup in 1961 when African-American voters helped oust the mayor and many of the city's aldermen.Two years later the new city administration enacted the first public accommodations ordinance in the South.

Because of her now-considerable political influence,Alberta in 1964 was appointed city attorney in Louisville,becoming the first woman of any race to hold that position.In February 1965 she was appointed prosecutor for the 
Domestic Relations Court again a first for a woman or a person of color.
Ironically,she was responsible for prosecuting mostly white men for spousal 
abuse.

On August 5,1965, her body was found tossed off Louisville's Sherman Minton Bridge into the Ohio River.She was either 34 or 35 at the time of her death.An autopsy revealed that Alberta had received several blows to her head before being tossed unconscious into the water,where she drowned.Her rented car was found several blocks from the bridge with traces of blood in it,and her purse was found from the bridge three years later.


Witness later recalled seeing a body being tossed in the river by three undentified men at the bridge.The night before her death,Alberta's mama recalled her daughter receiving a phone from a friend named Gladys Whyckoff who wanted Alberta to meet her to discuss a lawsuit against 
a beautician.Alberta left for the meeting she never returned home.

The FBI matched a fingerprint found inside Alberta car to a man who was 17-years-old at the time,prosecutors decided two years later not to pursue the case,citing deaths of key witnesses who later turned to be alive.

In 2017,the Jones case reopened,funded by the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act,which provided $13 million dollars annually to the Department of Justice,the FBI,and U.S. State and local law officials to investigate and prosecute pre-1970 murders.Nonetheless,the murder of 
Alberta Jones remain unsolved.

"Blance-Kelso-Bruce" (March 1 1841-March 17 1898)

African American political leader and senator during the reconstruction era,was born in Farmville,Virginia,the son of Polly (surname unknown) 

a slave.The identity of his daddy is unknown,he took the surname of the man who owned his mama before he was born.His childhood as a slave 

on a small Virginia,first in Virginia,then briefly in Mississippi,and finally 

in Missouri did not signifcantly differ, as he later recalled,from that of the sons of whites.This relatively benign experience in slavery perhaps owed a great deal to the fact he was light-skinned favorite of a benevolent master and mistress.He shared a tutor with his master's 

son and thus obtained the education that prepared him for later success.During the Civil War,despite the benevolence of his owner, he fled to freedom in Kansas, after slavery was abolished he returned to Missouri,where he reportedly established the first school in the state 

for African Americans, at Hannibal.

After the war Blanche briefly attended Oberlin College in Ohio,following 
the passage of the Reconstruction Acts of 1867,which provided for African American political equality in the former Confederate states,
he moved to Bolivar County in the Mississippi Delta.Soon after his arrival,the district commander appointed him a voter registrar in neighboring Tallahatchie County.He also organized plantation African Americans into the new Republican Party and soon attracted the attention of state party leaders.

When the first Mississippi legislature under the new order met,Blanche 
was elected sergeant at arms of the state senate.A man of magnificent 
physique and handsome countenance and possessed of impeccable manners,Blance won the support of white Republicans like Governor James Lusk Alcorn as as well as African Americans.In 1871 he won election to the joint office of sheriff and tax collector of Bolivar County.
The Republican state board of education.He virtually created the biracial segregated system of education in the county and secured the support 
of whites for it.In all of these positions he gained a reputation for financial integrity.

Blance also invested in land and within a decade had attained the status of planter.In 1872 he was named to the board of levee commissioners 
for a three-county district- a group with the power to raise revenue and 
build embankments in the Delta region.Blanche's political and financial 
success and his promotion of labor stability among African Americans workers had the effect of moderating the opposition of conservative 
planters to Republican control in Bolivar County.

By 1874 his fame had spread beyond the Delta.His political skill and his moderation had won him support from all factions of the Mississippi 
Republican Party.In February the legislature elected him to the U.S.
Senate he served on four committees,including the important select 
committees on Mississippi River improvements on the Freedmen's Bank.
As chairman of the latter committee, he led the effort to reform the management of the institution and provided relief for depositors.
A Blanche-sponsored Senate bill to obtain congressional reimbursement for African American victims of the bank's failure did not pass.He also spoke out against a Chinese exclusion bill and for a more humane Indian policy.Blanche took these positions primary because of the harsh implications that such a racist,exclusionist policy had for African-Americans.

