Created by Stephen A. Maglott (1953-2016). Biographical tributes to distinguished LGBTQ/SGL people of color/African descent.

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Category Archives: February

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Willi Smith

March 1, 2018 by Ubuntu Biography Project

Willi Smith was born on February 29, 1948 (to April 17, 1987). He was one of the most influential and successful African American designers in fashion history. Known for his spirited and trendy clothes, his company, WilliWear Ltd., sold more than $25 million worth of clothing a year. Willi Donnell Smith was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Willie Lee Smith, an ironworker, and June Eileen Smith, a homemaker. The seeds for Smith’s later successes were planted during his youth by […]

Categories: All, February, February 29, Smith, Willi • Tags: 1948, 1987, April 17, February 29, Ubuntu Biography Project, Willi Smith

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Claudia Alick

March 1, 2018 by Ubuntu Biography Project

Claudia Alick was born on February 29. She is a poet, performer, producer, and intersectional inclusion expert. Claudia Alick was born in Memphis, Tennessee, to Claude Alick, a writer, and Eleanor Williams. Her brothers and sisters are Anzie Gilmore, Julian Rice, Maia Mills-Lowe, Jesse Alick, and Makenna Alick. Alick attended Hellgate High School in Missoula, Montana, where she founded its first Black Student Union, worked with the developmentally disabled, and founded The Starving Artists Theater Company before graduating in 1994. “Growing up in Missoula, Montana was […]

Categories: Alick, Claudia, All, February, February 29 • Tags: Claudia Alick, February 29, Ubuntu Biography Project

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Angelina Weld Grimké

February 27, 2018 by Ubuntu Biography Project

Angelina Weld Grimké was born on February 27, 1880 (to June 10, 1958). She was a celebrated poet, playwright, essayist, short fiction author, journalist, and teacher who was an important figure of the Harlem Renaissance, and one of the first African American women to see her play performed to audiences. Angelina Weld Grimké was born into an unusual and distinguished biracial family in Boston, Massachusetts. Her mother, Sarah Stanley, was from a Midwestern middle-class family, about whom little information is […]

Categories: All, February, February 27, Grimké, Angelina Weld • Tags: 1880, 1958, Angelina Weld Grimké, February 27, June 10, Ubuntu Biography Project

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Sherry D. Harris

February 27, 2018 by Ubuntu Biography Project

Sherry D. Harris was born on February 27, 1965. She is a groundbreaking former Seattle public official, engineer, scholar, writer, philosopher, teacher, and interpersonal relations consultant. Sherry D. Harris was born in one of Newark, New Jersey’s toughest neighborhoods, and is the daughter of Dorothy Harris, who was a loving single mom. She was an only child, and vividly recounts the 1967 riots that destroyed much of her neighborhood. Harris’ mother, Dorothy Harris, became her daughter’s role model with her […]

Categories: All, February, February 27, Harris, Sherry D. • Tags: 1965, February 27, Sherry D. Harris, Ubuntu Biography Project

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Bryan E. Glover

February 26, 2018 by Ubuntu Biography Project

Bryan E. Glover was born on February 26, 1968. He is a leadership and life coach, spiritual activist, award-winning arts producer, writer, and filmmaker. Bryan E. Glover was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, the only child of Emanuel Glover, who was a postal worker and Korean War veteran, and Iris Davis Glover, a former legal secretary and current independent businesswoman. When he was six, his family moved to Los Angeles, where he later attended Daniel Murphy Catholic High School, graduating in 1986. Following high school, he enrolled at […]

Categories: All, February, February 26, Glover, Bryan E. • Tags: 1968, Bryan E. Glover, February 26, Ubuntu Biography Project

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Elizabeth Hadley

February 26, 2018 by Ubuntu Biography Project

  Dr. Elizabeth Hadley was born on February 26, 1950 (to October 14, 2007).  She was a beloved professor, researcher, theater director, advocate, and author. Dr. Elizabeth Amelia Hadley was born in Harlem, and grew up in a foster home there in the 1950s and ’60s. She entered the foster care system at such a young age that she reportedly remembered little about her birth family. Elizabeth Hadley graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Rochester […]

Categories: All, February, February 26, Hadley, Elizabeth • Tags: 1950, 2007, Elizabeth Hadley, February 26, October 14, Ubuntu Biography Project

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Michael Henry Adams

February 26, 2018 by Ubuntu Biography Project

Michael Henry Adams was born on February 25, 1956. He is an architectural, social, and cultural historian, as well as a preservation activist known primarily for his passionate work in Harlem. Michael Henry Adams was born in Akron, Ohio, the son of Alexander Leroy Adams, Jr. and Willie Dean Hollinger Adams. His athletic father, who’d been a sports all-star from elementary school through college, first became a high school American history teacher and basketball coach. He then taught history and […]

