Little Known Famous Men and Women of our Orgs

[Worthy Most Ancient Matron]

John Wesley Dobbs (1882-1961)

Often referred to as the unofficial mayor of Auburn Avenue, John Wesley Dobbs was one of several distinguished African American civic and political
John Wesley Dobbs
leaders who worked to achieve racial equality in segregated Atlanta during the first half of the twentieth century.

Born in Marietta in 1882 to Minnie and Will Dobbs, John Wesley Dobbs grew up in poverty on a farm near Kennesaw. Two years after his birth his mother and father separated. His mother moved to Savannah to work in the home of a white family there, leaving Dobbs and his sister in the care of his grandparents and various other relatives. Minnie saw her children regularly, though, and in 1891 they moved to Savannah to live with her.

In Savannah Dobbs attended school full time for the first time. His formal education nearly ended after fifth grade because of his family's financial difficulties, but a white woman intervened and offered Dobbs a job that would not interfere with his school attendance. While still in grammar school, Dobbs also shined shoes and delivered newspapers to supplement the family income.

In 1897, at the age of fifteen, Dobbs moved to Atlanta, where he continued his education at Atlanta Baptist College (later Morehouse College). His mother's ill health forced Dobbs to drop out of school and return to Savannah to care for her. He never earned a college degree. He continued his studies independently, however, and passed a civil service exam that in 1903 allowed him to become a railway mail clerk for the U.S. Post Office in Atlanta. (Dobbs in fact would never stop studying, reading voraciously during his spare time.) Dobbs held his position at the post office, a well-respected one within the black community, for thirty-two years.

In 1906 Dobbs married Irene Ophelia Thompson, with whom he had six daughters, all of whom went on to become graduates of Spelman College in Atlanta. Mattiwilda Dobbs, his fifth daughter, became an acclaimed opera singer. Dobbs worked to instill in his children a sense of self-worth and a
Mattiwilda Dobbs
desire to succeed. He forbade them to attend segregated events and constantly reminded them of their equality. Additionally, he traveled with his family extensively to broaden their range of experience.

In 1911 Dobbs was initiated into the Prince Hall Masons, a fraternal order that attracted socially conscious leaders within the black middle class. Dobbs was elected Grand Master of the Prince Hall Masons of Georgia in 1932, thereby earning the nickname "the Grand." Through his leadership position with the Masons, he tried to instill in Atlanta's African American community those same values he worked to pass on to his children.

Dobbs fervently believed that African American suffrage was the key to racial advancement. He announced a goal of registering 10,000 black voters in Atlanta and preached the importance of voter registration in Masonic halls, in African American churches, and on street corners. Dobbs also founded the Atlanta Civic and Political League in 1936 and, with attorney A. T. Walden, cofounded the Atlanta Negro Voters League in 1946. Both of these leagues advocated voter registration and black political unity.

Due largely to Dobbs's efforts, African Americans achieved two significant political victories in the late 1940s. In the spring of 1948 Atlanta mayor William B. Hartsfield fulfilled a promise he had made to Dobbs by hiring eight African American police officers. Although they could patrol only black neighborhoods and could not arrest whites, the hiring was a significant challenge to segregation. The following year Hartsfield fulfilled another campaign promise by installing street lamps on Auburn Avenue, the center of Atlanta's black community. Both of these achievements served to solidify Dobbs's position as a leader. (Dobbs himself coined the term "Sweet Auburn," an expression of the area's thriving businesses and active social and civic life.)

During the 1950s Dobbs continued his work toward African American equality. He constantly pressed Hartsfield to fulfill other promises made to the black community. Dobbs's influence began to wane, though, as the decade ended and a younger generation of African American leaders emerged at the forefront of the civil rights struggle. By this time he was suffering from arthritis, often unable to get out of bed.

