Help US Black Heritage create/honor more African-American notables

Question

I'm creating this post as a both a call to action and a reference for others who create profiles for new notables. The US Black Heritage Project is playing "catch up" at WikiTree. What does that mean? We are hoping to create profiles for as many Black/African-American notables as we possibly can. We're behind, meaning many of our notables are not yet represented here. 

We use a slightly different standard in the USBH for what constitutes a notable. Not all of our notables will have WikiPedia pages because they're under represented there too. So for our definition, if they should have a WikiPedia page, they're notable. If they're notable on a more local level, that's okay too.

A question came up on a g2g post of why we're grouping Black American notables separately rather than just calling them American notables and here is my answer to that:

We have talked about this very thing in the project to great lengths. We are straddling a line between honoring them for doing great things as an African-American (against all odds) and not separating them out by "color." For now, we are deciding as a project to go ahead and group them as African-American notables because we want to honor and highlight these Americans in a big way and recognize what they had to overcome to achieve what they did.

Eventually, this need may change as our country changes. Our project is very aware of this issue and will be flexible and continue to be sensitive to the needs of the African-American community both in the country and at WikiTree.

Would you like to help us catch up? 

If you know of Black American notables who have profiles, but haven't been brought to our attention (not co-managed by the project or another project), please post here on an answer with their Wiki-IDs. If you know of a notable and they don't have a profile, please create one. Even if it's only a basic one. Please post the Wiki-ID here and we will ask to co-manage that profile with you so we can honor and highlight the person. 

Where can you find notables? Our Topical Teams page has lists of notables--many of them with profiles not yet created. Or you can just google your favorite group you like to work with (such as basketball players or actors).  Right now we're focusing only on non-living notables.

Do you want someone in the project to create a profile for a notable you have in mind? You can post that here too.

Thanks for helping us grow our Tree and represent a part of our population deserving of honor.

Comments

I will let you know the next time I come across a dozen or so folk who could do with profiles.  (I junked the list I used to have, because I simply could not create profiles for them.)

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Thanks, Melanie!

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How about Kim Hamilton?  Third wife of Werner Klemperer (whose profile could do with some TLC).  I looked, but did not find a profile for her.

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https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Bibb

https://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/bibb/bibb.html

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I had a spare hour or two so I threw together a fairly minimal (by my standards :) ) profile for Kim Hamilton and improved Werner Klemperer. Klemperer was such a big part of my childhood and early adulthood (I still shake my fist and say "Ho-o-gan!" when someone frustrates me) that I wanted to source his profile a little bit and then things got outta control.

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Thank you for doing that.  I'd have loved to try Werner, but felt it a tad beyond my abilities regards American profiles -- plus I'm still working on the Kenny family (Australia).  

(I still shake my fist and say "Ho-o-gan!" when someone frustrates me)

I have - more than once - used "I know nothing . . . NOTHing . . ." and my kids always found it hilarious.  (A year or so ago I rewatched the entire series on youtube.  No idea if that's still possible, given how much gets taken down.)

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Thank you, Lola. I got Henry Bibb created.

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Ty, he is one of my ancestors, I just haven't made it that far.

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Lola, when you get to where your tree meets up with Henry Bibb, let me know and I'll get you added to his profile if you want.

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Ty, still have a bit to go...I just didn't want him left out.

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I want to nominate the mother and siblings of Fritz Pollard (the gridiron guy) -- because they are ALL worthy of note.  (Don't yet know anything about his father, but this is for Fritz's older brother Luther :

Luther, the second born of John and Amanda, was an all-star athlete. In high school he played on the football team and was one of the best pitchers on the baseball team. Luther tried to become a professional baseball player in the major leagues, but was not signed. At that time, no African Americans were allowed on any professional major league baseball team. When he failed to convince the scouts that he was actually a Native American, his baseball dreams were over. This was another racial incident that blacks of this time had to face. Despite the disappointment, Luther still played on an organized Rogers Park team.

Professionally, Luther became a life and accident insurance agent then worked as a manager of an advertising department. These careers did not completely satisfy him, and so in the spirit of his entrepreneur parents, he launched a lucrative moving picture production company called Ebony Film Corporation. According to stock certificates, his company was worth about $500,000 which translates to about $25 million today.