Categories: Adams, Michael Henry, All, February, February 26 • Tags: 1956, February 25, Michael Henry Adams, Ubuntu Biography Project

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Rodney Evans

February 23, 2018 by Ubuntu Biography Project

Rodney Evans was born on February 24, 1971. He is a celebrated director, producer, editor, cinematographer, and screenwriter. Rodney Evans was born in Brooklyn, New York, and raised in Jamaica, Queens. After graduating from Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan in 1989, he enrolled at Brown University, where he obtained his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Modern Culture and Media/Film Production. Evans furthered his education in the graduate program at The California Institute of the Arts, and received a Master […]

Categories: All, Evans, Rodney, February, February 24 • Tags: 1971, February 24, Rodney Evans, Ubuntu Biography Project

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Donald Agarrat

February 22, 2018 by Ubuntu Biography Project

Donald Agarrat was born on February 22, 1970 (to September 14, 2013). He was a popular Harlem photographer, afrofuturist, technologist, artist, beloved activist, website designer, entrepreneur, musician, and deejay. Donald Andrew Agarrat was born in Hollis, Queens, the son of Delores and Henry Agarrat. He attended various schools and graduated from the talented and gifted program at Eleanor Roosevelt High School of Greenbelt, Maryland in 1988. Agarrat furthered his studies at the University of Maryland in College Park, and immersed […]

Categories: Agarrat, Donald, All, February, February 22 • Tags: 1970, 2013, Donald Agarrat, February 22, September 14, Ubuntu Biography Project

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Isaac Julien

February 21, 2018 by Ubuntu Biography Project

Isaac Julien CBE was born on February 21, 1960. He is a leading international installation artist, filmmaker and academic whose multi-screen film installations and photographs incorporate different artistic disciplines to create a poetic and unique visual language. Isaac Julien hails from London’s East End, one of five children born to parents who migrated to the United Kingdom from Saint Lucia. His mother was a nurse; his father worked as a welder. Julien attended local schools, and while in his teens, […]

Categories: All, February, February 21, Julien, Isaac • Tags: 1960, February 21, Isaac Julien, Ubuntu Biography Project

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Philip Reed

February 21, 2018 by Ubuntu Biography Project

  Philip Reed was born on February 21, 1949 (to November 6, 2008). He was the first openly gay African American member of the New York City Council, and a passionate HIV/AIDS advocate. Philip Reed was born in New York City, the son of a Black father and a white mother. He and a twin sister were raised in an upper middle class Manhattan environment of prep schools and civil rights activism; Reed would become involved in the 1969 Stonewall […]

Categories: All, February, February 21, Reed, Philip • Tags: 1949, 2008, February 21, November 6, Philip Reed, Ubuntu Biography Project

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David J. Johns

February 20, 2018 by Ubuntu Biography Project

David J. Johns was born on February 21. He is an educator, community builder, and activist with unique federal policy experience, and a self-described son, brother, uncle, and friend. Since September 1, 2017, Johns has been the executive director of the National Black Justice Coalition (NBJC), a civil rights organization dedicated to ending racism, homophobia, and LGBTQ bias and stigma, and empowering Black LGBTQ people, including people living with HIV/AIDS. David J. Johns was born in Culver City, California, the […]

Categories: All, February, February 21, Johns, David • Tags: David J. Johns, February 21, Ubuntu Biography Project

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Dr. David J. Malebranche

February 20, 2018 by Ubuntu Biography Project

David J. Malebranche, MD, MPH was born on February 20, 1969. He is a highly respected author, Black/LGBTQ advocate, and HIV/AIDS behavioral researcher, exploring the social and structural factors influencing the sexual health of Black men in the United States. David J. Malebranche is the son of Roger Malebranche, originally of Anse-à-Veau, Haiti, and Donna Malebranche, who hails from upstate New York. David Malebranche was born in Schenectady, New York, and graduated from Notre Dame-Bishop Gibbons High School in 1986 […]

Categories: All, February, February 20, Malebranche, David J. • Tags: 1969, David J. Malebranche, February 20, Ubuntu Biography Project

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Rev. E. Taylor Doctor

February 15, 2018 by Ubuntu Biography Project

Reverend E. Taylor Doctor was born on February 15, 1989. He is a same-gender loving ordained clergyman, writer, and a public health policy and administration professional. Rev. E. Taylor Doctor is a native of Charleston, South Carolina, born to Rev. Jerome Bennett, a retired pastor, state employee and adjunct professor, and Carla Pompey-Bennett, a senior consultant and owner of Carjer Strategic Solutions of Virginia. Rev. Doctor has five siblings, Arthur E. Doctor, Jr., Joelle Doctor-Nixon, Jerry M. Bennett, Kimberly S. […]

