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Victor Edward Willis (July 1, 1951) is a singer, songwriter, and actor. He is known as the founding member of the disco group Village People and as lead singer and co-songwriter for all of their most successful singles. In the group, he performed in costumes as a policeman or a naval officer.

The son of a Baptist preacher, he developed his singing skills in his father’s church. With training in acting and dance, he went to New York and joined the prestigious Negro Ensemble Company. He appeared in many musicals and plays, including the original Broadway production of The Wiz in 1976 and the Australian production.

He had written and recorded several albums in the mid-1970s for independent labels and was eventually introduced to French disco producer Jacques Morali. Morali, who dubbed him the “young man with the big voice”, approached him and said, “I had a dream that you sang lead vocals on my album, and it went very, very big”.

Shirley Ann Hemphill (July 1, 1947 – December 10, 1999) was a stand-up comedian and actress.

A native of Asheville, North Carolina, she moved to Los Angeles in the 1970s to pursue a career as a stand-up comedian. After working the Los Angeles comedy club circuit, her routine attracted attention, leading to guest-starring roles on television. In 1976, she landed the role of brassy waitress Shirley Wilson on What’s Happening!!. She was cast in One in a Million.

In 1985, she reprised her role as Shirley Wilson in the syndicated revival of What’s Happening!! Titled What’s Happening Now!! She returned to stand-up comedy and made occasional appearances in films and television until her death.

She attended Hill Street School and Stephens-Lee High School and won an athletics scholarship to Morristown College, where she majored in Physical Education.

She sent a cassette tape of one of her comedy routines to Flip Wilson. He was impressed by her routine and, in turn, sent her a cassette recorder and a dozen roses. He invited her to visit the set of The Flip Wilson Show. She returned to her job in Asheville but decided to pursue a comedy career instead. She quit her job and traveled to Los Angeles by bus. She worked as a waitress during the day and performed at The Comedy Store at night.

She had a guest role on Good Times, which led to another guest-starring role on All’s Fair after the show saw her performance.

She spent most of the early 1980s working in nightclubs around the US and doing the occasional guest appearance on TV shows, including The Love Boat, Trapper John, M.D., Martin, and The Wayans Bros. She appeared in her first movie, CB4. She co-starred in her second movie, Shoot the Moon.

Ambassador Mattie Raye Sharpless (July 1, 1943) retired in January 2006 after 41 years working for the Foreign Agricultural Service, US Department of Agriculture. When she retired, she attained the rank of Ambassador and retired from the US Foreign Service. From July 2003 to January 2006, she served as Special Adviser to USDA’s Deputy Under Secretary of Farm and Foreign Agricultural Affairs. From 2001–2003, she was US Ambassador to the Central African Republic.

When she was nominated as Ambassador to the Central African Republic, Sharpless was Acting Administrator of the Foreign Agricultural Service.

Sandra Elaine Crouch (July 1, 1942 – March 17, 2024) was a gospel music performer, drummer, and songwriter.

She won a Grammy Award in 1984 for “Best Soul Gospel Performance, Female” for the 1983 album We Sing Praises and was nominated for a Grammy in 1986 in the category “Best Soul Gospel Performance, Duo, Group, Chorus or Choir” (co-nominee Jean Johnson) for the song “Completely Yes” from the 1985 album We’re Waiting. During the late 1960s through the early 1970s, she played the tambourine on several Motown recording sessions in Los Angeles, including the Jackson 5 hits “I Want You Back” and “ABC.”