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Another brother, John Hughes "Hughes", was an :

an outstanding football player, but decided a career as a musician better suited him. This flamboyant gentleman joined the highly popular Chicago jazz group called the Melody Four as a drummer. He performed all over Europe and Australia with the group. Then Hugh joined the French army during WWI. Unfortunately, he died of complications due to a mustard gas attack. 

Source is a page called The Forgotten Pollards (found while working on Fritz's family for the upcoming EPOW).

edited to add WT link to Fritz 

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It seems to me that, even though he doesn't have a Wikipedia page, Cicely Tyson's cousin Edwin Schubert "Schubie" Swanston should be considered notable.  He was "a pianist, composer, arranger, organist and vocal coach, who was taught to play piano by his father, a piano tuner. At the tender age of eight, he gave his first solo performance." 

In 1949 he helped set up Vamp Studio (a voice studio), whose clients included Eartha Kitt and Shirley Jones.

 

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Here is a new one I just created.  Thinking he may be connected to my family, but still unable to verify.

Los Angeles art curator, Cecil Fergerson
https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Fergerson-73

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Thanks, Randall. I sent you a request on the profile. I love his title of "Living Cultural Treasure"

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Done!  I thought it was pretty cool, too.  The project will want to check out the 16+ hour Oral History Interview he gave in 1990.  Lots of great stuff in there.

Answer 1

McCoy Tyner is on WT:

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Tyner-689

Comments

Thanks, Mark. I got him added.

Answer 2

I just created a profile for Ellen Walker Craig-Jones, the first African American woman elected mayor in the United States. Can she be tagged as Notable? 

Comments

Definitely. I'll send you instructions on how to add the project to get her set up as a notable. Also, so you know going forward, you can add the notables sticker which is this code {{Notables Sticker}} below the biography heading.

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Cool. I wasn't quite sure of the protocol, so I figured I should ask before adding one. 

Answer 3

Noticed on G2G: [[Ware-1670|John Ware (abt.1845-abt.1905)]] posted at https://www.wikitree.com/g2g/1431812/legendary-rancher-recognized-national-historic-significance

Comments

Thanks, Valorie. somehow I missed the post

Answer 4

I have created a profile for Charles Harrison Mason (Mason-22382), founder of the Church of God in Christ. I am researching him and decided to honor him with a profile. I have added references and his immediate family. He has a Wikipedia page also. I would enjoy co-managing this effort so that I can learn this process. -Mary

Comments

Wonderful! Thanks, Mary. You can add a link to his WikiPedia page on his profile, plus add the {{Notables Sticker|African-American Notables}} below the African-American sticker. I'll add this profile to our list and someone will contact you.

Answer 5

Hi folks,

Just wanted to bring your attention to the profile I created for Paul Henry Bray (1868-1965), a Black lawyer, journalist, and attache to the first U.S. Consul to Madagascar.  In 1907, he and his wife started the first African-American newspaper in Yonkers, New York.

I will also try and connect him to others in the tree, including his nephew Andy Razaf and his stepfather John Lewis Waller, both of whom are notable in their own rights.

Comments

thanks, Vicky! I"ll add him to our list

Answer 6

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Hall-63520    Beulah Hall was added recently.  She was an actress and started by starring in films created by Lincoln Motion Pictures Co.

Comments

thanks, Beverly, I'll add her to our list.

Answer 7

Here is one that I created awhile back.  Not sure if y'all noticed him.  Of course his name is Randall!

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Tyus-130

Comments

thanks, Randall, I'll add him to our list.

Answer 8

I think Aaron McMasters should be a notable. He convinced his owner (and biological father) to free him and his mother. However, North Carolina law didn't allow it. So his father left he and his mother to  Quakers. While the will was contested through the court system, Aaron and his mother were living free and on their own.

Answer 9

I would like to suggest Thomas Sowell 1930-2022. Recently passed this year I believe.

Comments

thanks, K, I've added him to our list of profiles to be created.

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Hubert Sumlin would be another good one.

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I've added him to our list too. Thanks!

Answer 10

I'd like to propose [[Smith-340231|E. Russell "Noodles" Smith]] for the USBH notables category...

Comments

Thanks, Susan. He definitely qualifies!

Answer 11

I'd like to suggest Ernestine Anderson (will work on connecting her to tree...)

Anderson-86082

Also: Art Farmer, Farmer-9965 (I have the two of them linked now)