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The Oblate Sisters of Providence were the first successful order of Roman Catholic nuns of African descent. The order of Black sisters was established in Kentucky in 1812, encouraged by a Belgian priest, Father Charles Nerinckx. He helped found the Friends of Mary at the Foot of the Cross, which became the Sisters of Loretto, a racially diverse order of sisters. When three young women of African descent graduated from the school, he encouraged them to become postulants. This first community of Black nuns did not survive after his death.

Jacques Hector Nicholas Joubert de la Muraille started an order for Black nuns in Baltimore. With Elizabeth Lange as their mother superior, three women of Haitian descent professed their vows on July 2, 1829. They chose the Blessed Virgin as their patron, with St. Benedict the Moor as their second patron.

The Sisters first operated a small school for Haitian children where French was spoken. This led to the founding of St. Frances Academy, the first Black Catholic School for children in Baltimore.

The Sisters administered to the indigent and those with cholera during an epidemic, but their real work was to teach African American children. The Sisters bought more property, expanded the school, and built a new chapel. It was the first chapel for Black Catholics.

The order fell under the directorship of the Society of Jesus and expanded into other areas in the US, including Philadelphia and New Orleans. In 1871, with the establishment of the Josephites, they assumed the directorship of the Oblates. They continued to aid and expand the Sisters’ work by opening additional schools and orphanages.

Safaree Lloyd Samuels (July 4, 1981) is a rapper. He began his musical career as part of the hip-hop group Hoodstars in the early 2000s alongside rapper Nicki Minaj, with whom he would begin a heavily publicized relationship around the same time. In 2016, he joined the cast of Love & Hip Hop: Hollywood. In 2017, he moved back to his hometown, New York City, and joined the cast of Love & Hip Hop: New York. He joined the casts of Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta and Love & Hip Hop: Miami, making him the only Love & Hip Hop cast member to have worked on all four shows.

He was born to immigrant Jamaican parents in Brooklyn. He has two sisters. He attended Midwood High School.

The group recorded the entrance song for WWE Diva Victoria, “Don’t Mess With”, which was featured on the compilation album ThemeAddict: WWE The Music, Vol 6. After the group disbanded, Minaj started her solo career, and he supported her as a hype man.

Minaj released her second album, Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded, on which he has six writing credits and is featured on the track “Press Conference”.

He released the mixtapes It Is What It Is and It Is What It Is, Vol. 2. In early 2016, he appeared in the second season of K. Michelle: My Life. In May 2016, it was announced that he would join the cast of the third season of VH1’s reality show Love & Hip Hop: Hollywood, which premiered in August 2016. In July 2016, he released a new mixtape titled Real Yard Vibes. In August 2017, it was announced that he would compete in the first season of VH1’s Scared Famous, which premiered in October 2017.

He was honored with a Blue & Bougie Impact Award. In 2019, he debuted his life-size “Anaconda” sex toy line.

Horace Junior Grant Sr. (July 4, 1965) is a former basketball player who is a special advisor for Michael Reinsdorf, the president and chief operating officer of the Chicago Bulls. He played college basketball at Clemson University before playing professionally in the NBA, where he became a four-time champion, winning three championships with the Chicago Bulls and one championship with the Los Angeles Lakers. He is the twin brother of former NBA player Harvey Grant.

He attended Clemson University, where he was a member of Pi Kappa Alpha. He became the first player in ACC history to lead the league in scoring (21.0 average), rebounding (9.6), and field goal shooting (70.8 percent). In 1987, he helped lead Clemson to the NCAA Tournament and was named ACC Player of the Year, becoming the first Clemson player to receive that honor.

He wore goggles because he was legally blind. Still, even after receiving LASIK surgery, he continued wearing them without a prescription to remain a positive influence so kids who needed glasses would think it was cool.

Three of his nephews are basketball players. Jerai Grant played college basketball for Clemson University and plays overseas; Jerian Grant played for the University of Notre Dame Fighting Irish men’s basketball team, plays in Panathinaikos, and was selected as the EuroCup Basketball MVP of the 2022-23 EuroCup Basketball; and Jerami Grant played for the Syracuse University Orange men’s basketball team and plays for the Portland Trail Blazers.

Harvey Grant (July 4, 1965) is a former National Basketball Association basketball player. He is the identical twin brother of Horace Grant, a former NBA player.

