African Descent Archives - Page 47 of 129

Annie L McPheeters

Annie L. McPheeters was one of the first African American professional librarians in the Atlanta Public Library and an influential proponent of African American culture and history.

Mattiwilda Dobbs

The first African American to sing at La Scala in Milan, Italy, and the first African-American woman to be offered a long-term contract by the Metropolitan Opera Company in New York.

An artist accomplished in several media, Emma Amos explored difficult issues concerning politics, gender, race, and cultural history in her work. Her highly expressive visual art combined printmaking, painting, and textiles with photography and collage. She was also known as a teacher, curator, writer, and activist.

Beverly Buchanan

Beverly Buchanan found her calling as an artist after pursuing a career in health education and realizing that she wanted to express the images, stories, and architecture of her African American childhood.

Marie Woolfolk Taylor

Marie Woolfolk Taylor was one of the nine founders of Alpha Kappa Alpha (AKA), the oldest Greek-letter organization established in America by Black college women.

Shay Youngblood

Shay Youngblood was a distinguished Georgia writer who followed Black roots and routes. Her novels, short stories, and plays explore themes of family and community, as well as topics such as history, ancestry, and sexual identity.

Babbie Mason

Babbie Mason is an African American contemporary Christian singer-songwriter and author. Her song “All Rise” was one of the most-recorded contemporary Christian songs of the 1990s.

Selena Sloan Butler

Selena Sloan Butler organized the first National Congress of Colored Parents and Teachers (NCCPT) and cofounded the National Congress of Parents and Teachers, which is now a part of the National Parent Teacher Association (PTA).

Leah Ward Sears

Leah Ward Sears served as the chief justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia from 2005 until 2009.

Francine Reed

Francine Reed, Atlanta’s “queen of the blues,” was born in Illinois in 1947. In the 1990s she relocated to Georgia and soon became one of Atlanta’s most beloved performers.

Reed’s career was cemented on the foundation of a musically rich family. Her father was a gospel singer and her sister Margo Reed became a noted jazz singer. As the youngest of six siblings, Reed began performing