His main interest in the Senate was the defense of African-American rights in the South at a time when state and local Republican governments were replaced by hostile conservative ones.He was usually unobtrusive in attempting to persuade Congress,and specifically its Republican members,to enforce the Reconstruction amendments to the Constitution, he became passionate in denouncing the violence and 
intimdation that characterized the Mississippi election of 1875,overthrowing Republican rule.

Despite bitter setbacks for African-American during this period,Blanche 
remained committed to the Reconstruction period,Blanche remained 
committed to the Reconstruction goal of African-American assimilation into American society with all of the rights of whites.He opposed both of the organized efforts at African American migration of the late 1870's the Kansas Exodus and the Back-to Africa movement.He did so on the 
grounds that neither destination had much to offer African-Americans and that the rights of the race could yet be achieved in white America.
His prestige among African-Americans suffered considerably because of
his opposition to emigration.In 1878 he married Josephine Beall Willson [Bruce],the daughter of a prominent African American dentist of Cleveland,Ohio; they had one son.After marriage and the couple's acceptance into white Washington society,Blance became largely insulated from the black masses.

During hist last years in the Senate he devoted much of his time to 
Republican Party Affairs and African-American education.In Mississippi he joined with two other African-American leaders,John Roy Lynch and 
James Hill,to dominate the state Republican organization,gaining important federal patronage for his supporters.In promoting African-American education,he advanced the self-help doctrine,which ultimately became associated with Booker T.Washington.

With the Democrats in control of the state legislature,he made no effort 
to obtain reelection to the U.S.Senate.After the expiration of his term,in
1881,he continued to live in Washington but retained his plantation in Mississippi.He also continued to participated in national Republican 
politics and was a popular speaker on behalf of African-American education.In 1881 President James Garfield appointed Blance register 
of the U.S. Treasury, and he continued to hold the office 1884-1885 he served as director of the African-American exhibits in the Industrial 
Cotton Centennial Exposition held in New Orleans.These exhibits focused on the material progress that African-Americans had made since Emancipation.In 1896 he received strong support for a seat in William  McKinley's cabinet,he had to settle for his previous position of 
register of the Treasury.Blance died of diabetes in Washington, D.C.

"Blaise-Diagne (October 13,1872-May 11,1934)

Galaye M'baye Diagne,the first African elected at the French National Assembly and to obtain a post in the French government,born on Goree Island,Senegal.His daddy,Niokhor Diagne,was a cook,and his mama,
Gnagna Anthony Preira, a servant.While still very young,Blaise was 
placed in various Methis (mixed race) families, and finally adopted 
by a wealthy Christian Metis, Adolphe Crespin, who renamed him 
Blaise.Adolphe sent him to the Brother of Ploemel School for his primary 
 education.A brilliant pupil,Blaise pursued his secondary education in 
Aix-en-Provence,French.He passed the French Customs Service entrance 
examination in Senegal in 1891.

As a customs agent,Blaise was assigned throughout the French empire.His 
first post in 1892 was in Dahomey.Between 1896 & 1914 he served in Dakar,
the FrenchCongo,the island of  Reunion,Madagascar,and finally French 
Guyana.Blaise often criticized oppression and discrimination of the black 
population in the colonies during his career as a customs agent.

After returning to Senegal by 1914,Blaise immediately got involved in politics 
and ran for a seat in the French National Assembly in Paris.Campaigning for
African rights and improved work conditions,Blaise defeated the metis attroney Francois Carpot on May 10,1914.As a deputy during World War I, he 
sponsored a law which gave full French citizenship to the inhabitants of the 
Four Communes (four costal communities) of Senegal.The measure,which 
also included the thousands of African men then fighting in Northeastern 
France against the invading German army,passed in 1916.In the same year 
French Prime Minister Clemenceau nominated Blaise to be General Governor 
for recruitment of soldiers in French West Africa.Blaise accepted the post after negotiating guaranties concering soldiers' conditions.

In 1919,Blaise created the Republican Socialist Party,which won control of local governments in the Four Communes.He also founded a newspaper 
called La Democratie and later renamed L'Ouest African Francais.

By 1923,Blaise concluded a commercial agreement with French firms that held Sengalese business.Blaise also defended force labor and assimilation 
before the International Labor Organization in 1930 and was,later on in 1931,
appointed Deputy Minister of the Colonies in the French government.By this 
point he had become a stanch supporter of French rule in West Africa.