He transferred to Oklahoma after a year at Independence Community College and a year at Clemson, where he was with his brother Horace. He was a member of the 1988 Sooner team that reached the National Championship Game, where it lost to Kansas.

Sonia Pierre (July 4, 1963 - December 4, 2011) was born Sloange Pierre in Villa Altagracia, San Cristobal, Dominican Republic. She was one of the most internationally recognized activists working on behalf of the human and civil rights of Haitian immigrants and their Haitian-descended children in the Dominican Republic. She was one of eleven children who grew up in the bateys for sugar workers in the Dominican Republic. She was the mother of four children.

At the age of thirteen, she organized her first five-day rally to protest the poor living conditions in the bateys. She was arrested, but the public attention her actions brought ensured a wage increase for the sugar workers. In 1983, she founded the Movimiento de Mujeres Dominico Haitianas, the Movement of Dominican Women of Haitian Descent. Initially, the organization focused upon women’s health, family planning, and educational opportunity. Later, it expanded to include fighting sexism and anti-Haitian prejudice more broadly. She began to emphasize citizenship rights, both legal and cultural, of Haitian migrants in the Dominican Republic and their children who, according to the constitution, were supposed to be citizens of the country.

Hoping that appealing to the international community would help her cause, in 2005, she initiated a case brought before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights regarding two ethnic Haitian children who had been denied birth certificates in the Dominican Republic. She won the case, but Dominican government authorities refused to accept the ruling and instead enacted harsher laws that invalidated her people’s citizenship rights.

Vice President Epsy Alejandra Campbell Barr (July 4, 1963) born in San José, Costa Rica, is a Costa Rican politician and economist who served as the vice president of Costa Rica (2018-22). She is the first woman of African descent to serve as vice president in Costa Rica and in Latin America.

She began her university studies at the University of Costa Rica and moved to the regional campus of Limón Province, where she studied and worked. She lived in the Caribbean for ten years and returned to San José, where she graduated as an economist from the Latin University of Costa Rica. She earned an MA in Development Cooperation from the Foundation for Cultural and Social Sciences of Spain in 2008. She is a researcher and activist for the rights of women and people of African descent and entered politics because she wanted to become a social activist.

Ralph Johnson (July 4, 1951) is a singer, songwriter, musician, and producer. He is a longstanding member of the band Earth, Wind & Fire.

He successfully auditioned as a drummer for another band. This one was led by a Chicago musician named Maurice White and was called Earth, Wind & Fire. With him in tow, the band went on to achieve monumental commercial and critical success. He was later inducted as a member of Earth, Wind & Fire into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000.

He went on to perform as a percussionist on Blue Magic’s 1978 album Message From The Magic and Stanley Turrentine’s 1981 album Tender Togetherness.

Dr. William Chester Jordan (July 4, 1948) is an author and award-winning historian of medieval Europe. He was born in Chicago to Johnnie Parker Jordan and Marguerite Jane Mays Jordan. He graduated with a BA from Ripon College and earned his Ph.D. from Princeton University. He began teaching at Princeton, where he would spend his entire career.

He published several books on the history of medieval Europe throughout his career. He dedicated his first book, Order and Innovation in the Middle Ages: Essays in Honor of Joseph R. Strayer, to his academic advisor. His second book, Louis IX and the Challenge of the Crusade: A Study in Rulership, examined the life of the French king who fought in two Holy Crusades. He wrote From Servitude to Freedom: Manumission in the Sénonais in the Thirteenth Century. His next book was The French Monarchy and the Jews: From Philip Augustus to the Last Capetians. He wrote Women and Credit in Pre-Industrial and Developing Societies. In 1996, he wrote Northern Europe in the Early Fourteenth Century.

He served as editor-in-chief of the four volumes of The Middle Ages and one volume of The Middle Ages: A Watts Guide for Children. He wrote a collection of essays on Ideology and Royal Power in Medieval: Kingship, Crusades, and the Jews. Other works include Europe in the High Middle Ages (2003), Unceasing Strife, Unending Fear: Jacques de Thérines and the Freedom of the Church in the Age of the Last Capetians, and The Tale of Two Monasteries: Westminster and Saint-Denis in the Thirteenth Century. He was the principal editor of The Capetian Century: 1214-1314.

