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Denmark Vesey or Telemaque (1767 — July 2, 1822) was a leader in Charleston. He worked as a carpenter. In June 1822, he was accused and convicted of being the leader of “the rising,” a potentially major enslaved revolt that was scheduled to take place in the city on July 14. He was executed on July 2.

Likely born into slavery in St. Thomas, he was enslaved by Captain Joseph Vesey in Bermuda for some time before being brought to Charleston, where he gained his freedom. He won a lottery and purchased his freedom at around age 32. He had a good business and a family but was unable to buy his first wife Beck and their children out of slavery. He became active in the Second Presbyterian Church.

Deborah Ann Cox (July 13, 1974) is a singer, songwriter, actress, and record producer. Born and raised in Toronto, she began performing in television commercials at age 12 and entered various talent shows in her teens before becoming a professional backing vocalist for Celine Dion. She relocated to the US and was signed to Arista Records by Clive Davis, releasing her self-titled debut album the following year. Her second studio album, One Wish, was certified platinum in the US. It was marked by the commercial success of the pop crossover single “Nobody’s Supposed to Be Here”, which would become her most successful entry on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, peaking at #2 and remaining there for eight consecutive weeks. She signed with J Records for her third studio album, The Morning After, which saw moderate commercial success.

She ventured into acting in the 2000s, making her film debut in the Canadian drama Love Come Down and her stage debut in 2004 in the title role of the Broadway musical Aida. She has since appeared in smaller films and several musical productions, including Jekyll & Hyde, the biographical musical Josephine, and the musical adaptation of The Bodyguard. Her most recent studio albums, Destination Moon and The Promise, have been released through her independent record label, Deco Recording Group. In 2017, her single “Let the World Be Ours Tonight” became her 13th #1 hit on Billboard’s Dance Club Songs over three consecutive decades. Billboard listed Cox as 23rd on its list of the Greatest of All Time Top Dance Club Artists. An eight-time Juno Award nominee, she has won four awards and is often cited as Canada’s top R&B artist.

Gerald Edward Levert (July 13, 1966 – November 10, 2006) was a singer-songwriter and producer. He was known for singing with his brother, Sean Levert, and friend Marc Gordon of the vocal group LeVert. He was a member of LSG, a supergroup comprising Keith Sweat, Johnny Gill, and himself. He is the son of Eddie Levert, who is the lead singer of the R&B/soul vocal group the O’Jays. He released nine solo albums, six with LeVert, two with his father Eddie Levert, two with LSG, as well as discovering the R&B groups the Rude Boys, Men at Large, and 1 of the Girls. He was part of the R&B group Black Men United.

He was born to the frontman of the O’Jays, Eddie Levert, and his wife Martha in Philadelphia. He grew up in Shaker Heights, a suburb of Cleveland.

Due to his father’s career, he would travel with the band regularly. While in high school, his inclination towards music became apparent when he formed the trio LeVert, with his younger brother Sean Levert and friend Marc Gordon in 1983.

Anthony Jerome “Spud” Webb (July 13, 1963) is a retired basketball player. He, who played in the NBA, is known for winning a Slam Dunk Contest despite being one of the shortest players in NBA history. NBA.com lists him as 5 feet 7 inches tall. Other references list him as 5 feet 6 inches. He is the president of basketball operations for the Texas Legends, the G League team for the Dallas Mavericks in Frisco.

He was born in Dallas. He received his nickname when he was a newborn baby and a visitor remarked to his parents that his round head resembled the Sputnik satellite. By the time he was brought home from the hospital, “Sputnik” had been shortened to “Spud.”

He was told that he was too short to play basketball. He got a chance to play on his junior high team only after two players did not complete the physical exam requirements in time for the first game. He scored 22 points in his first game. He could dunk the ball when he was 5 ft 3 in. At Skyline High School, he made the varsity team, and he averaged 26 points per game as a senior.

He was recruited by North Texas Basketball Coach Bill Blakeley (his agent throughout his NBA career); he received his first opportunity to play on a college basketball team at Midland College, where he led the Chaparrals to the junior college national title in 1982.

In 1983, he was named an NJCAA All-American by the National Junior College Athletic Association. He played for NC State (1983-85), averaging 10.4 points and 5.7 assists.

His first six seasons were with the Atlanta Hawks, but he had his best statistical years with the Sacramento Kings, where he played as a starter (1992-95). He posted career highs of 16.0 points and 7.1 assists per game in his first season with the Kings. He led the NBA in free-throw shooting in his last season in Sacramento, shooting 93.4 percent in 1994-95.

David O’Neil Thompson (July 13, 1953) is a former basketball player. He played for the Denver Nuggets in both the ABA and the NBA, as well as the Seattle SuperSonics. He was a star at North Carolina State, leading the Wolfpack to its first NCAA championship in 1974. He is one of the six players to score 70 or more points in an NBA game. He was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.