Dobbs's health declined, and on August 21, 1961, he suffered a stroke. He died nine days later, on August 30, 1961, the same day that Atlanta city schools were desegregated. Martin Luther King Jr. was one of the speakers at Dobbs's funeral, and Thurgood Marshall, head of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and future Supreme Court justice, served as a pallbearer. Dobbs received a lasting tribute on January 10, 1994, when his grandson, Atlanta mayor Maynard Jackson, changed the name of Houston Street to John Wesley Dobbs Avenue

[Blu]

Bro. Dr. Thomas W. Turner

Research on Dr. Turner shows that he taught biology in Baltimore, Maryland from 1902 to 1910, received his doctorate from Cornell University in 1921, was head of Howard University's Botany Department in 1922 and eventually became the head of the Biological Studies Department at Hampton University.

A nationally known botanist, Turner's work is abstracted in the American Journal of Botany. References at the Howard University's Moorland Spingarn Research Center (http://www.founders.howard.edu/moorland-spingarn/) and at The Catholic University of America (http://libraries.cua.edu/achrcua/FCC/introduction.htm) show that Turner actively dealt to end racial violence and unequal services provided to African American who served in World War I and addressed discrimination within the Church.

[Vudu_Prince]

Percy Julian
1899 - 1975

Just before the turn of the century, Percy Lavon Julian was born in Montgomery, Alabama. He was a bright student, but at that time the city provided no public education for black students after eighth grade. He persisted, however, and entered DePauw University in Indiana as a "sub-freshman." He had to take several classes to get caught up on what his public education had not provided. Yet in 1920, he graduated first in his class with Phi Beta Kappa honors.

He became a chemistry instructor at Fisk University, but in 1923, received an Austin Fellowship in Chemistry and went to Harvard to complete his masters degree. Again he took university teaching positions for a few years before traveling to Austria to obtain his PhD in chemistry from the University of Vienna in 1931. He returned to DePauw to continue his research. His original interest was investigating plant products, especially traditional medicinal plants such as the African calabar bean. In 1935, with Josef Pikl, he first synthesized from this plant a chemical called physostigmine, or esserine, which could treat the sometimes blinding disease of glaucoma by reducing pressure inside the eyeball. This brought him international scientific acclaim, but no professorship.

He left academia to became lab director at Glidden Company. One day in 1939, a water leak in a tank of purified soybean oil created a strange byproduct and gave Julian a surprise insight: the soy sterol that had been created could be used to manufacture male and female hormones, progesterone and testosterone. Progesterone would prove useful in treating certain cancers and problem pregnancies. During World War II, Julian developed a foam from soy protein that could put out oil and gas fires; it was quickly adopted by the military.

In 1948, the Mayo Clinic announced the discovery of a compound that relieved rheumatoid arthritis. It was cortisone, very difficult to come by. Julian got right to work, and by October 1949, his team had created a synthetic cortisone substitute, radically less expensive but just as effective. Natural cortisone had to be extracted from the adrenal glands of oxen and cost hundreds of dollars per drop; Julian's synthetic cortisone was only pennies per ounce.

By making important medical products plentiful and less expensive, Julian accelerated the research and growth of knowledge about them. His techniques and products led directly to the development of chemical birth control and medicines to suppress the immune system, crucial in performing organ transplants.

Julian held more than 100 chemical patents, wrote scores of papers on his work, and received dozens of awards and honorary degrees. He founded The Julian Laboratories, Inc., with labs in the U.S. and Mexico (both purchased by Smith Kline French in 1961) and another chemical plant in Guatemala (owned by Upjohn Company since 1961). In 1951, Julian and his family moved to Oak Park, Illinois, becoming the first black family to live there. His house was firebombed twice, but the community largely backed him and today celebrates his birthday as a holiday.

[Blu]

Bro. Frank Marshall Davis

Outstanding writer, author and journalist, during the Harlem Renaissance who made a tremendous impact on African American Literature and Writings

[Blu]

Bro. Dr. Albert Roberts

First Minority to graduate with a PHD in Psychology from Emory University. Former Dean of Howard Psychology Department Public Speaker and recognized leader in the psychology field for children and young adults.

[adisa]

Z. Alexander Looby is a personal hero of mine. I always assumed the local Omega grad chapter held their meetings at the library ( some other greeks used to, as well) but I could be wrong.