Constantly reelected Deputy at the French Assembly,Blaise died of  tuberculosis at Cambo-les Bains,in the French Pyrennees Mountains.

Sergeant William Robinson Clarke (October 4 1895-April 26 1981)

Was a Jamaican World War I airman who was the first black pilot to fly for Britain.He was born in Kingston Jamaica,son of Eugenia Clarke.William 
became a mechanic,and was of the first individuals in Jamaica to learn to drive.On the outbreak of  war in 1914 William,aged,19 travelled to England at his own cost.He joined the Royal Flying Corps on July 26 1915.He served as a mechanic and then as a driver for an observation balloon company.

In December 1916 he began pilot training,gaining his wings on April 26 1917.He was posted to No.4 Squadron RFC  at Abeele on May 27,flying R.E.8 
biplanes over the Western Front.In common with many pilots of the era his operational service was brief.On the morning of July 28 1917,on a reconnaissance mission over Ypres,five miles on the German side of  the lines,
William and his observer,Second Lieutenant F.P. Blencowe,were attacked by German scouts.William was serious wounded and lost consciousness.The observer brought the aeroplane back to the British lines on making a forced landing near Godewaersvelde.

In a letter to his mama, William wrote: "I was doing some photographs a few miles the other side when about five huns scouts came down upon me,and before I could get away,I got a bullet through the spine.managed to pilot the machine nearly back to the aerodrome,but had to put her down as I was too weak to fly any more... he was honourably discharged in 1919,receiving the 
Silver Star Badge.

After recovering from his wounds William returned to Jamaica.He was later active in the building trade.He was active in veterans affairs and was life president of the Jamaican branch of the Royal Air Forces Association.

"Xernona Clayton" (August 30 1930)

A civil rights activist and the first woman to host a a TV show in the south,was born to James and Lillie Brewster in Muskogee,Oklahoma.
Her daddy was a respected Baptist minister and both parents managed 
Indian affairs in Oklahoma.Lillie was a quarter Cherokee,and as administrators,Of Indians affairs,she and James worked with disadvantaged Native Americans.She has three older half siblings,and an older brother James,and an older sister,Vera,and a twin sister,Xenobia.

Xernona & Xenobia attended Tennessee State University and graduated in 1952.That summer,they moved,to Chicago where the Urban League 
employed them as undercover agents,working to determine discriminatory hiring practices.Xernona received a scholarship for graduate work at the University of Chicago.While in Chicago,she also taught elementary and high school in the public school.

It was also in Chicago that Xernona met her first husband,Ed Clayton,who was Jet's executive editor at the time.They married in 195,and in 1960,they moved to Los Angeles.There, she played an active role in political campaigns.While in Los Angeles,after hearing an announcement  from President John F.Kennedy requesting people to volunteer their time to help the less fortunate citizens,she organized a group to mentor roughly one hundred high school dropouts,eighty of whom returned to school and graduated.This was one of many instances over her career where Ed reached out to struggling teenagers and young adults.

The Claytons moved to Atlanta in 1965 at the request of Martin Luther King,Jr.,the next year,Ed died suddenly.Xernona & Ed had worked at the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) which gave her the opportunity to become close friends with the King family.She helped plan the funeral for Dr.Martin Luther King following his assassination in 1968.

Xernona was politically and civically active in Atlanta,Georgia.In 1966 
she helped organize the Doctors' Committee on Implementation which helped desegregate hospitals in Atlanta.In 1968,she worked for Model 
Cities,the federal associated with the War on Poverty.While there she Calvin Craig the Grand Dragon of the Georgia Ku Klux Klan.After many 
conversations with her regarding race,Craig remarkably decided to leave the KKK,crediting his change of heart of Xerona.

After pointing out the absence of African Americans on TV in Atlanta,Xernona was hired by WAGA-TV,the CBS affiliate in the metropolitan region,to be the hostess of Themes and Variations.The 
show which aired from 1968-1975,made her the first on-air T.V. personality in the South.

When Turner Broadcasting was founded in 1979,Xernona went to work 
for the new Cable TV network.She had a career there spanning three decades.Her last and most prestigious role was as Corporate Vice President for Urban Affairs.In 1993,she founded the Trumpet Awards Foundation,Inc,to recognize accomplishment of African Americans.
She served as the first president and CEO of the organization.