He was known for his exceptional leaping ability, which enabled him to become one of the game’s premier dunkers in the 1970s and earned him the nickname “Skywalker”. Michael Jordan said, “The whole meaning of vertical leap began with David Thompson.” Bill Walton described him as “Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Tracy McGrady, and LeBron James rolled into one”.

Ambassador Dr. Larry Leon Palmer (July 13, 1949 - April 21, 2021) was born in Augusta, Georgia. Between his two ambassadorships, he headed the Inter-American Foundation (2005-10).

He graduated from Emory University with his BA in History. He joined the Peace Corps, volunteering to serve as a teacher in Liberia. He obtained his MA with an emphasis in African history from Texas Southern University. He worked as assistant director of financial aid at the University of Virginia and was a professor of history at Cuttington College. He received a Ph.D. with a concentration in Higher Education and African Studies from Indiana University. He taught history at Wake Forest University.

He left academia to work for the US Foreign Service. His first overseas assignment was as vice consul in the Dominican Republic. He worked as a personnel officer in US Embassies in Montevideo, Uruguay, and Asuncion, Paraguay. He became a staff assistant to the Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs. He was assigned to the Embassy in Freetown, Sierra Leone.

He became the Pearson Fellow, serving as assistant to the University of Texas at El Paso’s President. He helped implement faculty and student exchange programs with Mexico and the rest of Latin America and served as a consultant for International Affairs.

He returned to the Foreign Service and was assigned to the Embassies in Seoul, Korea, and the Dominican Republic. He served as Deputy Chief of Mission at the Embassy in Quito, Ecuador. He was appointed Ambassador to Honduras.

President Obama nominated him as the Ambassador to Venezuela. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez announced that he would not allow him to take his post. President Chavez accused him of making critical remarks about his government. US insistence that he be installed as ambassador prompted him to continue his opposition, prompting the Obama Administration to expel Venezuela’s Ambassador.

He began serving as Ambassador to Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean, which includes Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

Daphne Etta Maxwell Reid (July 13, 1948) is an actress, comedian, and former model. She is known for her role as the second Vivian Banks on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.

She was born in New York City, the daughter of Rosalee and Green Maxwell. She is a graduate of The Bronx High School of Science.

She received a BA in Interior Design and Architecture from Northwestern University, which she attended on a scholarship, and where she became the first African American woman to be named homecoming queen. While at Northwestern, she began a modeling career, signing with the Eileen Ford modeling agency. She was the first African American woman to be on the cover of Glamour magazine.

She had a recurring role as JT’s mother, Frances Hunter, on Eve, and played Juanita Lawrence on Let’s Stay Together. She is an accomplished photographer.

Albert Ayler (July 13, 1936 – November 25, 1970) was an avant-garde jazz saxophonist, singer, and composer.

He studied at the Academy of Music in Cleveland with jazz saxophonist Benny Miller. He played the oboe in high school. His understanding of bebop style and mastery of standard repertoire earned him the nickname “Little Bird”, after Charlie “Bird” Parker.

He began playing bar-walking, honking, R&B-style tenor with blues singer and harmonica player Little Walter, spending two summer vacations with Walter’s band. He joined the Army, where he switched from alto to tenor sax and jammed with other enlisted musicians, including tenor saxophonist Stanley Turrentine. He played in the regiment band, along with future composer Harold Budd. He was stationed in France, where he was exposed to martial music which would be a core influence on his work. He tried to find work in Los Angeles and Cleveland, but his increasingly iconoclastic playing, which had moved away from traditional harmony, was not welcomed by traditionalists.

Dr. Akinwande Oluwole Babatunde Soyinka (July 13, 1934) known as Wole Soyinka, is a playwright, novelist, poet, and essayist in English. He was awarded the 1986 Nobel Prize in Literature, the first sub-Saharan African to be honored in that category.

He was born into a Yoruba family in Abeokuta, Nigeria. He attended Government College in Ibadan, University College Ibadan, and the University of Leeds. He worked with the Royal Court Theatre. He went on to write plays that were produced in both countries, in theatres, and on the radio. He took an active role in Nigeria’s political history and its campaign for independence from British colonial rule. He seized the Western Nigeria Broadcasting Service studio and broadcast a demand to cancel the Western Nigeria Regional Elections. He was arrested by the federal government of General Yakubu Gowon and put in solitary confinement for two years.

He was a Professor of Comparative Literature at the Obafemi Awolowo University, then called the University of Ife. He was made Professor Emeritus. He taught at Cornell University as the Goldwin Smith Professor of African Studies and Theatre Arts and at Emory University, where he was appointed the Robert W. Woodruff Professor of the Arts. He has been a Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He has served as scholar-in-residence at NYU’s Institute of African American Affairs and Loyola Marymount University. He has taught at the universities of Oxford, Harvard, and Yale. He was a Distinguished Scholar in Residence at Duke University.