He became co-editor of two unexpected titles, Human/Animal Boundary: Historical Perspectives and Corrupt Histories. He has served as chairman of the history department at Princeton. He served as president of the Medieval Academy of America and the American Catholic Historical Association. He received several prestigious fellowships, grants, and awards, including the Haskins Medal.

Earl William Billings (July 4, 1945) born in Cleveland, is an actor best known as Rob in the television series What’s Happening!!

Dr. Maceo Crenshaw Dailey, Jr. (July 4, 1943 - October 11, 2015) historian, professor, publisher, and academic administrator, was born in Norfolk to Marguerite L. Britton, a pharmacy clerk, and Maceo C. Dailey, Sr., a steelworker. At six, his family moved to Baltimore.

Earning a BA in History from Towson and Morgan State Colleges. He enrolled at Howard University and wrote the dissertation “Emmett Jay Scott: The Career of a Secondary Black Leader,” a biography of Booker T. Washington’s closest adviser.

His teaching spanned over four decades at Towson High (awarded “Teacher of the Year”), Colby College, Boston College, Brown University, Howard University, Morehouse College, Morgan State University, New York University, Smith College, Spelman College, and as associate professor and the first director of the African American Studies Program at the University of Texas–El Paso.

The Atlanta Historical Society awarded him the “Alex W. Bealer Prize” for “Neither ‘Uncle Tom’ nor ‘Accommodationist’”: Booker T. Washington, Emmett Jay Scott, and Constructionism.” His other essays are in Freedomways, The Langston Hughes Review, The Review of Black Political Economy, Harvard Business History Review, and Dígame! He chaired the Texas Humanities Council. He was a member of the American Historical Association and the Association for the Study of African American Life and History.

Books co-edited/ authored by him include Wheresoever My People Chance to Dwell: Oral Interviews with African American Women of El Paso; Tuneful Tales; When the Saints Go Hobbling In: Emmett Jay Scott and the Booker T. Washington Movement; and African Americans in El Paso. At the time of his death, his long-awaited Scott biography, From Private Secretary to Power Broker: The Life of Emmett Jay Scott, 1873-1957, was under review at a Texas academic press.

Emerson Y. Boozer, Jr. (July 4, 1943) is a former football player who spent his entire career as a running back for the New York Jets in the American Football League and National Football League. In the last year of separate drafts by the AFL and the NFL, he signed with the Jets. He was a member of the Jets team that defeated the NFL’s champion Baltimore Colts, 16–7, in Super Bowl III. He played college football at the Maryland State College.

Despite his proven talent there, football scholarships were not widely offered to the Black star. He excelled at the college level as well, showing open-field ability as a back, along with strength and intensity that exceeded his 5’11 “, 190-pound frame.

Annette Lurain Beard Simmons (July 4, 1943) known as Annette Helton or Annette Sterling, is an R&B and soul singer. She is known for her work with Motown and as an original member of the singing group Martha and the Vandellas. She is known as a member of the singing group The Original Vandellas.

Born in Detroit to Ann and Roger El Wood Beard, she started singing in church choirs at an early age. When she was fourteen, she was discovered by a man named Edward “Pops” Larkins, who was holding auditions for a female group at the local YMCA to complement a male group he had started.

She impressed him with a single note, and she joined friends Rosalind Ashford and Gloria Williams to form the original version of The Del-Phis. The group performed at local get-togethers, high school parties, YMCA benefits, and lawn parties. She did not mind singing background vocals behind Gloria Williams, the group’s original lead singer. Fellow Detroit singer Martha Reeves would replace a departing fourth member.

She graduated from Southeastern High School. With graduation behind them, it was time to consider their options and what the future held seriously.

After changing their name to The Vels, the group recorded for local Motown subsidiaries Mel-O-Dy and Tamla, singing background for local Detroit acts such as The Elgins’ Saundra Mallett. Frustrated by the group’s slow development and sensing a break-up, Williams left the group. She, Martha, and Rosalind sang together on Marvin Gaye’s hits “Stubborn Kind of Fellow”, “Hitch Hike” and “Pride and Joy”.

Motown president Berry Gordy suggested the girls sign a contract as a recording group. With Reeves as the confirmed lead singer, the group was named Vandellas, and the final name was Martha and the Vandellas.