Andrae Edward Crouch (July 1, 1942 – January 8, 2015) was a gospel singer, songwriter, arranger, record producer, and pastor. Referred to as “the father of modern gospel music” by contemporary Christian and gospel music professionals, He was known for his compositions “The Blood Will Never Lose Its Power”, “My Tribute”, and “Soon and Very Soon”. He collaborated on some of his recordings with artists such as Stevie Wonder, El DeBarge, Philip Bailey, Chaka Khan, Sheila E., and the vocal group Take 6, and many recording artists covered his material, including Bob Dylan, Barbara Mandrell, Paul Simon, Elvis Presley, and Little Richard. He was known as the “go-to” producer for superstars who sought a gospel choir sound in their recordings, appearing on several recordings, including Michael Jackson’s “Man in the Mirror”, Madonna’s “Like a Prayer”, and “The Power”, a duet between Elton John and Little Richard. He was noted for his talent for incorporating contemporary secular music styles into the gospel music he grew up with. His efforts in this area helped pave the way for early American contemporary Christian music during the 1960s and 1970s.

Wallace “Wally” Amos, Jr. (July 1, 1936 - August 13, 2024) was the first African American talent agent with the William Morris Agency. He represented major music legends like Diana Ross & the Supremes, Marvin Gaye, Sam Cooke, and Simon & Garfunkel. To attract clients, he sent them homemade cookies using a famous family recipe.

He was born in Tallahassee. He lived with his aunt, Della Bryant, who raised him. It was Aunt Della who brought the famous chocolate chip and pecan cookie recipe to life. He appreciated the art of baking and attended a vocational high school for culinary arts for 2 years. That experience was followed by four years in the Air Force. He returned to New York City, where he found work in the mailroom at William Morris.

He was promoted to the head of the agency’s Rock n ‘Roll department. He felt the need to move to Los Angeles to spread his wings in the industry under his company. He was equipped with business savvy to make his personal management company thrive.

He switched his focus to his love of baking cookies. He wanted his family recipe to go public. With the help of the same music artists he helped make famous, he opened Famous Amos Cookies with a $25,000 investment. The brand grew; he opened several key locations, and Bloomingdale's picked it up. His lack of business management skills led to the continuous sale of Famous Amos. His brand name diminished after he sold Famous Amos to the Shansby Group. He attempted to start the Chip & Cookie company using his famous recipe but was sued by Shansby. He tried again with Uncle Noname Cookies.

Keebler purchased Famous Amos. They brought the cookie maker back as the face and spokesperson of the Famous Amos brand. He moved to Kailua, Hawaii, where he continued to sell the Chip & Cookie cookie brand in a Hawaiian storefront, along with his line of Uncle Wally’s Family of Muffins, which are shipped to over 5,000 stores in the US. He works as a motivational speaker and spokesman for Literacy Volunteers of America.

William Henderson Graham (July 1, 1935 – April 4, 1997) was a comics artist known for his work on the Marvel Comics series Luke Cage, Hero for Hire, and the Jungle Action feature “Black Panther”.

A graduate of New York City’s Music & Art High School, he was influenced artistically by the work of Al Williamson, Frank Frazetta, Burne Hogarth, and George Tuska.

One of his earliest comics projects was illustrating “Death Boat!” in Vampirella #1, one of Warren Publishing’s influential Black-and-white horror-comics magazines. He would pencil and self-ink a story in nearly every one of the first dozen issues of Vampirella, and an additional tale in issue #32 of its brethren’s publication Creepy.

He left Warren and joined the creative team that launched Marvel’s Luke Cage, Hero for Hire, inking the premiere issue (June 1972). He either inked or penciled every issue of the book’s 16–issue run under its original title, and the first as the retitled Luke Cage, Power Man (Feb. 1974). He is credited as a co-writer of issues #14- 15.

He collaborated on the critically lauded “Black Panther” series that ran in Jungle Action numbers 6–24 (Sept. 1973–Nov. 1976), becoming the series’ regular penciler with issue number 11 (Sept. 1974) and leaving after penciling the first five pages of issue 22 (July 1976). In 2010, Comics Bulletin ranked McGregor and his run on Jungle Action third on its list of the “Top 10 1970s Marvels”.

