Untitled

LaKeith Lee Stanfield (August 12, 1991) sometimes credited as Keith Stanfield, is an actor and musician. He made his feature film debut in the independent drama Short Term 12, an adaptation of the short film in which he had appeared, for which he was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award. He received further recognition for his roles in numerous biopics, including Selma, Straight Outta Compton, Snowden, Get Out, The Book of Clarence, The Harder They Fall, and Judas and the Black Messiah, for which he earned an Academy Award nomination.

Affion Crockett (August 12, 1974) is an actor and comedian.

He was raised in Germany and Fayetteville, North Carolina, and is a Trinbagonian.

He appeared on Def Comedy Jam in 1996, demonstrating his impressions and physical comedy. He was a cast member of the game show Wild ‘n Out, starring Nick Cannon. He has appeared on Curb Your Enthusiasm and Black-ish. He has co-starred in the films A Haunted House 1 & 2 with Marlon Wayans, Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins with Martin Lawrence, Soul Men with Samuel L. Jackson and Bernie Mac, The Wedding Ringer with Kevin Hart and Josh Gad, and Pixels with Adam Sandler. In 2016, he was a contestant on Season 3, episode 18 of the game show Idiotest, playing for charity.

He starred in and produced his sketch comedy show for Fox titled In the Flow with Affion Crockett, which was executive-produced by Jamie Foxx. He wrote, produced, and rapped on his debut comedy album, Watch the Clone.

Yvette Nicole Brown (August 12, 1971) is an actress, comedian, writer, and host. She starred as Shirley Bennett on Community, as Dani in The Odd Couple, and as Dina Rose on The Mayor. She has had guest roles in many television shows, including Drake & Josh, That ‘70s Show, The Office, Boston Legal, Chuck, The Soul Man, Mom, and Big Shot. She received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for her role in A Black Lady Sketch Show.

She has had supporting roles in films such as (500) Days of Summer, Tropic Thunder, Repo Men, Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters, and Avengers: Endgame. She voiced Harper in the video game Minecraft: Story Mode, Cookie on Pound Puppies, Luna on Elena of Avalor, and Principal Amanda Waller in DC Super Hero Girls. She has hosted Cosplay Melee and has been a couch guest on Talking Dead. She has served as a guest co-host on talk shows including The View, The Talk, and The Real.

She was born in East Cleveland. She graduated from the University of Akron with her BA in communication. She was selected for initiation into Omicron Delta Kappa, the National Leadership Honors Society, and initiated into the Delta Pi chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority. She took acting classes in Hollywood.

She appeared as “Yvette” in the music video “1-4-All-4-1” by the East Coast Family. She appeared in commercials before entering television shows and films. She has since played roles on television shows such as The War at Home, Girlfriends, Malcolm in the Middle, That’s So Raven, Half & Half, and the American version of The Office. She had a recurring role as movie theater manager Helen Dubois in Drake & Josh. She provided the voice of Cookie on The Hub’s Pound Puppies.

She has appeared in television commercials for Hamburger Helper, Big Lots, Pine-Sol, Comcast, Aquapod, Shout, Fiber One, Yoplait Yogurt, DiGiorno Pizza, Dairy Queen, and Time Warner. She has appeared on episodes of The Thrilling Adventure Hour as “The Troubleshooter” in the Sparks Nevada, Marshall on Mars series.

Melvin Farr Jr. (August 12, 1966) is a former professional football player who was a running back for one season for the Los Angeles Rams. He attended and played college football for the UCLA Bruins. He was selected 248th overall by the Denver Broncos in the ninth round of the 1988 NFL draft.

He is part of A family full of professional football players. He is the son of former NFL player Mel Farr, the nephew of former AFL and NFL player Miller Farr, and the older brother of former NFL player Mike Farr.

Dr. Lisa DeNell Cook (August 12, 1964) is a Professor of Economics and International Relations at Michigan State University. She was the first Marshall Scholar from Spelman College and received a BA in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics from Oxford University. She earned a Ph.D. in economics from UC Berkeley with a focus on macroeconomics and international economics. She was on the faculty of Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, Deputy Director for Africa Research at Harvard University, and a National Fellow at Stanford University. She is a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and is the author of several publications. She is on the Board of Editors of the Journal of Economic Literature, and her research has appeared in such journals as the American Economic Review and the Journal of Economic Growth. She is the Director of the American Economic Association Summer Program and was President of the National Economic Association. She was awarded the Impactful Mentor Award by the American Economic Association and was elected to its Executive Committee. She was on leave at the White House Council of Economic Advisers under President Obama and has had visiting appointments at the National Bureau of Economic Research, the University of Michigan, and the Federal Reserve Banks of New York, Chicago, Minneapolis, and Philadelphia. She serves on the Advisory Boards of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, the National Science Foundation, the Opportunity and Inclusive Growth Institute of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, and the Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation of the Smithsonian Institution. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. She has been a Sigma Xi Distinguished Lecturer and was named an Edison Fellow at the US Patent and Trademark Office. She is a guest columnist for the New York Times and the Detroit Free Press and a regular contributor on CNBC, MSNBC, and NPR.

