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Pastor Dr. Dharius Morshun Daniels (July 10, 1979) is a cultural architect and trendsetter for his generation. He is the founder and Lead Pastor of Change Church. Change Church is a vibrant ministry that impacts people of all ages, socioeconomic classes, and ethnic backgrounds.

He has developed a Breathtaking Ministry concept that describes the standard of excellence: a standard that is apparent in his commitment not only to ministry but to education. He holds a BA in Political Science from Millsaps College, an M.Div from Princeton Theological Seminary, and a Ph.D. in Ministry from Fuller Theological Seminary. He has a versatile gift and frequently speaks at seminaries and churches across the country.

Chiwetel Umeadi Ejiofor CBE (July 10, 1977) is an actor. He is the recipient of a British Academy Film Award and a Laurence Olivier Award, with nominations for an Academy Award, two Primetime Emmy Awards, and five Golden Globes.

After enrolling at the National Youth Theatre and attending the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, he was cast to play a supporting role in Amistad.

He portrayed the characters Okwe in Dirty Pretty Things, Peter in Love Actually, Lola in Kinky Boots, Victor Sweet in Four Brothers, The Operative in Serenity, Luke in Children of Men, Thabo Mbeki in Endgame, Adrian Helmsley in 2012, Darryl Peabody in Salt, Solomon Northup in 12 Years a Slave, Vincent Kapoor in The Martian, Karl Mordo in Doctor Strange and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and Trywell Kamkwamba in The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind. He voiced Dr. Watson in Sherlock Gnomes, Scar in The Lion King, and featured in Maleficent: Mistress of Evil.

For 12 Years a Slave, he received Academy Award and Golden Globe Award nominations, along with the BAFTA Award for Best Actor. He was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie for his performance on Dancing on the Edge. He played the lead role in The Man Who Fell to Earth.

He was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II for services to the arts. He was elevated to the rank of Commander of the Order of the British Empire.

He was born in the East End of London to Nigerian parents of Igbo descent. His father, Arinze, was a doctor, and his mother, Obiajulu, was a pharmacist. His younger sister, Zain, is a CNN correspondent. His other sister, Kandi, is a GP doctor.

On July 10, 1964, a group of African American men in Jonesboro, Louisiana, led by Earnest “Chilly Willy” Thomas and Frederick Douglas Kirkpatrick, founded the group known as The Deacons for Defense and Justice to protect members of the Congress of Racial Equality from kkk violence. Most of the “Deacons” were veterans of WWII and the Korean War. The Jonesboro chapter organized its first affiliate chapter in nearby Bogalusa, Louisiana, led by Charles Sims, A.Z. Young, and Robert Hicks. They organized a third chapter in Louisiana. The Deacons’ tense confrontation with the Klan in Bogalusa was crucial in forcing the federal government to intervene on behalf of the local African American community. The national attention they garnered persuaded state and national officials to initiate efforts to neutralize the klan in that area of the Deep South.

They emerged as one of the first visible self-defense forces in the South and as such represented a new face of the civil rights movement. Traditional civil rights organizations remained silent on them or repudiated their activities. They were effective, however, in protecting local African Americans who sought to register to vote and for white and Black civil rights workers in the area. They provided security for the 1966 March Against Fear from Memphis to Jackson. Their presence in Southeastern Louisiana meant that the klan would no longer be able to intimidate and terrorize local African Americans without challenge.

The strategy and methods that the Deacons employed attracted the attention and concern of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which authorized an investigation into the group’s activities. The investigation stalled when more influential Black power organizations such as the Black Panther Party emerged after the 1965 Watts Riots.

Christopher Anthony John Martin (July 10, 1962) is an actor and rapper, formerly the latter half of the late 1980s/early 1990s hip-hop/comedy duo Kid ‘n Play.

His stage name, Play, is derived from his original MC name, Playboy, which he began using while in a music group, Quicksilver and the Super Lovers. While performing with this group, he met Christopher Reid, who performed as Kid Coolout in the group The Turnout Brothers. When their respective groups dissolved, he and Reid decided to perform as a duo. Shortening their nicknames would lead to the start of the group Kid ‘n Play, which featured the pair rapping and dancing together.