He was awarded the Europe Theatre Prize in the “Special Prize” category, awarded to someone who has “contributed to the realization of cultural events that promote understanding and the exchange of knowledge between peoples”.

Lieutenant Samuel Eldred Greenlee (July 13, 1930 - May 19, 2014) was born in Chicago after his family migrated from the South. He attended inner-city schools in Chicago and became politically active at a very young age. He participated in his first sit-in protest at the age of 15 and walked a picket line later that year.

He graduated with a BA in Political Science from the University of Wisconsin. He joined the Army and served for two years, achieving the rank of first lieutenant before his service ended.

He continued his education at the University of Chicago, studying international relations from 1954 to 1957. became one of the first Black officers in the US Information Agency, a position that would take him around the world until he left the agency in 1965. He served in Iraq, Pakistan, Indonesia, and Greece. He received the Meritorious Service Award for bravery during the 1958 Kassem Revolution in Iraq, an event that inspired his book, Baghdad Blues.

He studied at the University of Thessaloniki in Greece and spent some time living on the Greek Island of Mykonos. He composed his famous and highly controversial novel, The Spook Who Stood by the Door (1969). His novel was the tale of a Black former CIA operative who leaves the agency to secretly create a small army of Black Nationalist freedom fighters in the US.

More than 40 American publishers turned the book down before it was accepted by the British publisher, Allison and Busby, of London, UK. He co-wrote the screenplay for The Spook Who Stood by the Door, and the film became an instant hit during its brief run. It was pulled from distribution for unknown reasons, possibly due to opposition from the US government. The film was re-released in 2004.

Justice Robert Nelson Cornelius Nix Jr. (July 13, 1928 – August 23, 2003) served as the Chief Justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. He was the first African American Chief Justice of any state’s highest court, and the first African American to be elected to statewide office. He served as a justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania for 24 years, 12 of which were as chief justice, and was a prominent figure in Pennsylvania law and public service for more than three decades.

He was the son of Robert N. C. Nix Sr., the first African American Representative from Pennsylvania in Congress and a powerhouse among city Democrats. His grandfather was Nelson Cornelius Nix, who was born enslaved but became a minister and an academic dean of South Carolina State College.

He was a graduate of Central High School, a graduate and valedictorian of Villanova University, and a second-generation graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Law School. He was a postgraduate at Temple University in Business Administration and Economics.

Dr. Walter Washington (July 13, 1923 – December 1, 1999) was an educator. He was born in Hazlehurst, Mississippi. He married his college sweetheart, Carolyn Carter (1949). They had one daughter.

He received a BA from Tougaloo College, an MS from Indiana University, an Education Specialist degree from Peabody College, a certificate in Alcohol Studies from Yale University, and a Ph.D. from the University of Southern Mississippi. He attended Harvard University’s Institute for Educational Management. He received honorary degrees: Doctor of Laws from Tougaloo College, Doctor of Laws from Indiana University, and Doctor of Science from Purdue University. He was the first African American to receive a Ph.D. in Mississippi.

He retired from Alcorn State University. He was President of Utica Junior College. He served as the principal of Sumner Hill. He was the longest-serving college president in the nation.

He served on the Board of Directors of Mississippi Power and Light Company, Entergy Corporation, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Mississippi, the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education, and the National Commission for Cooperative Education. He was a member of the Liaison Committee on Medical Education, the Advisory Council of the National Urban League’s Black Executive Exchange Program, the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, the President’s Council of the State University Presidents, the Mississippi Association of Educators, the National Education Association, and the US President’s Advisory Council on HBCUs.

He was a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity. He served as Southern Regional Vice President and as General President. He presided over the 70th-anniversary convention in Liberia. He was a charter member of Beta Gamma Boule’ of Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity.

Tuskegee Airman Colonel James Henry Harvey III (July 13, 1923) is a retired Army Air Corps/ Air Force officer and former fighter pilot who served with the 332nd Fighter Group’s 99th Fighter Squadron, best known as the Tuskegee Airmen, “Red Tails”, or, among enemy German pilots, Schwartze Vogelmenschen (“Black birdmen”). He is one of the 1,007 documented Tuskegee Airmen pilots.

He is known as the first African American USAF jet fighter pilot to fly in combat during the Korean War. He and his 332nd Fighter Group Weapons pilot team won the USAF’s inaugural “Top Gun” team competition in 1949. Along with every member of the Tuskegee Airmen, he received the Congressional Gold Medal in 2006. He is among the last surviving members of the Tuskegee Airmen.

He was born in Montclair, New Jersey. He was the son of James Harvey and Cornelia Harvey. He had three younger siblings.