Xerona lives in Atlanta and is married to Judge Paul Lawrence Brady.
She continues her involvement in the city's civic affairs and especially 
with Ebenezer Baptist Church,the church Dr.Martin Luther King and 
his daddy led for decades in Atlanta.

"James-Francis-Shober" (1853-1889)

Earned his degree at the University of  North Carolina in 1851 and was a co-founder of the first Sunday School in the state.Meanwhile his mama,Betsy Ann Waugh,was a mulatto slave who was only eighteen years old when James was born.Betsy,who lived in Salem,passed away in 1859 when James was between the age of six & seven.He was sent back to the Waugh Plantation near Waughton,North Carolina,where his grandma lived with other family members.

It is unclear how James obtained schooling when he was a child.In 1875,at the age of  22,he graduated second in his class,with a grade average 95.5,from 
Lincoln University,in Oxford,Pennsylvania.He received an A.B. degree.James 
then enrolled in Howard University school of medicine in Washington,D.C. 
where he was one of  forty-eight graduates in 1878.

There were only a handful of licensed African-American doctors across the United States following  the Civil War.James now joined those ranks in 1878 and became the first professionally trained African-American physician in 
North Carolina,then the largest city in the state.
Wilmington also had a sizeable African-American population.

James married Anna Maria Taylor of  Wilmington on June 28,1881,and the 
couple later became parents of Mary Louise & Emily Lillian,both of whom 
went on to graduate from Fisk University in Nashville Tennessee.Ann Marie 
Taylor Shober was an educator who taught at the Peabody School in 
Wilmington.

James passed away at the age of  thirty-six and is buried in Pine Forest,Cemetery,Wilmington.He was survived by his wife and daughters.

Clifford-Alexander-Jr" (September 21,1933)

Is an American lawyer, businessman and public servant from New York City. He was the first African- American Secretary of the Army.

Clifford was born in New York in to Clifford Alexander and his wife.He attended the private Ethical Culture and Fieldston Schools.Clifford graduated from Harvard College in 1955 and from Yale Law School in 1958 and served brIefly with the 369th Field Artillery Battalion at Fort Dix,New Jersey.

He married Adele Logan in 1959.She became a professor at George Washington University after earning her doctorate in history and has specialized in African-American history.They have a daughter,Elizabeth Alexander (born in 1962)  and  Mark C.Alexander  (born in 1965).

After being admitted to the bar,Clifford served as an assistant district attorney for New York City,1959-1961.He became executive director of the Manhattanville Hamilton Grange Neighborhood Conservation Project.He next served as program and executive director of  Harlem Youth Opportunities.He also practiced law in New York City.

In 1963 during the John F. Kennedy administration,Clifford was called to Washington to serve as a foreign affairs officer on the National Security Council  staff.He served next as deputy assistant to President Lyndon B.Johnson,associate special council,and dupty special counsel on the White House staff,1964-1967.He appointed as chairman of the U.S. Equal Employment  Opportunity Commission,1967-1969.Acting as a special representative of the President,he headed the U.S. delegation to ceremonies marking the independence of the Kingdom of Swaziland in 1968.

Leaving government service after Republican Richard M.Nixon was elected to the presidency,Clifford practiced law with the Washington firm of Arnold & Porter between 1969 & 1975.He was a television news commentator in Washington, D.C.,1972-1976; and also taught as a professor of law at Howard University,1973-1974.
In 1974 he ran unsuccessfully as a candidate for mayor of the District of Columbia.

He returned to law,becoming a partner in the law firm of  Verner,Lipfert,Bernard,Mcpherson and Hand. In 1975.

Clifford returned to public service as Secretary of the Army under the Carter Administration,serving from February 14, 1977- January 20,1981.He was the first African American appointed to this cabinet position.During this time he concentrated upon improving the all-volunteer Army,stressing programs to enhance professionalism,and emphasizing the reward of contracts to minority businesses to fulfill the federal commitment to encourage diversity.

In the early 21st century,Clifford has outspoken in his opposition to the "Don't Ask,Don't Tell policy of the military.He called for its repeal by Congress.Rachel Madow interviewed him on her MSNBC TV shows on May 11, 2009 & June 28, 2013.

