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Charles Quinton Brown Jr. (1962 – present) For day 23 of Black History Month, we’d like to highlight 4 Star General Charles Quinton Brown Jr., an American airman and the first African American to be appointed Chief of Staff and to lead any branch of the United States Armed Forces. Switching it up a bit with this post, instead of writing a summation of his accomplishments, which are vast, it seemed fitting instead to post a link to a statement he made last year on Race Relations and Civil Unrest, and his experiences as an African American in this country...

Williams Goines (1936 – present) For day 21 of Black History Month, we’d like to highlight William Goines, an American soldier and the first African American to become a Navy Seal. William Goines was born in Dayton, Ohio. In reflecting on his childhood and when he first learned to swim, he recounted that he did not know that his local school even had a swimming pool because African American’s where not allowed to swim there at the time. He also recalled that when the pool was forced to integrate, it was instead filled up with rocks, so no one could...

Dr. Clarence Ellis (May 1943 – May 2014) For day 20 of Black History Month, we’d like to highlight Clarence Ellis, an American computer scientist and educator and the first African American to receive a PhD in Computer Science in 1969 and the first African American fellow named to the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM). Clarence Ellis was raised on the South Side of Chicago. When he was a teenager, he got a nightshift job working for a local computer store to help support his family. He was hired more as a security guard, to watch over the computers in...

Jane Matilda Bolin (April 11, 1908 – January 8, 2007) For day 19 of Black History Month, we’d like to highlight Judge Jane Matilda Bolin, an American lawyer, judge and educator who was the first African American woman to graduate from Yale Law School, the first to join New York City Bar Association, the first to join the New York City Law Department, and the first to serve as a judge in the United States. As an African American and as a woman, she was no stranger to discrimination based on her race or her gender. She would sometimes be...

Lois Mailou Jones (November 1905 – June 1998) For day 18 of Black History Month, we’d like to highlight Lois Mailou Jones, an American artist, painter and educator, who was the first African American to graduate from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts. Her career spanned over seven decades and reflected various artistic styles, from traditional landscapes to African themed abstraction. Her career as an educator started almost immediately after graduating from college. She ended up leaving Boston after the Director at the Museum of Fine Arts refused to hire her, telling her to find...