Dr. Craig Eugene Cameron (1965) is the Chair of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Society for Microbiology.

He studied chemistry at Howard University and graduated. There he developed his interest in the study of viruses, including rhinovirus, rhinitis, and coxsackievirus.

After his doctoral studies in biochemistry at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and postdoctoral studies in the chemistry department at Penn State, he joined the Penn State faculty in biochemistry and molecular biology. He obtained tenure on the faculty, was promoted to associate professor, and was named Louis Martarano Associate Professor. He was promoted to professor and named Paul Berg Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

His expertise in virology, biochemistry, and mechanistic enzymology brings a unique combination of intellectual and technical resources to the study of RNA viruses. His initial focus was on viral RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp). He was interested in the kinetic, thermodynamic, and structural basis of nucleotide incorporation fidelity, a topic of great importance not only for the accurate maintenance, transmission, and expression of genetically encoded information but also for targeting RdRp for antiviral therapy.

Anthony L. Ray, aka Sir Mix-A-Lot (August 12, 1963), a pioneering Pacific Northwest rapper and producer, was born in Seattle. He had an ear and a passion for music. Soon after high school, he began DJing parties at local community centers.

When the song “Rapper’s Delight” by The Sugar Hill Gang was released, it brought rap music to the world outside New York City for the first time. In Seattle, the first performers to become known for doing hip-hop were a group called the Emerald Street Boys, who were both rappers and breakdancers in the early 1980s. The Emerald Street Boys inspired him, and he soon began making his music using drum machines and synthesizers he had learned to play himself.

He had begun playing weekends at the Rainier Vista Boys and Girls Club. He moved locations and started throwing his parties at the Rotary Boys and Girls Club. He met ‘Nasty’ Nes Rodriguez, a local radio DJ and host of Fresh Tracks, the West Coast’s first rap radio show on Seattle station KKFX (KFOX).

Rodriguez invited him onto his show to air his music, and he became the station’s most-requested artist. The duo teamed up to start NastyMix Records and released their first hit single “Posse on Broadway.” He followed up with the release of his debut album Swass, which would sell over a million copies and be certified platinum.

He released his second album, Seminar. He signed with Def American Records. He is known for the single “Baby Got Back” from the album Mack Daddy. The controversy helped make the song more popular. “Baby Got Back” sold over two million copies, was the #1 song on the pop chart for five weeks, and won a Grammy Award for Best Solo Rap Performance.

Youree Dell Harris (August 12, 1962 – July 26, 2016) was a television personality and actress known for portraying Miss Cleo, a spokeswoman for a psychic pay-per-minute call service called Psychic Readers Network, in a series of television commercials that aired (1997-2003). She used various aliases, including Ree Perris, Youree Cleomili, Youree Perris, Rae Dell Harris, Cleomili Perris Youree, and Cleomili Harris.

She was born at Los Angeles County Hospital to Alisa Teresa Hopis and David Harris. She attended Ramona Convent Secondary School as a boarder.

In 2015, as Miss Cleo, she appeared in a series of advertisements for French Toast Crunch. The Psychic Readers Network sued on the basis that they owned the character of Miss Cleo. The advertisements were discontinued.

The Psychic Readers Network sued Benefit Cosmetics for using her persona, “Miss Cleo,” in a makeup commercial, claiming she was the owner of the persona.

She married at age 19, gave birth to a daughter, and divorced at age 21. She had a second daughter while in her late 20s. In 2006, she came out as a lesbian.

She developed colorectal cancer, which metastasized. She died under hospice care in Palm Beach, Florida.

In December 2022, HBO Max released a feature documentary about her life titled Call Me Miss Cleo.

General Michael Elliott Langley (November 1961) is a retired Marine Corps General who served as commander of US Marine Corps Forces Command, US Marine Corps Forces Northern Command, and Fleet Marine Force Atlantic. He served as Deputy Commander of the Fleet Marine Force Atlantic and, before that, as Commander of the US Marine Forces Europe and Africa.