[Vudu_Prince]

Guion "Guy" Bluford, Junior (born November 22, 1942) is a retired Colonel, from the United States Air Force and a former NASA Astronaut. He participated in four flights of Space Shuttle between 1983 and 1992. In 1983, as a member of the crew of the space shuttle Challenger on mission STS-8, Bluford became the first African American in space.

Bluford was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He received a BS in aerospace engineering from the Pennsylvania State University in 1964; a MS in aerospace engineering from the Air Force Institute of Technology in 1974; a PhD in aerospace engineering with a minor in laser physics from the Air Force Institute of Technology in 1978, and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Houston-Clear Lake in 1987.

Prior to becoming an astronaut, he attended pilot training at Williams Air Force Base, and received his pilot wings in January 1966. He then went to F-4C combat crew training in Arizona and Florida and was assigned to the 557th Tactical Fighter Squadron, Cam Ranh Bay, Vietnam. He flew 144 combat missions, 65 of which were over North Vietnam.

In July 1967, he was assigned to the 3,630th Flying Training Wing, Sheppard Air Force Base, Texas, as a T-38A instructor pilot. He served as a standardization/evaluation officer and as an assistant flight commander. In early 1971, he attended Squadron Officers School and returned as an executive support officer to the Deputy Commander of Operations and as School Secretary for the Wing.

In August 1972, he entered the Air Force Institute of Technology residency school at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. Upon graduating in 1974, he was assigned to the Air Force Flight Dynamics Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, as a staff development engineer. He served as deputy for advanced concepts for the Aeromechanics Division and as branch chief of the Aerodynamics and Airframe Branch in the Laboratory. Bluford has written and presented several scientific papers in the area of computational fluid dynamics. He has logged over 5,200 hours of jet flight time in the T-33, T-37, T-38, F4C, U-2/TR-1, and F-5A/B, including 1,300 hours as a T-38 instructor pilot. He also has an FAA commercial pilot license.

Dr. Bluford also served his alma mater (Penn State) in many capacities.

[Vudu_Prince]

(Actually met this bruh in 1998 and he is cool as hell)


David Satcher, M.D., Ph.D. (b. March 2, 1941), was the 16th Surgeon General of the United States from 1998 to 2002 and the Assistant Secretary for Health from 1998 to 2001. He was the first African American male to serve as Surgeon General.

David Satcher was born in Anniston, Alabama. At the age of 2, he contracted whooping cough. A black doctor, Dr. Jackson, came to his parents' farm, and told his parents he didn't expect David to live, but nonetheless spent the day with him, and told his parents how to give him the best chance he could. Dr. Satcher said that he grew up hearing that story, and that inspired him to be a doctor.[1]

Dr. Satcher graduated from Morehouse College in Atlanta in 1963 and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He received his M.D. and Ph.D. from Case Western Reserve University in 1970 with election to Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Society. He did residency/fellowship training at the Strong Memorial Hospital, University of Rochester, UCLA, and King-Drew. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American College of Preventive Medicine, and the American College of Physicians. Dr. Satcher is a member of the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity Incorporated.

Dr. Satcher has served as professor and Chairman of the Department of Community Medicine and Family Practice at Morehouse School of Medicine from 1979 to 1982. He is a former faculty member of the UCLA School of Medicine and Public Health and the King-Drew Medical Center in Los Angeles, where he developed and chaired the King-Drew Department of Family Medicine. From 1977 to 1979, he served as the Interim Dean of the Charles R. Drew Postgraduate Medical School, during which time, he negotiated the agreement with UCLA School of Medicine and the Board of Regents that led to a medical education program at King-Drew. He also directed the King-Drew Sickle Cell Research Center for six years. Dr. Satcher served as President of Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee, from 1982 to 1993. He also held the posts of Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Administrator of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry from 1993 to 1998.

Dr. Satcher served simultaneously in the positions of Surgeon General and Assistant Secretary for Health from February 1998 through January 2001 at the US Department of Health and Human Services. As such, he is the first Surgeon General to be commissioned as a four-star Admiral in the PHSCC, to reflect his dual offices.