With Kid, he recorded three albums and starred in four hip-hop-based comedy films: House Party, House Party 2, Class Act, House Party 3, and House Party: Tonight’s the Night.

He became a born-again Christian and focused on Christian hip-hop. He is the founder and CEO of HP4 Digital, a pre-and post-production multimedia company for film, digital media, and theater.

He starred as an undercover DEA agent in the independent film The Return.

He was one of the judges for the 8th annual Independent Music Awards to support independent artists.

He studied acting at HB Studio in New York City.

Roger Timothy Craig (July 10, 1960) is a former football running back in the NFL. He played for the San Francisco 49ers, Los Angeles Raiders, and Minnesota Vikings. He went to four Pro Bowls and won three Super Bowls with the 49ers. He was the first NFL player to have 1,000 yards rushing and receiving in the same season. He works as the VP of Business Development at TIBCO Software.

He graduated from Central High School in Davenport, Iowa. His older brother, Curtis Craig, played running back. In his Senior year, he rushed for 1,565 yards and 27 touchdowns, earning prep All-America honors. In his final high school game, he rushed for 353 yards and 4 touchdowns.

In his senior year, he rushed for 1,565 yards and 27 touchdowns, earning prep All-America honors. In his final high school game, a playoff loss, he rushed for 353 yards and 4 touchdowns. He was an all-around athlete, also competing in wrestling and track. In wrestling, he was an Iowa State Championships qualifier. On the track, he finished 2nd in the Iowa State Track and Field Championships in both the 110 hurdles and the 400 hurdles as a Senior in 1979. He broke the school record in the 110 hurdles. His time of 14.43 in the 110 hurdles is still listed among the All-Time Bests at the Iowa State Track and Field Championships.

He spent several years studying Taekwondo. He is an avid runner and has completed over 38 marathons and half marathons. He was the Grand Marshal for the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Infineon Raceway.

Solomon Kalushi Mahlangu (July 10, 1956 – April 6, 1979) was a freedom fighter, struggle activist, and operative of the African National Congress militant wing, uMkhonto weSizwe. He was convicted of his part in the murder of two people and hanged.

Although often said to have been born in Pretoria, a family spokesperson corrected his birthplace to Doornkop in Mpumalanga.

He is the second of six children. He was raised by his mother, Martha Mahlangu, who worked as a domestic worker, as his father abandoned the family in 1962.

He attended Mamelodi High School up to Standard 9. He was in Standard 8 during the 1976 Soweto uprisings of student-led protests against Bantu Education.

He spent six months in a refugee camp near Xai Xai. He was taken to an African National Congress training camp called “Engineering” in Angola. He was part of a group of MK trainees known as the “June 16 Detachment” for their involvement in the 1976 student protests.

He joined a unit of ten men at Funda Camp who received training in sabotage, military combat, scouting, and politics. His unit traveled to Eswatini, where they were given false-bottom suitcases containing ANC pamphlets, guns, ammunition, and explosives. He and fellow trainees George ‘Lucky’ Mahlangu and Mondy Motaung formed a smaller cell that crossed the border into South Africa and started making their way to Johannesburg to join protests commemorating the June 16 Uprising.

Judge Morris Lee Overstreet (July 10, 1950 - March 3, 2024) was the first African American in Texas state history to be elected to a statewide office and the second to sit on one of the two highest courts in the state, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. He was born in Amarillo, Texas to Nora Odessa Johnson and West Overstreet, Jr. He graduated from Angelo State University, where he studied sociology, biology, and chemistry. He graduated from law school at Texas Southern University. He served as a prosecutor at the District Attorney’s office in Potter County.

He was the First Assistant District Attorney. He worked in private practice and served as Presiding Judge of the Potter County Court. He was elected a court judge.

He was elected to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the state’s highest criminal appellate court. Many of these decisions influenced subsequent decisions of the SCOTUS, including the banning of the execution of people with mental illnesses and people under the age of 18.

He returned to the Thurgood Marshall School of Law at Texas Southern University as the Distinguished Visiting Professor of Law. He worked at Texas Southern University as the Director and as a Professor of Evidence and Criminal Procedure for the Marshall Law School’s Legal Clinic. He taught legal education classes across the country for County Judges, Justices of the Peace, local bar associations, and the National Bar Association.