In 1981 Clifford formed the consulting firm of Alexander and Associates.In addition,he serve on the boards of directors of several national corportions and is a member of the board of Governors of the American Stock Exchange.He is a member of Omega Psi Phi fraternity.

His and Adele's daughter Elizabeth Alexander became a poet professor of English at Yale University.She was commissioned to write and present a poem for President Barack Hussein Obama II, presidential inauguration.Elizabeth recited the poem " Praise Song for the Day" on January 20,2009.

Their son Mar C.Alexander is dean at the Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law.He has serve as a political and campaign advisor to Bill Bradley,and Ted Kennedy,and President Obama.

"Lucy-Hughes-Brown" (April 12,1863-June 26,1911)

Was the first African-American woman physician in South Carolina and the cofounder of a nursing school and hospital.

Lucy Manetta Hughes was born in Mebane,South Carolina.She attended Scotia Seminary in Concord,graduating in 1885. She went on to study at the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania,graduating with her medical degree in 1894.

In 1889 she married David Brown, a clergyman.

Lucy practiced medicine in Wilmington for two years,and then in 1896 she and her husband moved to Charleston South Carolina.The state's first African-American woman physician,she joined with other African American professionals-including Dr. Alonzo Clifton McCleenan to cofound the Hospital and Training School for Nurses in 1897.Lucy was head of the school's department of nursing and its associated training program, which graduated its first class in 1898.Lucy also helped edit the state's first African American medical periodical, the Hospital Herald,which was founded in 1898 in 1902,the British Journal of Nursing recognized her as a leader in her profession in South Carolina.

Suffering from ill health, Lucy retired in 1904. She died in South Carolina.

"Albert-Comstock-Hamlin" (1881-1912)

Was the first African American elected to the state legislature (1908) and was the only African American to serve until 1964. Born in Topeka Kansas,Albert was the son of Andrew Jackson & Fanny Hamlin,former slaves from Tennessee who had migrated to Kansas in 1880.The family moved to Logan County,Oklahoma Territory in 1890.After his daddy's death in 1891,Albert stayed on the Logan County Farm and married Katie Weaver in 1899.The couple had 5 children.Albert served on the Local school board and was a trustee of Springvale Township,where his family lived.He won the legislative seat by a two-to-one margin in the prominently African American Third District of Logan County (the county was one-quarter African American in 1900) he lost his bid for reelection in 1910.His defeat was a direct result of a Democrat-sponsored constitutional amendment that essentially prevented most African Americans from voting.The "grandfather clause" stated that no" person shall be registered as an elector in this state, or be allowed to vote in any election held herein, unless he be  able to read  and     write    any  section of the Constitution of  the   of   Oklahoma." It also prevented  anyone from voting unless that person had voted    before   January 1,1866,or   was   a direct   descendent of    someone who could    have  voted   on that   date.This     was    done by amendment,as  in   1907     President Theodore Roosevelt would not sign any proposed  Oklahoma constitution if it contained provisions that restricted  voting on based on race.

As a  Republican,Albert   was in    the minority party; he was able to sponsor legislation for the appropriation of thirty-five thousand dollars for Taft school an African American school for deaf,blind,or orphaned children.He also sponsored successful legislation that would make facilities truly equal for both white and African American railroad passengers and an amended bill to prevent certain activities such as theatrical peformances and baseball games on Sundays.

Albert died of unknown causes at his farm.He was a member of the African Methodist Episcopal

Church for fourteen years and is buried in Robison Cemetery near his home.

"William-Augustus-Hinton" {December 15-1883-August 8 1959}

Physician and clinical pathologist,was born in Chicago,Illinois,theson of

Augustus Hinton, a railroad porter,and Marie Clark; both parents were former slaves.His formal education was completed in Kansas City,Kansas, where his parents moved before his first birthday.After attending the University of Kansas from 1900- 1902, he transferred to Harvard College,where he received a BS in 1905.

Postponing a medical school education because of lack of funds, he taught the basic sciences at colleges in Tennessee and Oklahoma embryology at Meharry Medical College between 1905 & 1909.While teaching at the Agricultural and Mechanical College in Langston,Oklahoma, he met a school teacher Ada Hawes, whom he married in 1909; they had two daughters.During the summers he continued his studies in bacteriology and physiology at the University of Chicago.