Categories: All, Doctor, E. Taylor, February, February 15 • Tags: 1989, February 15, Rev. E. Taylor Doctor, Ubuntu Biography Project

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J Marshall Evans

February 15, 2018 by Ubuntu Biography Project

J Marshall Evans was born on February 15, 1975. He is a producer, playwright, dramatist, singer, music composer, teacher, community educator, advocate, and activist. J Marshall Evans was born in Marshall, Texas, and is the adopted son of Neddie Evans, who was a blue-collar worker and an entrepreneur, and Olivia Burks Evans, a homemaker; he has an older brother and baby sister. Evans was raised in Waco, Texas, where he faced challenges of deep racism, homophobia, and celebration of religiosity, […]

Categories: All, Evans, J Marshall, February, February 15 • Tags: 1975, February 15, J Marshall Evans, Ubuntu Biography Project

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Guy Anthony

February 12, 2018 by Ubuntu Biography Project

Guy Anthony was born on February 12, 1986. He is a self-proclaimed ARTivist, community leader, writer, and empath. Anthony is the founder and president/CEO of the Black, Gifted & Whole Foundation. Guy Anthony was born in Detroit, Michigan. Encouraged by his mother (Anthony calls her “Mama Bear”), he studied theater, oratory, and dance throughout grade school and at the Detroit High School for Fine Arts. Following graduation, Anthony attended Michigan State University and Bauder College in Atlanta, Georgia, and studied […]

Categories: All, Anthony, Guy, February, February 12 • Tags: 1986, February 12, Guy Anthony, Ubuntu Biography Project

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James Credle

February 7, 2018 by Ubuntu Biography Project

James Credle was born on February 7, 1945. He is a highly decorated veteran of the Vietnam War, and a beloved former dean of students at Rutgers University-Newark. Credle is also a proud community builder, and a longtime activist in the Vietnam Veterans and LGBTQ movements. James Warren Credle was born in Mesic, a very small town on the eastern shore of North Carolina, to Warren Credle, who worked with his hands as a part-time carpenter and laborer, and Carrie Mae Credle, a housekeeper, maid, and homemaker […]

Categories: All, Credle, James, February, February 07 • Tags: 1945, February 7, James Credle, Ubuntu Biography Project

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Nayland Blake

February 5, 2018 by Ubuntu Biography Project

Nayland Blake was born on February 5, 1960. He is a celebrated artist whose mixed-media work often reflects themes of masochism, his biracial heritage, and his pansexuality. Nayland Blake was born in New York City, the son of an African American father and an Irish-American mother at a time when such unions were outlawed in many parts of the United States. Both of his parents were artistically inclined, and his own early explorations in creating art were encouraged. Blake grew […]

Categories: All, Blake, Nayland, February, February 05 • Tags: 1960, February 5, Nayland Blake, Ubuntu Biography Project

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Chas. Brack

February 5, 2018 by Ubuntu Biography Project

Chas. Brack was born on February 5, 1960.  He is an artivist, educator, filmmaker, performer, and LGBTQ and HIV/AIDS activist. Charles Bennett Brack was born in Chicago, Illinois, the youngest son of David A. Brack, II, who was a unionized decorator, and his mother, Bertha Mae Brack, a homemaker. After his biological parents’ passing in the early 1970s, Brack was raised by his stepmother, Mattie Bea Brack. His two brothers, Gert Knox and David Brack, both passed away in 2016, and he has three step-siblings, Victor, Charles “Yapri,” and Carol Howell. Brack […]

Categories: All, Brack, Chas., February, February 05 • Tags: 1960, Chas. Brack, February 5, Ubuntu Biography Project

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Shelton Jackson

February 5, 2018 by Ubuntu Biography Project

Shelton Jackson was born on February 4, 1978 (to March 2, 2009). He was poet, author, HIV/AIDS educator and activist, inspiring LGBTQ advocate, and founder of a publishing firm. Shelton Samad Jackson was born in Newark, New Jersey, the son of two drug addicted parents. He describes his father, the late Shelton Robert Williams, as a functioning addict who worked as a garbage man, and his mother, Lyndale Jackson, as a drug addict and an alcoholic who held sporadic jobs […]

Categories: All, February, February 04, Jackson, Shelton • Tags: 1978, 2009, February 4, March 2, Shelton Jackson, Ubuntu Biography Project