He illustrated issues 3–9 of the Eclipse Comics series Sabre, a spin-off of one of the first graphic novels. He illustrated a story each by McGregor in Marvel’s Black-and-white horror-comics magazine Monsters Unleashed 11, an issue of the 1980s anthology Eclipse Monthly; and two issues of the black-and-white Eclipse Magazine. He was both the writer and artist of the six-page story “The Hitchhiker” in Eclipse Magazine 5.

Deacon Ann George Atwater (July 1, 1935 – June 20, 2016) is known for her work in civil rights and her friendship with kkk leader C.P. Ellis. She was born in Hillsboro, North Carolina. She worked on nearby white-owned farms to help support the family.

She married French Wilson (1949); they moved to Durham. He worked for the Venable Tobacco Company, while she worked as a maid in white homes. He deserted her, leaving her to raise their two children.

She became involved with Operation Breakthrough, a local anti-poverty program in Durham. Howard Fuller wanted her to join the program after seeing the dilapidated conditions of her house. They went to her landlord and demanded that repairs be done, and he agreed. She became an advocate for better housing and an expert on Durham’s housing policies. She provided the support the poor people of Durham needed to stand up for the adequate housing they deserved.

The Durham City Council invited her to co-chair a 10-day event called “Save Our Schools.” It was at this meeting that she met klansman C.P. Ellis. He was an outspoken advocate for impoverished whites in the Durham community. When it was first revealed that the two would be working on the event together, neither one of them wanted anything to do with the other. Over time, the major differences between the two seemed to disappear.

Robert James “Bobby” Day (July 1, 1930 - July 27, 1990) a rock and Roll and R&B singer/songwriter/producer and multi-instrumentalist, was known for his only major hit, “Rockin’ Robin”. In 1958, the single, written by Leon Rene under the pseudonym Jimmie Thomas, reached #1 on the R&B chart, #2 on the Billboard Hot 100, and sold over 1 million copies.

He was born in Fort Worth. His mother was Julie Jennings. He moved to Los Angeles at age 15 and began performing with the Hollywood Flames at Otis’s Barrelhouse Club in Watts.

He made his first recording, “Young Girl,” with the Hollywood Flames. The song was released in 1950. He had minor music success as the lead singer of the Hollywood Flames, performing under the stage name of Bobby Day. Their hit song “Buzz, Buzz, Buzz,” which he wrote, reached #11 on the R&B charts. He formed his group, the Satellites, which backed him on “Little Bitty Pretty One”. He and Earl Nelson performed as the duo Bob and Earl. He and Earl recorded “Gee Whiz” and “Harlem Shuffle” under his real name, Robert Bryd.

He wrote and recorded “Little Bitty Pretty One,” but it was made popular by Thurston Harris, whose version hit number 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The single was recorded by Frankie Lymon, followed by Clyde McPhatter. The Jackson Five recorded the song, which reached number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and 2 on the Billboard R&B chart. He wrote and recorded “Over and Over,” which climbed to 40 on the pop chart. He wrote and recorded “The Bluebird, The Buzzard, and the Oriole,” and “That’s All I Want”. He recorded on several record labels including Rendezvous, RCA, Sure-Shot, and Jama Records.

He appeared on several variety shows in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, including American Bandstand and The Midnight Special.

Ambassador Arthur Winston Lewis (July 1, 1926 - January 10, 2019) was a career foreign officer who served in diplomatic missions in Eastern Europe and Africa before retiring in 1987. He played a significant role in expanding opportunities for racial and ethnic minorities in the American diplomatic corps.

A student at Dartmouth College, he enlisted in the Navy (1943-66). He returned to Dartmouth to work with the NROTC and teach Naval Science while still on active duty. He completed a BA and MA in Government from Dartmouth.

He joined the United States Information Agency. With the support of the Ford Foundation, he created an expanded minority recruitment program for the USIA, targeting African American, Latino, and Native Americans enrolled in universities around the nation.