Augustus entered Harvard Medical School in 1909 and was awarded an MD in 1912. Scholarships and part-time work in the Harvard laboratories of Richard C.Cabot and Elmer E. Southhard allowed him to attend medical school and support his family.Because of racial discrimination,Augustus was prevented from gaining internship in a Boston hospital.Unable to acquire the specialty training in surgery that he desired,he turned to the laboratory aspect of medicine.In 1912 he began working part-time as a volunteer assistant in the department of pathology of the Massachusetts General Hospital.During the three years
he spent at Massachusetts General after medical school graduation,he was asked to perform autopsies on all persons known or suspected to have syphilis.He also acquired a paid position as an assistant in the Wassermann Laboratory (the Massachusetts state laboratory for communicable diseases),based at the Harvard Medical School complex.(This laboratory had been named for August Von Wassermann,who devised the first blood serum test for the detection of syphilis in 1906.) Elmer was so impressed by William's knowledge of syphilis that he arranged for him to teach its laboratory diagnostic techniques to Harvard medical students.Within two years of his medical school graduation,William had published his first scientific paper on the serology of syphilis in Milton Joseph Rosenau's Textbook of Preventive Medicine.

In 1915,when the Wassermann Laboratory was transferred from Harvard to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health,William was
appointed assistant director of the Division of Biologic Laboratories and chief of the Wassermann Laboratory.He served as the head of the Wassermann Laboratory for thirty-eight years.At the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital (later called Brigham & Women's Hospital) he observed both inpatients and outpatients,correlating serologic tests with the clinical manifestations and treatments of patients with syphilis.For twelve years,from 1915-1927,he immersed himself in the search for a more effective test for syphilis,the Wassermann test and others for syphilis yielded a high perecentage of  false-positive results,and  many doctors had lost confidence in the Wassermann test.
Because the treatment of syphilis was long,painful,and dangerous,and it
was a seriously debilitating disease,a more accurate test was badly needed.

In 1918 William was appointed instructor of preventive medicine and hygiene at the Harvard Medical School,the beginning of a thirty-four year teaching career at Harvard. In 1921 his instructional responsibilities were expanded to include bacteriology and immunology.

During the 1920s William carried on intensive research on the pathology of venereal diseases.He was responsible for all syphilis testing in Massachusetts and had responsibility for the diagnosis of rabies for the State Division of Animal Husbandry.When Massachusetts
established blood tests for syphilis a requirement for marriage licenses and for mamas before birth,William supervised the expansion of state laboratories from 1910-1917.His laboratories also conducted research
on tuberculosis and influenza for the state.

William's signal,most important contribution to medical science came in
1927,when he perfected what was judged to be the most accurate and
sensitive blood serum test  for syphilis.His test drastically reduced the
perecentage of  false positives.It also met the requirements of mass screening,q9uick results, simplicity,reputability,and unambiguity.For the next quarter of a century the Hinton test was universally used,replacing
the Wassermann test.Even though the Hinton test was 98 percent accurate, William was not completely satisfied, and he collaborated with John Davies in perfecting his test.By 1931 he had developed an improved version that could be done with smaller amounts of the patent's blood.The Davies Hinton test was adopted as the official test of the disease by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health in 1934 the U.S. Public Health Service reported that its evaluation showed the Hinton test to be the best available,using sensitivity and specificity as evaluative standards.

In 1934 William began writing his classic textbook,Syphilis and Its Treatment (1936). In this book,praised in both Europe and the United States,William sought to provide "a clear," simple,relatively complete account of syphilis and its treatment for physicians,public health workers and medical students." The book becameastandard reference
in medical schools and hospitals.Documenting William's years of research and " his experience in clinics with patients and the and the disease from their point of view," it is believed to be the first medical textbook written by an African-American doctor.

Recognition came slowly and late to William.In 1946 he was promoted to the rank of lecturer in bacteriology and immunology at the Harvard Medical School.Three years later,before he retired and twenty-two years after he had developed his first test for syphilis,he was elevated
to the position of clinical professor-the first African American to attain the title of professor at Harvard.

