During World War II, Ruth Lucas enlisted in the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) and became one of the few Black women to attend what is now the Joint Forces Staff College in Norfolk, Virginia. She transferred from the Army to the Air Force in 1947, where she stayed for the remainder of her military career.
Namahyoke Curtis, known as Namah, was a prominent African American nurse in late-19th-century Washington, D.C. During the Spanish-American War (1898), the Surgeon General assigned her to recruit other Black women to serve as U.S. Army contract nurses.
No historian has done more to recover the stories of enslaved African-Americans than Annette Gordon-Reed, whose 2008 book The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family won the 2009 Pulitzer Prize in History, as well as wide acclaim.
Allie Harshaw served with the renowned Tuskegee Airmen and the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, the only Black Women’s Army Corps (WAC) unit to serve overseas during World War II.
Catherine “Kitty” Payne was an enslaved woman in the U.S. in the 1800s
Singer often called the “Queen of the Blues”
When Vernice Ferguson became the first African American to lead the Veterans Administration (VA) Nursing Service in 1980, she inherited the largest nursing service in the nation, overseeing 60,000 professionals.
Long-time advocate for books and reading, she served 34 years in Veterans’ Affairs, including as Tuskegee librarian
Dr Angela Yvonne Davis is a prominent political activist, scholar, and author.
Dr. Pearl Williams-Jones (1931-1991) was a gospel musician, composer, and scholar.