He is the first African American four-star general in the Marine Corps, having been promoted to that rank on August 6, 2022. He assumed command of US Africa Command in Stuttgart on August 9, 2022, where he will oversee about 6,000 troops in AFRICOM’s area of responsibility.

A native of Shreveport, Louisiana, he graduated from the University of Texas at Arlington, where he majored in information systems analysis. His father, Willie C. Langley, was a master sergeant in the Air Force. His father retired when he was told he would be deployed overseas again, separating him from his children. He was the primary caregiver for his children after their mother’s death.

He was commissioned as a second lieutenant in 1985. He commanded at every level from platoon to the regiment, including Battery K, 5th Battalion, 11th Marines in support of Operation Wildfire in the Western US; battalion and regimental commands in 12th Marines forward deployed in Okinawa, Japan; and both the 201st Regional Corps Advisory Command-Central and Regional Support Command – Southwest in support of Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan.

As a General Officer, his command assignments include Deputy Commanding General, II Marine Expeditionary Force; Commanding General, 2d Marine Expeditionary Brigade; Commander, Marine Forces Europe and Africa; Deputy Commanding General, Fleet Marine Force, Atlantic; and Deputy Commander, Marine Forces Command and Marine Forces Northern Command.

Lynette Woodard (August 12, 1959) is a basketball player and former head women’s basketball coach at Winthrop University. She is a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame.

She played college basketball for the Kansas Jayhawks. She was a member of the US women’s basketball team that won the gold medal in 1984. She became the first female member of the Harlem Globetrotters in 1985. At age 38, she began playing as one of the oldest members in the newly created WNBA in 1997.

She led Wichita North High School to state basketball championships in 1975 and 1977. She scored 1,678 points and collected 1,030 rebounds in just 62 high school games in three seasons.

She was a four-time All-American at KU, averaged 26 points per game, scored 3,649 points over four years, and was the first KU woman to have her jersey retired. She was the unofficial career women’s scoring leader in major college basketball because the National Collegiate Athletic Association did not recognize statistics from the AIAW.

She was signed by the Italian team UFO Schio to participate in their league.

She was inducted into the National High School Hall of Fame. She was inducted into the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame and signed by a Japanese women’s team to play in Japan. She served as athletics director for the Kansas City, Missouri, school district.

She was signed by the Cleveland Rockers of the newly founded WNBA. She was selected in the 1998 expansion draft by the Detroit Shock. Her final WNBA game was on August 19, 1998, in an 82–68 win over the New York Liberty, during which she recorded 18 points, 9 rebounds, 3 assists, and 2 steals. The Shock waived her. She began working as a stockbroker in New York City.

She retired from playing in 1999 and returned to KU, serving as an assistant coach for the women’s basketball team. She was named interim head coach.

She was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

She received the Women’s Blue Chip Basketball League’s “Trailblazer” Award for Women’s Professional Basketball.

Dorothy “Dottie” Peoples (August 12, 1950) is a gospel singer from Dayton, Ohio. After completing high school, she toured with gospel pioneer Dorothy Norwood, a member of the Caravans. After a stint in jazz, she relocated to Atlanta in 1979 and returned to her gospel roots. She has been dubbed “Songbird of the South.”

She performed with Widespread Panic at the inaugural Bonnaroo Music Festival and with Dorothy Norwood. She sang “The Star-Spangled Banner” at the 1996 Olympics, “He’s an On Time God” at the memorial service for John Lewis, and at the 2020 Stellar Awards.

George F. McGinnis (August 12, 1950 – December 14, 2023) was a basketball player who played 11 seasons in the American Basketball Association and National Basketball Association. He played college basketball for the Indiana Hoosiers, earning third-team All-American honors in 1971, before starting his pro career in the ABA with the Indiana Pacers.

He was born in Harpersville, Alabama, but grew up in Indianapolis, where he attended Washington High School. He and teammate Steve Downing led Washington to a 31–0 record and a state championship in 1969. He set an Indiana state tournament scoring record with 148 points in his final four games. He was named Mr. Basketball for the state of Indiana that year.

In the 1970–71 season at Indiana, he became the first sophomore to lead the Big Ten in scoring and rebounding. He averaged 29.9 points per game in his lone season in Bloomington, earning All-American and All-Big Ten Honors in 1971. He played for coach Lou Watson, the year before IU hired Bob Knight.

He is one of four players to have his jersey (#30) retired by the Pacers. All four are members of the Basketball Hall of Fame.

On April 1, 2017, it was announced that he was part of the 2017 Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame class. He was inducted on September 8.