Dr. Satcher was appointed by Bill Clinton, and remained Surgeon General until 2002, contemporaneously with the first half of the first term of President George W. Bush's administration. Eve Slater would later replaced him as Assistant Secretary for Health in 2001. Because he no longer held his dual office, Dr. Satcher reverted back to a three-star Vice Admiral for the remainder of his term as Surgeon General. In 2001, his office released the highly controversial report, The Call to Action to Promote Sexual Health and Responsible Sexual Behavior. The report was hailed by the chairman of the American Academy of Family Physicians as an overdue paradigm shift—"The only way we're going to change approaches to sexual behavior and sexual activity is through school. In school, not only at the doctor's office." However, conservative political groups denounced the report as being too permissive towards homosexuality and condom distribution in schools.

[Vudu_Prince]

Dr. Walter Eugene Massey, an American educator, physicist, and business leader, was born in Hattiesburg, Mississippi on April 5, 1938. Dr. Massey has excelled as a leader in many arenas: science, business, and education. Massey is a renown physicist and former director of the National Science Foundation. In addition, Massey serves or has served as a board member to several of America's leading companies, including Bank of America, BP Oil, Motorola, and McDonalds. He is also one of the few African Americans who have connections with the Bilderberg Group.Massey has also served as the Senior Provost of the University of California System, and has recently retired as the ninth president of Morehouse College from 1995 to 2007.

[Iceman]

Ralph Metcalfe:

Ralph Metcalfe gained national attention as an African American pioneer not just in his first career as a sprinter known as "the world's fastest human," but also in his second, as a U.S. Congressman representing part of the city of Chicago. He was present at, and shaped the outcomes of, two of the most crucial conflicts of the twentieth century. His track-and-field career culminated in the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, Germany, where Metcalfe and fellow sprinter Jesse Owens dealt a crucial public-relations blow to Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler and his theories of white supremacy. Later, as a Chicago politician, Metcalfe broke with the city's Democratic machine to denounce the often racist tactics of the city's police department.

A national high-school sprint champion in 1929, Metcalfe entered Marquette University. He quickly began to shatter National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) records, becoming captain of the track team and winning the title of National Collegiate Champion for three years running between 1932 and 1934. Metcalfe made the 1932 U.S. Olympic team, winning the silver medal in the 100-meter dash after finishing in a famous record-time dead heat with Eddie Tolan, who was declared the winner after officials reviewed films of the race. Metcalfe also took the bronze in the 200-meter race. He excelled in intercollegiate competition over the next several years, winning NCAA championships in the 100- and 220-yard dashes in 1933 and 1934, and taking several Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) crowns. In 1936, after winning election as senior class president, Metcalfe received his bachelor's degree. That fall Metcalfe competed for the United States once again in the Olympics, and found himself at a historic confluence of politics and sports. Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler had intended that the 1936 Olympic Games, which were held in Berlin, Germany, would be a showcase for his theories of white (or "Aryan") genetic superiority.

Little did Hitler know that Metcalfe and the legendary Jesse Owens would spoil those plans. Metcalfe, who maintained a lifelong friendship with Owens and spurred him to even greater athletic heights, took the silver medal in the 100-meter dash behind Owens. The two then joined forces on the U.S. 400-meter relay team, opening up a 15-meter margin over their nearest competition and setting a record that would last for 20 years, an eternity in track-and-field terms. The Olympic medal ceremony, at which Owens insisted that Metcalfe step onto the highest platform of the medal stage, crowned Metcalfe's track career.

Career Highlights:

Champion sprinter and U.S. Congressional Representative. NCAA champion in 100- and 200-meter sprints, 1932, 1933, 1934; U.S. Olympic medalist in two events, Los Angeles Olympic Games, 1932; silver medal in 100-meter dash, gold medal in 400-meter relay, Berlin, Germany Olympic Games, 1936; track coach and instructor in several subjects, Xavier University, New Orleans, 1936-42; director, Chicago Department of Civil Rights, 1946-49; named to Illinois State Athletic Commission, 1949; elected alderman, Chicago City Council, 1955; U.S. congressman, 1970-78.