He was a member of the State Bar of Texas Judicial Section, the North Amarillo Political Action Committee, and the Texas Coalition of Black Democrats. He served on the boards of directors of the YMCA, Big Brothers Big Sisters, the Amarillo Rape Crisis Center, and the Mental Health/Mental Retardation Center for Potter County. He was a lifetime member of the NAACP, the National Bar Association, the American Bar Association, the Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity, and Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity.

Ronald Earle Glass (July 10, 1945 – November 25, 2016) was an actor. He was known for his roles as literary Det. Ron Harris in Barney Miller, and as the spiritual Shepherd Derrial Book in the science-fiction series Firefly and its sequel Serenity.

He was born in Evansville, Indiana, the son of Lethia and Crump Glass. After graduating from St. Francis Seminary, he attended the University of Evansville, where he received a BA, double majoring in Drama and Literature. The university awarded him its Medal of Honor. He said he knew while he was in college that he wanted to act. With a teacher’s encouragement, he performed in a play and went on to an acting career.

He made his stage debut at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, before moving to Hollywood. His earliest TV appearances include episodes of Sanford and Son, Hawaii Five-O, Maude, All in the Family, The Bob Newhart Show, and Good Times. He landed the role of Det. Ron Harris in Barney Miller (1982-75).

He co-starred in a remake of The Odd Couple, called The New Odd Couple. He played a mathematics professor in an episode of the revived Twilight Zone series. He co-starred in Rhythm and Blues. He was cast as uptight history teacher Roland Felcher in Mr. Rhodes. He appeared in two episodes of Friends as Ross Geller’s divorce lawyer, Russell.

First Lieutenant Arthur Robert Ashe Jr. (July 10, 1943 – February 6, 1993) was a tennis player who won three Grand Slam singles titles.

He was born in Richmond, Virginia to Arthur Ashe Sr. and Mattie Cordell Cunningham Ashe. He had a brother who was five years younger than him.

He became the first African American to win the National Junior Indoor tennis title and was awarded a tennis scholarship to UCLA.

After graduating with a BA in Business Administration from UCLA, he joined the Army. He completed his basic training in Washington and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Adjutant General Corps. He was assigned to the United States Military Academy at West Point, where he worked as a data processor. He headed the academy’s tennis program. He was discharged from the Army as a 1st Lieutenant. He was awarded the National Defense Service Medal for his service. He served 2 years.

He was the first African American player selected for the US Davis Cup team and the only African American man ever to win singles titles at Wimbledon, the US Open, and the Australian Open. He retired in 1980. He was ranked world #1 by Harry Hopman in 1968 and by Lance Tingay of The Daily Telegraph and World Tennis Magazine in 1975. In the ATP computer rankings, he peaked at #2 in May 1976.

He is believed to have contracted HIV from a blood transfusion he received during heart bypass surgery. He publicly announced his illness in April 1992 and began working to educate others about HIV and AIDS. He founded the Arthur Ashe Foundation for the Defeat of AIDS and the Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health before his death from AIDS-related pneumonia.

He married photographer and graphic artist Jeanne Moutoussamy (1977). They adopted a daughter.

Mavis Staples (July 10, 1939) is a rhythm and blues and gospel singer and civil rights activist. She rose to fame as a member of her family’s band, The Staple Singers, of which she is the last surviving member. During her time in the group, she recorded the hit singles “I’ll Take You There” and “Let’s Do It Again”. In 1969, she released her self-titled debut solo album.

She was born in Chicago. She began her career with her family group in 1950. Initially singing locally at churches and appearing on a weekly radio show, the Staples scored a hit in 1956 with “Uncloudy Day” for the Vee-Jay label. When she graduated from High School, the Staple Singers took their music on the road. Led by family patriarch Roebuck “Pops” Staples on guitar and including the voices of her and siblings Cleotha, Yvonne, and Pervis, the Staples were called “God’s Greatest Hitmakers”.

She continued to release solo albums throughout the following decades and collaborated with artists such as Aretha Franklin, Prince, Arcade Fire, Nona Hendryx, Ry Cooder, and David Byrne. Her eighth studio album, You Are Not Alone (2010), earned critical acclaim and became her first album as a soloist to reach #1 on a Billboard chart, peaking atop the Top Gospel Albums chart. It earned her her first Grammy Award win. She released the albums One True Vine (2013), Livin’ on a High Note (2016), If All I Was Was Black (2017), and We Get By (2019); she is featured on the single “Nina Cried Power” by Hozier.

