BAYARD RUSTIN (1912-1987) was one of the most influential civil rights activists who maintained a low profile, reserving the spotlight for other prominent figures, such as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and A. Philip Randolph.
Born March 17, 1910, Rustin was one of twelve children raised by his grandparents in West Chester, Pennsylvania. Rustin’s life-long commitment to nonviolence began with his Quaker upbringing and the influence of his grandmother, a member of the Society of Friends and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). NAACP leaders such as W.E.B. Du Bois and James Weldon Johnson were frequent guests in the Rustin home. With these influences in his early life, Rustin campaigned against racially discriminatory Jim Crow laws in his youth.
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GUION BLUFORD (1942-) is NASA’s first black astronaut in space.
Bluford was born in West Philadelphia on November 22, 1942. Bluford loved finding out how things were put together, but what amazed him was how things flew.
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BUTTERFLY MCQUEEN (1911-1995) was a successful Broadway dancer and stage & screen actress.
Thelma McQueen was born in Tampa, Florida, on January 8, 1911. She got the name Butterfly after appearing in a production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, in which she danced in the butterfly ballet.
She entered films in 1939 with roles in Gone with the Wind in which she played Prissy, Scarlett O’Hara’s maid. Around this time, McQueen also modeled for the Mrs. Butterworth bottle. Over the next few years she played small roles often as a maid, a role she also played in Jack Benny’s radio show.
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PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR (1872-1906) was one of the first black writers to gain national prominence.
Born in Dayton, Ohio, on June 27, 1872, to Matilda and Joshua Dunbar, both natives of Kentucky who had escaped from slavery, Dunbar had a love of learning and history instilled in him from his mother. Matilda and Joshua had two children before separating in 1874. Matilda supported her children by working in Dayton as a washerwoman. One of the families she worked for included that of Orville and Wilbur Wright. Having heard poems read by the family she worked for when she was a slave, Matilda loved poetry and encouraged her children to read. Dunbar was inspired by his mother, and he began reciting and writing poetry as early as age 6.
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