He began foreign service in 1969 when USIA assigned him to the US Embassy in Bucharest, Romania.

His primary foreign policy interest lay in Africa. He served as a cultural affairs officer at the Embassy in Lusaka, Zambia. He was sent to Ethiopia, which would soon be engulfed in a civil war. Expanding violence between military leaders and rebel forces meant that he could not effectively organize cultural programs but instead focused on promoting Western engagement and providing aid when possible.

He was sent to Lagos, where he continued his work for the USIA until he was appointed the agency’s Director of African Affairs. President Ronald Reagan nominated him as Ambassador to Sierra Leone.

Lieutenant Governor George Leslie Brown (July 1, 1926 – March 31, 2006) was a politician. He served in the Colorado Senate (1955-74) and as the 40th Lieutenant Governor of Colorado (1975-79). He was a senior vice president with Grumman Corporation. During WWII, he served as a Tuskegee Airman. He was one of the first two African American lieutenant governors since Reconstruction and the first outside any Southern state.

Growing up on a farm in Kansas, he was a star athlete in basketball, football, and track before graduating from Lawrence Liberty Memorial High School. He graduated from the University of Kansas with a BS in journalism. He did graduate work at Harvard Business School, the University of Colorado, and the University of Denver.

He worked as a writer and editor for The Denver Post and hosted his Denver radio talk show. He was the first African American editor to work for a major daily newspaper in the Rocky Mountain region. He served as the assistant executive director for Denver’s Public Housing Program and taught at the University of Colorado and the University of Denver.

In 1956, he made history by being elected to the Colorado State Senate. He served as a state senator for eighteen years and was re-elected to five consecutive four-year terms. In the middle of his fifth Senate term, he was elected Lieutenant Governor of Colorado.

Pastor Curtis West Harris (July 1, 1924 – December 10, 2017) was a minister, civil rights activist, and politician in Virginia. He moved to Hopewell, Virginia, with his family. He married Ruth Jones (1946-2011), and they had six children.

He was president of the Hopewell chapter of the NAACP. He was arrested and sentenced to 60 days in jail for his role in a sit-in staged at segregated George’s Drugstore. He initiated a protest against the city’s segregated swimming pool. He led a peaceful demonstration to dissuade the city from building a landfill in Rosedale. He was arrested 13 times for civil disobedience during his years of involvement in the Civil Rights Movement and received death threats, as well as an effort to firebomb his home.

He helped to organize the Hopewell Improvement Association and was elected Vice President. He was named to the Board of Directors of the National SCLC. He was cited for contempt by the Boatwright Committee of the Virginia General Assembly for failing to disclose the names of individuals associated with the SCLC and for refusing to answer the committee’s questions. Dr. King, along with more than 100 Virginia ministers and laypeople, accompanied him to his contempt trial. He worked with Dr. King on multiple civil rights initiatives, including the March on Washington and the Selma to Montgomery March. He served as president of the Virginia State Unit of SCLC and was elected the National SCLC Vice President. He was appointed to the Virginia Advisory Committee of the US Commission on Civil Rights. He led a march against discrimination in Colonial Heights, Virginia. He filed a racial discrimination complaint against the Fort Lee Army Base. He became Hopewell’s first Black mayor. He demonstrated against a proposed ethanol plant being built in Hopewell.

William James Dixon (July 1, 1915 – January 29, 1992) was a blues musician, vocalist, songwriter, arranger, and record producer. He was proficient on both the upright bass and the guitar and sang with a distinctive voice, but he is best known as one of the most prolific songwriters of his time. Next to Muddy Waters, is recognized as the most influential person in shaping the post–WWII sound of the Chicago blues.

His songs have been recorded by countless musicians in many genres as well as by various ensembles in which he participated. A shortlist of his most famous compositions includes “Hoochie Coochie Man”, “I Just Want to Make Love to You”, “Little Red Rooster”, “My Babe”, “Spoonful”, and “You Can’t Judge a Book by the Cover”. These songs were written during the peak years of Chess Records, from 1950 to 1965, and were performed by Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Little Walter, and Bo Diddley; they influenced a generation of musicians worldwide.