She is the recipient of the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and has won three Grammy Awards, including one for Album of the Year as a featured artist on Jon Batiste’s We Are. Named one of the ‘100 Greatest Singers of All Time by Rolling Stone in 2008; she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 2018 as a member of The Staple Singers. She was made a Kennedy Center Honoree in 2016. She was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame as a soloist. In 2019, she received the inaugural Rock Hall Honors Award from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a soloist.

Dr. Horatio Viscount “Berky” Nelson (July 10, 1939 - October 5, 2015) was a scholar of African American political history, particularly class dynamics in the modern Black community. His first major work, The Rise and Fall of Modern Black Leadership, was a searing critique of the inability of twentieth-century Black leaders to fully explicate the truly horrific conditions facing the Black underclass. His work argues that the social conditions of poverty, high rates of incarceration, and deteriorating family structure needed leaders who devised strategies that would ameliorate these conditions. He listed the many leaders who developed those strategies and those who, in his opinion, did not.

He examined the class dilemma of African Americans in his second major work, Black Leadership’s Response to the Great Depression in Philadelphia. Here he analyzed the symbiotic relationship between the Black educated class and the Black proletariat.

His last work continued his interests in the Black dispossessed. This monograph, Sharecropping, Ghetto, and Slum: A History of Impoverished Blacks in Twentieth-Century America, was written as he battled terminal cancer and thus became his final gift to the historical study of the Black underclass.

General Bernard Peter Randolph (July 10, 1933 - January 4, 2021) was born to Phillip J. Randolph and Claudia Randolph in New Orleans. He attended Xavier University of Louisiana, where he graduated with a BS in Chemistry. He earned a BS and an MS in Electrical Engineering from the University of North Dakota.

He enlisted in the Air Force. He did not intend to make a career of his time in the Air Force, but he saw the value of staying in the military. He became a Second Lieutenant (1955) and a First Lieutenant (1957).

He attended Squadron Officer School at Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama. He attended Air Staff and Command College while earning an MBA from Auburn University. He went to Air War College. His aviation cadet training was at Ellington Air Force Base and Mather Air Force Base.

His first assignment was with Strategic Air Command, where he became a Captain (1960). He had been one of the select crew responsible for KC-97 and B-47 flights. He became the Chief of On-Orbit Operations at Los Angeles Air Force Station and was promoted to Assistant Deputy Program Director for Launch and Orbital Operations.

He was an airlift operations officer in South Vietnam. He was responsible for the airlift control elements there. He received the Vietnam Service Medal, the Republic of Vietnam Gallantry Cross, and the Vietnam Campaign Medal.

He became a Colonel in 1975. He became the commander of Air Force Systems Command. In this position, he was responsible for a third of the Air Force’s annual budget. He was promoted to a General (1987).

He retired in 1990. He was inducted into the University of North Dakota Engineering Alumni Academy.

Mayor Richard Gordon Hatcher (July 10, 1933 – December 13, 2019) was a politician who served as the first African American mayor of Gary (1968-88). At the time of his first election on November 7, 1967, he and Carl Stokes were the first African Americans to be elected mayors of US cities with more than 100,000 people. He served as Vice-Chairman of the DNC.

He was born in Michigan City, Indiana. He received a BS in Business and Government from Indiana University, an LLB with honors in Criminal Law, and a JD from Valparaiso University School of Law. He began practicing law in East Chicago. He began serving as a deputy prosecutor for Lake County until he was elected to the Gary City Council. He was the first and the only freshman elected president of the City Council in Gary’s history.

He became internationally known as a fervent and prolific civil rights spokesman. He was known for developing innovative approaches to urban problems and for serving as a national and international spokesman for civil rights, minorities, people with low incomes, and Americans experiencing poverty. He often delivered speeches alongside Martin Luther King, Robert F. Kennedy, Jesse Jackson, and other historic proponents of the civil rights movement. On April 5, 1968, he addressed President Lyndon B. Johnson, along with a group of politicians and civil rights leaders, about King’s assassination the night before and the impending civil unrest.