Walter Dean Myers (August 12, 1937 - July 1, 2014) was a critically acclaimed children’s author of award-winning fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. He was a tireless advocate of literacy and education who promoted diversity in children’s literature. The New York Times best-selling author is known for authentically portraying African American youth facing tough life choices.

He was born in Martinsburg, West Virginia, where he lived with his parents and four siblings until he was 18 months old. His father, George Myers, sent him to Harlem following the death of his mother, Mary Myers. He was raised by his father’s first wife and her husband, Florence and Herbert Dean. He changed his name from Walter Milton Myers to Walter Dean Myers in honor of his foster parents.

Winning a writing contest resulted in the publication of his first picture book, “Where Does the Day Go?” He understood what it was like to be a Black teenager struggling with identity issues in a white-dominated world. He discovered his voice and wrote realistically about urban life on the streets, in school, and at home, as well as crime and war in the 20th century.

He wrote about what he would have liked to have read as an adolescent in a language teens could relate to. Visits with incarcerated youngsters gave him insight and material that black youth could identify with.

He wrote more than 100 books, including Fallen Angels, Monster, Sunrise over Fallujah, and Lockdown. He has three books that will be published posthumously.

He was the recipient of numerous awards, including two Newbery Honors, three National Book Award nominations, six Coretta Scott King Awards, the 2012 Library of Congress National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature Award, and the first Coretta Scott King-Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement.

Camille Josephine Billops (August 12, 1933 – June 1, 2019) was a sculptor, filmmaker, archivist, printmaker, and educator.

She obtained her BA from California State University and her MFA from City College of New York.

Her primary medium is sculpture, and her works are in the permanent collections of the Jersey City Museum and the Museum of Drawers in Bern, Switzerland. Her first exhibition was at Gallerie Akhenaton, where she displayed ceramic pots and sculptures. She experimented with photography, printmaking, and painting. She has exhibited in one-woman and group exhibitions worldwide, including Gallerie Akhenaton, Cairo; Hamburg; Kaohsiung; Gimpel and Weitzenhoffer Gallery; and La Tertulia Museum, Cali. She was a longtime friend and colleague of master printmaker Robert Blackburn, with whom she helped establish the first printmaking workshop in Asilah.

Dr. Jewel Limar Prestage (August 12, 1931 - August 1, 2014) was the first African American woman to earn a Ph.D. in Political Science at an American university. She was born in Hutton and raised in Alexandria, Louisiana to Brudis Leroy Limar Sr. and Sallie Bell Johnson Limar.

She enrolled in Southern University and A&M College, where she studied political science. She graduated summa cum laude at the age of nineteen. She became a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority.

She attended graduate school at the University of Iowa, earning her MA and her Ph.D. in political science at the age of twenty-two. She was both the first African American woman to earn a doctorate in that field and one of the youngest holders of that degree in the nation. She married James Jordan Prestage (1953) after he returned from military service in Korea. They had five children.

She accepted a teaching position at Prairie View A&M University. She returned to Southern University as a faculty member, becoming department chair and dean of the School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs. Southern University conferred upon her the status of Distinguished Professor Emeritus. She returned to Prairie View A&M University as a professor of political science and dean of the Benjamin Banneker Honors College.

She helped found the Louisiana Center to Assist Black Elected Officials and served as its director. She directed her civic activism toward the poor quality of civic education in Louisiana’s elementary and secondary schools. She was the first political scientist to research African American women legislators, and her book, A Portrait of Marginality, has been described as a classic study of women and politics.

Emma Ophelia DeVore-Mitchell (August 12, 1922 – February 28, 2014) was a businesswoman, publisher, and model. She was the first model of African American descent in the US. She helped establish the Grace Del Marco Agency, one of the first modeling agencies in the US for non-White women.

She graduated from Hunter College High School and went on to New York University. She majored in mathematics and minored in languages.

She began modeling at the age of 16. As a fair-skinned person of African American descent, she would “pass” for Norwegian and gain contracts throughout Europe.

She was featured in Brian Lanker’s I Dream a World, a collection of portraits and biographies of African American women who helped change America. She was honored by the Fashion Institute of Technology and the Fashion Arts Xchange, Inc. for her contributions to fashion and entertainment.

Gladys Alberta Bentley (August 12, 1907 – January 18, 1960) was a blues singer, pianist, and entertainer during the Harlem Renaissance.

Her career skyrocketed when she appeared at Harry Hansberry’s Clam House in New York as an African American, lesbian, cross-dressing performer. She headlined at Harlem’s Ubangi Club, where a chorus line of drag queens backed her up. She dressed in men’s clothes, played piano, and sang her raunchy lyrics to popular tunes of the day in a deep, growling voice while flirting with women in the audience.