Attorney Floyd Douglas Little (July 4, 1942 – January 1, 2021) was a football player who was a halfback for the Denver Broncos in the American Football League and the National Football League. He played college football for the Syracuse Orangemen, twice earning All-American honors. He was the sixth overall selection of the 1967 NFL/AFL draft, the first common draft. He was the first first-round draft pick to sign with the AFL’s Broncos, where he was known as “the Franchise”. He was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame and the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

He was born in New Haven, Connecticut. He attended Hillhouse High School and the Bordentown Military Institute.

His jersey #44 was retired by the Broncos in his honor and by the Syracuse football program to honor Little, Ernie Davis, Jim Brown, and the eight other players who wore the number. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame. He was inducted into the Denver Broncos Ring of Fame.

He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. The New Haven Athletic Center, billed as the largest scholastic athletics facility in New England, was renamed the Floyd Little Athletic Center. He received his honorary doctorate in Humane Letters from Syracuse University. He was awarded the University of Denver’s Distinguished Alumni Award. He was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Laws as a speaker at DU’s Sturm College of Law’s commencement ceremonies. Syracuse’s football practice facility has a bronze statue of him.

The US entered WWII with a military that was segregated by race and remained segregated until 1948. War Department planners placed White and African American Army personnel in separate units during WWII.

The 332d Fighter Group was constituted on July 4, 1942, and activated on October 13, and was predominantly manned by African American personnel, consisting of the 100th and 301st Fighter Squadrons at Tuskegee Army Air Field. Trained with P-39 Airacobra and P-40 Warhawk aircraft for an extended period as the Army Air Forces were reluctant to deploy African American fighter pilots to an overseas combat theater. The 100th Fighter Squadron predates the 332d Fighter Group, having been formed on February 19, 1942. The 100th conducted advanced fighter training for graduates of the Tuskegee Institute’s primary and basic flight training programs for African American flight cadets at nearby Moton Field. The first class (42-C) of twelve cadets included student officer Captain Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., who served as Commandant of Cadets and began training on July 19, 1941.

After difficulty establishing a core of African American pilots and ground crews and providing training at Tuskegee AAF and First Air Force stations in Michigan, the 332nd Fighter Group deployed to the Twelfth Air Force in the Mediterranean theater by April 1943. The group’s first combat assignment involved attacking enemy units on the strategic volcanic island of Pantelleria in the Mediterranean Sea, to clear the sea lanes for the Allied invasion of Sicily in July 1943. The air assault on the island began on 30 May 1943. The assignment to a predominantly ground attack role prevented the 99th from engaging in air-to-air combat.

Edward “Ed” Bernard (July 4, 1939 - January 23, 2026 ) was an actor known for his roles as Detective Joe Styles on Police Woman, Principal Jim Willis on The White Shadow, and Lieutenant Bill Giles on Hardcastle and McCormick.

He was a television actor. He played Detective Joe Styles in 91 episodes of Police Woman (1974-78). After Police Woman, he portrayed Jim Willis in the television series The White Shadow (1978-80) and Lt. Bill Giles on Hardcastle and McCormick (1984-85).

William “Bill” Harrison Withers Jr. (July 4, 1938 – March 30, 2020) was a singer-songwriter and musician. He recorded several major hits, including “Ain’t No Sunshine” (1971), “Grandma’s Hands” (1971), “Use Me” (1972), “Lean on Me” (1972), “Lovely Day” (1977), and “Just the Two of Us” (1980). He won three Grammy Awards and was nominated for six more. His life was the subject of the 2009 documentary film Still Bill. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2005 and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2015. Two of his songs were inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. He worked as a professional musician for just 15 years (19701-85), after which he moved on to other occupations.

State Senator Dr. Yvonne Bond Miller (July 4, 1934 – July 3, 2012) was a Virginia educator and American politician who became the first African American woman to serve in both houses of the Virginia General Assembly. In 1983, she became the first African American woman elected to the state House of Delegates, where she served for four years before winning election to the state Senate, where she consistently won re-election until she died in office. She taught in the Norfolk Public Schools and taught early childhood education at Norfolk State University.

Born in Edenton, North Carolina, she was the eldest of thirteen children born to John T. and Pency C. Bond. Her family moved to Norfolk, where she attended local public schools that were then segregated under state law.

After graduation, she attended the all-Black Norfolk Division of Virginia State College for two years. She earned a BS from Virginia State College in Petersburg. While in college, she became a lifetime member of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority.

She earned an MA from the Teachers College of Columbia University and a Ph.D. in education from the University of Pittsburgh.