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Marlon Riggs

February 3, 2018 by Ubuntu Biography Project

Marlon T. Riggs was born on February 3, 1957 (to April 5, 1994). He was a groundbreaking filmmaker, educator, poet, and gay rights activist, best known as the producer, writer, and director of several television documentaries, including “Ethnic Notions,” “Tongues Untied,” “Color Adjustment,” and “Black Is…Black Ain’t.” Marlon Troy Riggs was born in Fort Worth, Texas, to Jean and Alvin Riggs, who were civilian employees of the military. He spent much of his childhood traveling, and lived in Texas and […]

Categories: All, February, February 03, Riggs, Marlon • Tags: 1957, 1994, April 5, February 3, Marlon Riggs, Ubuntu Biography Project

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Carlton Brown

February 2, 2018 by Ubuntu Biography Project

Carlton Brown was born on February 2, 1959. He is a passionate entrepreneur, family man, chef, caterer, event host, and optimistic advocate, who loves life and always sees the glass as half full. Carlton Antonio Brown was born in Jacksonville, North Carolina, to Calvin Brown, who was a retired United States Marine Corp non-commissioned officer and a cook, and his mother, Hilda Brewer Brown, a retired home economics teacher in the North Carolina schools. Carlton’s identical twin brother was Calvin A. Brown, and he has a younger brother and […]

Categories: All, Brown, Carlton, February, February 02 • Tags: 1959, Carlton Brown, February 2, Ubuntu Biography Project

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Mike Webb

February 1, 2018 by Ubuntu Biography Project

Mike Webb was born on February 1, 1987. Webb is a self-described progressive driven by community organizing and empowering our most vulnerable communities. Michael C. Webb, Jr. was raised in Houston, Texas, one of two children born to the late Michael C. Webb, Sr., and Ophelia Binkley-Webb, a professor. Mike Webb attended high school at Chinquapin Preparatory School in Highlands, Texas, and graduated from Reed College in Portland, Oregon with a degree in political science. At age 26, Webb became […]

Categories: All, February, February 01, Webb, Mike • Tags: 1987, February 1, Mike Webb, Ubuntu Biography Project

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Langston Hughes

February 1, 2018 by Ubuntu Biography Project

Langston Hughes was born on February 1, 1902 (to May 22, 1967). He was a celebrated poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist. He was one of the earliest innovators of the literary art form often called “jazz poetry,” and is best known for both his writing and his leadership during the Harlem Renaissance. Hughes famously wrote about that period when “Harlem was in vogue.” James Mercer Langston Hughes was born in Joplin, Missouri to Caroline Mercer Langston and James […]

Categories: All, February, February 01, Hughes, Langston • Tags: 1902, 1967, February 1, Langston Hughes, May 22, Ubuntu Biography Project

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Mario Cooper

January 30, 2018 by Ubuntu Biography Project

Mario Cooper was born on February 8, 1954 (to May 29, 2015). He was an activist, political leader, attorney, and renowned national leader in the fight to end HIV/AIDS, particularly in communities of color. Mario Magellan Cooper was born in Mobile, Alabama to Algernon Johnson Cooper, Sr. and Gladys Mouton Cooper. One of his brothers, J. Gary Cooper, was former US Ambassador to Jamaica, and another, Algernon J. Cooper, Jr., was the former Mayor of Prichard, Alabama, and the first […]

Categories: All, Cooper, Mario, February, February 08 • Tags: 1954, 2015, February 08, Mario Cooper, May 29, Ubuntu Biography Project

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Barbara Jordan

February 21, 2017 by Ubuntu Biography Project

Barbara Jordan was born on February 21, 1936 (to January 17, 1996). She was an inspiring member of the Texas State Senate, the United States Congress, a respected lawyer, and civil rights activist. Jordan was the first African American elected to the Texas Senate after Reconstruction and the first southern Black female elected to the United States House of Representatives. Barbara Charline Jordan grew up in the Fifth Ward of Houston, Texas. She was the daughter of a Baptist minister, […]

Categories: All, February, February 21, Jordan, Barbara • Tags: 1936, 1996, Barbara Jordan, February 21, January 17, Ubuntu Biography Project

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Audre Lorde

February 18, 2017 by Ubuntu Biography Project

Audre Lorde was born on February 18, 1934 (to November 17, 1992).  She was a revered writer, poet, feminist, and activist who famously described herself as a “black, lesbian, feminist, mother, warrior, poet” when introducing her writing to new readers. In an African naming ceremony before her death, she took the name Gamba Adisa, which means “Warrior: She Who Makes Her Meaning Known.” Audrey Geraldine Lorde was the daughter of Frederick Byron Lorde and Linda Gertrude Belmar Lorde, Caribbean immigrants […]

Categories: All, February, February 18, Lorde, Audre • Tags: 1934, 1992, Audre Lorde, February 18, November 17, Ubuntu Biography Project

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