Mayor David Norman Dinkins (July 10, 1927 - November 24, 2020) was a politician, lawyer, and author who served as the 106th Mayor of New York City. He was the first African American to hold that office.

He was born in Trenton, New Jersey to Sarah “Sally” Lucy Dinkins, a domestic worker, and William Harvey Dinkins Jr., a barber and real estate agent. His parents separated when he was six years old, after which his father raised him. He moved to Harlem as a child before returning to Trenton. He attended Trenton Central High School, where he graduated.

Before entering politics, he was among the more than 20,000 Montford Point Marines, the first African-American Marines. He graduated cum laude from Howard University, and he received his JD from Brooklyn Law School.

He began his political career by serving in the State Assembly (1966), advancing to Manhattan borough president before becoming mayor. Under his administration, crime in New York City decreased more dramatically and rapidly than at any time in the city’s history.

He joined the faculty of Columbia University. He was a member of the board of directors of the US Tennis Association and a member of the Jazz Foundation of America. He served on the boards of the New York City Global Partners, the Children’s Health Fund, the Association to Benefit Children, and the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund. He was on the advisory board of Independent News & Media and the Black Leadership Forum; was a member of the Council on Foreign Relations; and was chairman emeritus of the board of directors of the National Black Leadership Commission on AIDS.

The Longview Race Riot occurred on July 10-12, 1919, in Longview, Texas. Local teacher and newspaper correspondent Samuel L. Jones and Dr. Calvin P. Davis began encouraging Black farmers to avoid selling to white cotton brokers. Blacks set up a cooperative store where they competed and angered local white merchants.

In early June, Lemuel Walters was beaten by two white men for allegedly making romantic advances towards their sister. Walters was arrested and put in the Gregg County jail, but a mob showed up at the jail on June 17, and the sheriff gave him to the mob, who shot and killed him. The story was printed in the Chicago Defender and enraged whites, who blamed him for the article; he denied writing it.

He was attacked and beaten by the same men who beat Walters. Davis arrived in his vehicle and took Jones to his office for treatment. The two men appealed to the Mayor for protection but were instead advised to leave town. He hid with relatives, and they gathered twenty-five friends to protect his home. A group of white men arrived at his house but were met with gunfire. Three of the white men were injured, and the Black defenders of the home beat another who hid under a house.

A crowd of almost 1,000 whites began to gather back in town, with some breaking into Welch’s Hardware Store. The crowd burned down Jones’s and Davis’s home and office, and a Black dance hall. The governor sent eight Texas Rangers. On the night of July 12, Marion Bush, father-in-law of Davis, was killed by a local white farmer. On Sunday, July 13, the governor declared martial law and ordered all residents to surrender their weapons. An estimated 5,000 to 7,000 weapons were turned in, and more soldiers and Rangers arrived.

Congressman Frank Catchings Holoman (July 10, 1934 - May 22, 2012) was born in McCaskill, Arkansas. A one-term Democrat from Los Angeles and a graduate of Washburn University, he was a former staff member to Assembly Speaker Jesse M. Unruh. His legislative agenda focused on improving urban communities and supporting African American businesses. He served as Chair of the Black Caucus of Southern California. One of his legislative achievements was introducing the bill to declare a state holiday on the January 15 birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Despite majoring in business, he sought jobs in the public sector, where he faced obstacles, mostly related to race. He began serving as an administrative assistant to State Assemblymember Jesse Unruh. He was elected to the California Assembly in 1972 and served until 1974, losing his second term. He was still determined to serve, however, a perpetual advocate for urban improvement.

Born of that determination were his Black Achievers publication and, more significantly, his first Boulevard Café, opened in 1985. Politicians, celebrities, and regular Joes frequented the restaurant, enjoying soul food as well as the latest community news. The café was his vantage point, so to speak. From it, he got a lucid view of what was happening to Blacks in Los Angeles and other poverty-stricken areas across the US.

Charles Melvin “Cootie” Williams (July 10, 1911 – September 15, 1985) was a jazz, jump blues, and rhythm and blues trumpeter.

He began his professional career at the age of fourteen with the Young Family band, which included saxophonist Lester Young. He acquired his nickname as a boy when his father took him to a band concert. When it was over, his father asked him what he’d heard, and he replied, “Cootie, cootie, cootie.”