William was a member of the American Society of Clinical Pathologists,the Society of American Bacteriologists,,the American Medical Association,and the American Association for the Advancement
of  Science,and a fellow of the Massachusetts Medical Society.In 1948 he was elected a life member of the American Social Science Association.He lectured frequently to the medical specialty groups of the National Medical Association.He contributed twenty one medical-scientific articles to professional journals.He also served as a special consultant to the U.S. Public Health Service.

William died in his home in Canton,Massachusetts.In 1974,fifteen years
after his death,when the new State Laboratory Institute Building of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health in Boston was dedicated,it was named the William A. Hinton Serology Laboratory.

"Ella-Nora-Phillips-Stewart"(March 6,1893-November 27,1987)

Was one of the first African-American female pharmacists in the United States.

She was born in Stringtown,a small village near Berryville,in Clark County,Virginia,the oldest of the four children of Henry H.Phillips & Eliza T.(Carr) Phillips.Her parents were sharecroppers.When she was six Ella
was sent to live with her paternal grand mama in Berryville,to attend grade school.An outstanding student,she graduated at the top of her grade school class,and won several major scholarships to what was then the Storer Normal School (later,Storer College),in nearby Harper Ferry,West Virginia,Ella entered Storer at the age of 12.

Ella withdrew from the teacher training program at Storer in order to marry Charles Myers,was a  classmate there. They moved to Pittsburgh,Pennsylvania.After their only child Virginia,died of whopping cough at the age   of three,they divorced.

In Pittsburgh  Ella began working in a local pharmacy as a bookkeeper,
and her job sparked in her an interest in becoming a pharmacist.Despite
the challenges she faced both as a woman and as an African American,
she gained admittance to the University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy in 1914.Ella completed her degree in pharmaceutical chemistry (Ph.C.) in 1916,becoming the first African American to graduate from Pitt's pharmacy program.In the same year,Ella passed the state examination becoming the first African American woman pharmacist in the state of Pennsylvania and one of the first African American women pharmacists in the country.

Ella initially worked as an assistant pharmacist for the Mendelsson Drug
Company,owned by two classmates from the University of Pittsburgh.
she later went on to own and operate a drugstore at the General Hospotial in Braddock,Pennsylvania.In 1918 she moved back to Pittsburgh where she again established her own business,Myers Pharmacy.

In 1920,she married William Wyatt Stewart,a fellow pharmacist in Pittsburgh,and a fellow pharmacist in Pittsburgh and  a fellow alumnus

of the Pitt Pharmacy program.The couple settled in Youngstown, Ohio,
where,Ella was hired as a pharmacist at at the Youngstown City Hospital.After some time,she and her husband moved to Detriot,where
they stayed only briefly;in 1922,they decided  to move to Toledo,Ohio to
open their pharmacy.

Ella & William opened Stewarts' Pharmacy,located at the corner of Indiana & Park Avenues (566 Indiana Avenue),in Toledo,in July 1922,and operated it until 1945,when they sold the business.Located in
Toledo's Pinewood district,where some two thirds of the city's African American lived by the end of the 1920s,the pharmacy became a popular
neighborhood gathering place.The Stewarts,who owned the building and lived in the spacious eight rooms above the pharmacy,often vistors from out of town,including luminaries such as Marian Anderson,Mary McLeod Bethune,and W.E.B.Du Bois.

By the 1930s Ella became a leading member of community groups in Toledo,including the Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) and the Enterprise Charity Club,a  social-service organization run by African-American women.From 1944-1948 she served as president of  the Ohio Association of Colored Women;and from 1948-1952,as president of the
National Association of Colored Women's Clubs(NACWC).As leader of      the  NACWC,Ella spoke out against segregation,discrimination,and   racist stereotypes.

In 1961 she became an inaugural member of the Toledo Board of Community Realtions,which worked to improve race relations in the city,and to ensure enforcement of civil rights legislation.

Ella civic activities ecentually took on an international dimension: In 1952 she was appointed as an American delegate to the International Conference of  Women of the World,held in Athens Greece.She subsequently spent time during the 1950s touring as a goodwill ambassador the United States;in 1954 on one such U.S. State Department tour took her to several nations in Southeast Asia.In 1963
she was appointed to the United States commission of the United Nations Educational,Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

Ella spent the rest of her life in Toledo,remaining as avolunteer and philanthropist.Her husband died in 1976 at 86,and she moved into a retirement home a few years later,in 1980.