In 1936, they moved to Nuangola Station, where they were the sole African American family in the area. He attended high school in Mountain Top, Pennsylvania. He served as President of his senior class, anchor man on the tumbling team, captain of the basketball team, and was class valedictorian.

He attempted to enlist with the Army Air Corps in January 1943, but he was turned down because of his race. He was instead drafted into the Army in April 1943 and was assigned to the Army Air Corps as an engineer. After applying for the Aviation Cadet Training Program, he took the Cadet Training Exam at Bolling Field and was admitted to the Tuskegee Flight School’s Aviation Cadet Training Program. After attending Basic Training in Biloxi, Mississippi, he was transferred to Tuskegee Army Air Field to begin pilot training. He graduated from the Tuskegee Flight Program Army Air Corps as a member of Class 44–4, receiving both his wings and a commission as a second lieutenant.

He retired as a lieutenant colonel on March 31, 1965. He served a combined 22 years in the Army Air Corps and the Air Force.

Minister Dr. Samuel DeWitt Proctor (July 13, 1921 – May 22, 1997) was a minister, educator, and humanitarian. He was active in the Civil Rights Movement and is perhaps known as a mentor and friend of Martin Luther King Jr.

He was born in Norfolk. His grandparents on both sides had received education at the university level: his paternal grandmother had attended Hampton Institute, and both of his maternal grandparents had attended Norfolk Mission College. His parents, Herbert Proctor and Velma Hughes, met while they were both students at Norfolk Mission College. He was raised as a Baptist and, as a child, attended the congregation founded by his great-grandfather, Zechariah Hughes. Herbert Proctor worked at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard.

He graduated from high school and enrolled at Virginia State College, having won a music scholarship. He played saxophone in a jazz band with famed jazz pianist Billy Taylor, and they both joined Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity. He left Virginia State College without earning a degree and enrolled in the Naval Apprentice School to train as a shipfitter. He abandoned that line of study after only a year and matriculated at Virginia Union University in 1940. He married his classmate Bessie Tate. He graduated with a BA.

He studied at the University of Pennsylvania for one year before enrolling at Crozer Theological Seminary as the only African American student to pursue a career in the Christian ministry.

He worshiped at the Calvary Baptist Church and became known as one of the “Sons of Calvary”. He received a B.Div from Crozer. He enrolled at the Boston University School of Theology and received a D.Div.

The Samuel DeWitt Proctor School of Theology at Virginia Union University was named in his memory.

Constance Allen Pitter Thomas (July 13, 1917 - January 7, 2006) was born in Seattle. She attended Seattle Public Schools and entered the University of Washington immediately following graduation from Garfield High School during the Great Depression.

This period proved very difficult for her and her family economically, especially with three daughters attending college simultaneously. She and her siblings managed to remain at the University with the help of her nuclear and extended family, including her church, sorority, and community.

She was motivated to attend college at a very young age. Her family expected it of her and her sisters for four major reasons: 1) economic independence; 2) social mobility; 3) professional service to the African American community, and 4) elevation of the African American community. Highly motivated to study theater arts, she enrolled in the Speech and Drama Department as an undergraduate and received a degree.

The New York City Draft Riots (July 13–16, 1863) sometimes referred to as the Manhattan Draft Riots and known at the time as Draft Week, were violent disturbances in Lower Manhattan. They were regarded as the culmination of white working-class discontent with new laws passed by Congress that year to draft men to fight in the ongoing American Civil War. The riots remain the largest civil and most racially charged urban disturbance in American history.

President Abraham Lincoln diverted several militia and volunteer regiments after the Battle of Gettysburg to control the city. The rioters were overwhelmingly white working-class men who feared free African Americans competing for work and resented that wealthier men, who could afford to pay a $300 commutation fee to hire a substitute, were spared from the draft.

Initially intended to express anger at the draft, the protests turned into a race riot, with white rioters, many of them misinformed Irish immigrants, attacking African American people throughout the city. The official death toll was listed as high as 1200, mostly African Americans. Conditions in the city were such that Major General John E. Wool, commander of the Department of the East, said on July 16, “Martial law ought to be proclaimed, but I have not a sufficient force to enforce it.”

Captain William Thomas Shorey (July 13, 1859 – April 15, 1919), known affectionately as the Black Arab, was born on the island of Barbados. He was the son of a Scottish sugar planter and a West Indian woman of mixed African and European ancestry. In 1875, he shipped to Boston as a cabin boy, and the next year made his maiden voyage on a whaler. Learning navigation and moving up through the ranks, he came to San Francisco on the whaler Emma F. Herriman in 1878. After only ten years at sea, he became the only African American ship captain on the West Coast. He married Julia Ann Shelton (1886), daughter of one of the leading Black families in San Francisco. They had five children, and he occasionally took his family to sea with him.