[Vudu_Prince]

Moses Gunn (2 October 1929, St. Louis, Missouri – 16 December 1993, Guilford, Connecticut) was an American actor. A formidable Obie award-winning stage player, he co-founded the Negro Ensemble Company in the 1960s. His 1962 Broadway debut was in Jean Genet's The Blacks. He was nominated for a 1976 Tony Award as Best Actor (Play) for The Poison Tree and played Othello on Broadway in 1970.

Born in St. Louis, Missouri, the son of Mary and George Gunn, he was the eldest of seven children. After his mother died, his family splintered and Moses left home and rode the railroad at just 12 years old. He returned to St. Louis and attended school while living at the home of Jewel Richie, his English and Diction teacher. In 1954, Gunn began a three year stint in the Army. In 1959, he received his B. A. degree from Tennessee State University. After that, he studied at the University of Kansas from 1959 to 1961 in their graduate program for speech and drama; they belatedly awarded him an M. A. degree in 1989. In March 2008 it was announced that KU will house his memorabilia.[1]

An authoritative black character actor of film and TV, Gunn also enjoyed a successful career on stage. He made his NY stage debut in the original off-Broadway production of Jean Genet's The Blacks (1962). Gunn is best remembered for his portrayal of mobster Ellsworth Raymond "Bumpy" Jonas in the first two Shaft movies, and for his brief role of Booker T. Washington in the 1981 movie Ragtime, a performance which won him an NAACP Image Award. He was nominated for an Emmy Award in 1977 for his role in the TV mini-series Roots. He also costarred with Avery Brooks on the TV series A Man Called Hawk. Gunn also appeared in a multi-episode story arc as atheist shop owner Carl Dixon on the sitcom Good Times, as Joe Kagan on Little House on the Prairie and as the character Moses Gage in the 1980s NBC drama Father Murphy. His last notable role was as murder suspect Risley Tucker in an episode of Homicide: Life on the Street ("Three Men and Adena").

[Blu]

Bro. Baba Olatunji

Babatunde Olatunji (April 7, 1927 – April 6, 2003) was a Nigerian drummer, educator, social activist and recording artist. Olatunji won a following among jazz musicians, notably creating a strong relationship with John Coltrane and Columbia Records A&R man John Hammond who signed him to the Columbia label in 1957. With Coltrane's help, he founded the Olatunji Center for African Culture in Harlem. This was the site of Coltrane's final performance.

[Blu]

Bro. Clarence Muse

He was an African-American lawyer, writer, director, composer, and actor.

From Baltimore, Maryland, after high school he earned a degree in International Law from The Dickinson School of Law of Pennsylvania in 1911. Disgusted with the poor opportunities for Black lawyers he then selected a show business career. Muse appeared as an opera singer, minstrel show performer, vaudeville and Broadway actor; he also wrote songs, plays, and sketches. An active participant in the burgeoning Black theater movement of the 1920s, Muse was a member of the progressive all-Black Lincoln Players.

His Hollywood film assignments generally confined him to stereotypes, though Muse was usually able to rise above the shuffling "yassuh, boss" portrayals required of him. He was given dignified, erudite roles in films designed for all-Black audiences. Broken Strings, 1939 was one and on occasion, he was allowed to portray non-submissive roles in mainstream films. (It must have come as quite an alarm to southern audiences in 1941 when Muse, playing Bela Lugosi's independent-minded butler in The Invisible Ghost, spoke harshly to a white female servant, addressing her as "you old fool!")

Muse also composed the songs and co-wrote the story for the 1938 Bobby Breen musical Way Down South. He also was the composer of "When It's Sleepy Time Down South," which was Louis Armstrong's theme song. During World War II, he served as a member of the Hollywood Victory Committee that arranged the appearances of stars overseas, and he made hospital tours to entertain wounded soldiers.

[Blu]

Bro. James Paschal

born entrepreneur, James Paschal built and opened his first business, a shoeshine stand, when he was thirteen years old. He also ran a paper route and sold beauty products on weekends. James set a goal to buy a "bigger business". When he was fifteen years old, he used money he had saved to purchase the assets and take over the operations of a failed grocery store across the street from his school. He opened the store every morning before school, and entrusted it to his mother while he attended classes.