He was an important link between the blues and rock and roll, working with Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley in the late 1950s. Numerous rock artists have adapted his songs; Jeff Beck, Canned Heat, Cream, the Doors, Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones, and Steppenwolf all featured at least one of his songs on their debut albums.

Attorney George Edward Chalmer Hayes (July 1, 1894 - December 20, 1968) one of the attorneys in the 1954 Brown Decision, was born in Richmond, Virginia. His father was attorney James H. Hayes. He earned his BA at Brown University and his JD at Howard University School of Law. After working in private practice, he became a professor at the Howard Law School. He was chosen as the university’s first legal advisor.

He worked with Charles Hamilton Houston, who was vice-dean of the Howard Law School.

As a member of the DC Board of Education, he campaigned tirelessly to desegregate the city’s schools and collaborated with NAACP lawyers who were mounting desegregation battles in other states. These efforts, along with the Brown case in 1954, convinced the SCOTUS that segregation in public schools was unconstitutional.

In 1954, he led a successful defense of Annie Moss, a civilian employee of the Army Signal Corps, whom Joseph R. McCarthy accused of being a communist. He criticized the senator’s investigative methods and the presumption of Moss’s guilt. Moss was eventually cleared of the charges, and the Secretary of Defense restored her position.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower appointed him as the first African American member of the DC Public Utilities Commission. The appointment made him the highest-ranking African American in the DC government and the first African American in nearly one hundred years to serve in a municipal agency in the district.

Walter Francis White (July 1, 1893 – March 21, 1955) was a civil rights activist who led the NAACP for almost a quarter of a century (1929–55) after joining the organization as an investigator in 1918. He directed a broad program of legal challenges to racial segregation and disfranchisement. He was a journalist, novelist, and essayist. He graduated from Atlanta University.

He joined the small national staff of the NAACP in New York at the invitation of James Weldon Johnson. He acted as Johnson’s assistant national secretary and traveled to the South to investigate lynchings and riots. Of multiracial, majority-white ancestry, at times he passed as white to facilitate his investigations and protect himself in intense situations. He succeeded Johnson as the head of the NAACP. He joined the Advisory Council for the Government of the Virgin Islands in 1934. He resigned in 1935 to protest President Roosevelt’s silence at Southern Democrats’ blocking of anti-lynching legislation to avoid retaliatory obstruction of his New Deal policies.

William Franklin Walker (July 1, 1896 – January 27, 1992) was a television and film actor. He is remembered for his role as Reverend Sykes in To Kill a Mockingbird. He was born in Pendleton, Indiana. The son of a freed enslaved person, he was the first African American graduate of Pendleton High School. He pursued an acting career and made his first film appearance as a bit player in The Killers. He went on to appear in more than 100 films and television shows, although the industry limited him to roles as a domestic servant.

As the racial climate in Hollywood began to improve in the 1940s, he graduated to portraying a wider variety of characters, including doctors and diplomats. He moved on to directing and producing films. To ensure other African American actors obtained roles that portrayed the race in a true light, he became a civil rights activist.

He was elected to the Screen Actors Guild Board of Directors, where he served until 1971. At the Guild’s annual meeting in 1952, he presented a report from the Negro Employment Committee on problems encountered by African American actors in Hollywood. He and actor Ronald Reagan gave the presentation before the Screen Producers Guild meeting at the 20th Century Fox Studio. The report titled “More and Better Roles for Negroes in Motion Pictures” caused quite a stir among actors and other segments of the Hollywood film industry. No significant improvements in casting occurred after the report; he continued to lobby Hollywood studio executives. He partnered with the NAACP, which negotiated for the SAG’s Theatrical Agreement to include a non-discrimination clause.