James returned to work in his store each day after school. Seeing how successful the store had become, the original owners decided to re‑claim the site by taking advantage of the fact that no lease was signed with the original purchase. Undaunted and with a valuable lesson learned, James convinced a local funeral director to help him open a combination meat market, grocery store and entertainment center with arcade machines and a "juke box" called James Place. This new venture, with its unique and inventive blend of products and services, quickly attained success and became a popular meeting place. It had to be sold in its fourth year when James was summoned to serve in the military. James was discharged in 1943. He then worked for two years with the Pullman Company before forming a partnership with his brother Robert. That partnership became Paschal's first food operation.

[Blu]

Jul 3, 2008 20:00:48 GMT -5 tremab said:

it is, indeed, true...

i'll see if i can find the photos from the recent event at HU where he spoke, Alpha chapter bros hosted...

Bobby Seale w/ Phi Beta Sigma, Alpha Chapter

[Vudu_Prince]

Hold UP! This is little known man. How they hell yall got Hosea Williams AND Bobby Seale in the damn thread man... Hell naw.

[Blu]

Jul 7, 2008 13:25:51 GMT -5 Vudu_Prince said:

Hold UP! This is little known man. How they hell yall got Hosea Williams AND Bobby Seale in the damn thread man... Hell naw.

I was just providing a pic for Tre's comments lol. Never said they were not well known, but you'd be surprised how many youth have no idea who these men are. Most of the men I have provided are not well known by everyone.

[Blu]

Oh yeah, Andrew Young, Duke Ellington, and Maynard Jackson are as well known as Hosea Williams and Bobby Seale...

[naijaqueen06]

Jul 7, 2008 11:42:57 GMT -5 Blu said:

Bro. Baba Olatunji

Babatunde Olatunji (April 7, 1927 – April 6, 2003) was a Nigerian drummer, educator, social activist and recording artist. Olatunji won a following among jazz musicians, notably creating a strong relationship with John Coltrane and Columbia Records A&R man John Hammond who signed him to the Columbia label in 1957. With Coltrane's help, he founded the Olatunji Center for African Culture in Harlem. This was the site of Coltrane's final performance.

Nigeria is so great!!!! He was a great guy!!

[Vudu_Prince]

Jul 7, 2008 13:52:59 GMT -5 Blu said:

Oh yeah, Andrew Young, Duke Ellington, and Maynard Jackson are as well known as Hosea Williams and Bobby Seale...

Hold Up someone put them in here too? Hell Naw

[Blu]

Jul 7, 2008 14:31:24 GMT -5 Vudu_Prince said:

Jul 7, 2008 13:52:59 GMT -5 Blu said:

Oh yeah, Andrew Young, Duke Ellington, and Maynard Jackson are as well known as Hosea Williams and Bobby Seale...

Hold Up someone put them in here too? Hell Naw

Yeah, Maynard managed to get mentioned twice lol. I'm sticking to the rules....

[Blu]

Bro. Herman Williams, Jr.

Herman Williams, Jr., one of the first Black firefighters in the city of Baltimore, not only kept his cool, he rose steadily through the ranks to become the first African American fire chief in a major U.S. city. Over a career spanning almost 50 years, Chief Williams’ many accomplishments included reducing the number of fires in the city by more than half in 1999, and taking part in forming the Vulcan Blazers, the first association of African American firefighters. Williams is married to his high school sweetheart Marjorie, and is the father of four successful children-Clolita, Marjorie, Herman and television talk show host, Montel. He retired from the department last year.

[BKupInHere]

Jul 7, 2008 11:42:57 GMT -5 Blu said:

Bro. Baba Olatunji

Babatunde Olatunji (April 7, 1927 – April 6, 2003) was a Nigerian drummer, educator, social activist and recording artist. Olatunji won a following among jazz musicians, notably creating a strong relationship with John Coltrane and Columbia Records A&R man John Hammond who signed him to the Columbia label in 1957. With Coltrane's help, he founded the Olatunji Center for African Culture in Harlem. This was the site of Coltrane's final performance.

I met Baba Olatunji several times in my youth. He truly was a wonderful man & I never knew he was a Sigma! One of my elders Cheif James Hawthorne Bey played with him on his albums,including the highly acclaimed DRUMS OF PASSIONBaba was also the original writer/performer of the song JingloBawww.youtube.com/watch?v=bXTFBICueQU,made popular as a remake from Carlos Santana.He was also a Priest of Obatala in the Yoruba/IFA faith of Nigeria.

His wife Mama Amy recently was arrested for blocking traffic while protesting the Sean Bell case. Charges were dropped last week (FINALLY).

[Blu]

Bro. Rev. JLS Holloman

Father of the esteemed Holloman Family and pastor of the 2nd Street Baptist Church. He is the father of Majorie Holloman Parker, Past Supreme Basileus, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.

[Blu]

Jul 7, 2008 15:39:41 GMT -5 BKupInHere said:

Jul 7, 2008 11:42:57 GMT -5 Blu said:

Bro. Baba Olatunji

Babatunde Olatunji (April 7, 1927 – April 6, 2003) was a Nigerian drummer, educator, social activist and recording artist. Olatunji won a following among jazz musicians, notably creating a strong relationship with John Coltrane and Columbia Records A&R man John Hammond who signed him to the Columbia label in 1957. With Coltrane's help, he founded the Olatunji Center for African Culture in Harlem. This was the site of Coltrane's final performance.

I met Baba Olatunji several times in my youth. He truly was a wonderful man & I never knew he was a Sigma! One of my elders Cheif James Hawthorne Bey played with him on his albums,including the highly acclaimed DRUMS OF PASSIONBaba was also the original writer/performer of the song JingloBawww.youtube.com/watch?v=bXTFBICueQU,made popular as a remake from Carlos Santana.He was also a Priest of Obatala in the Yoruba/IFA faith of Nigeria.

His wife Mama Amy recently was arrested for blocking traffic while protesting the Sean Bell case. Charges were dropped last week (FINALLY).

Yeah, he joined through Chi Chapter at Morehouse

[tremab]

Hold UP! This is little known man. How they hell yall got Hosea Williams AND Bobby Seale in the damn thread man... Hell naw.

b/w

"VP...did you mean famous members of NPHC organizations that aren't widely-known or recognize as being members of their specific organization? or locally famous folks?"

Any of the above.

[tremab]

Bro. Judge Robert Terrell


First African-American Federal Judge
www.jstor.org/pss/2954675

[Vudu_Prince]

William Dehart Hubbard won the long jump at the 1924 Olympics, becoming the first black athlete to win an Olympic gold medal in an individual event; set the long jump world record in 1925 (25-103/4) and tied the 100-yard dash record (9.6) in 1926

[tremab]

(2nd row, far right...MAB should recognize some heavyweights in here...)


An extremely versatile man, Bro. James A. Jackson worked through three highly visible arenas to promote black cultural and economic development. As editor of the Negro Department of Billboard magazine, he was a major influence in promoting black theatricals during the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s. He was also well-connected with black and white professional, commercial, and industrial groups and, due to his work with the U.S. Department of Commerce, was regarded as an eminent advisor on African American business activities. He traveled widely and aided and encouraged black commercial development and encouraged industrial training to prepare youth for commercial enterprise. As a public relations specialist of Standard Oil Company, Jackson became one of the first African American salespersons of the mid-1930s to promote his business in the African American market. He was also the first African American member of the American Marketing Association.

[Vudu_Prince]

Togo Dennis West, Jr. (born June 21, 1942), an African American attorney and public official, was the third person to occupy the post of United States Secretary of Veterans Affairs. He was nominated by President Bill Clinton on January 27, 1998, during Clinton's second term, and was confirmed by the Senate on May 5, 1998. He had previously served as United States Secretary of the Army under Clinton, from 1993 to 1997.

<<(Is starting to realize Clinton surrounded himself with ALOT of bruhz, chit is Alarming....)