Joshua Norton was born in England in 1818 and then raised in South Africa. When he was 28, he emigrated to the U.S., eventually ending up in San Francisco, where he became a respected figure in business circles. Joshua was an entrepreneur who was engaged in...
Ellen (Curtis) Demorest was born in New York in 1824. Since her father owned a hat factory, Ellen naturally found her way to a career in the fashion industry. At the age of 18, she set up her own hat shop in Saratoga Springs, New York. Eventually she moved the shop...
Located in Harlem, the Club Deluxe was an intimate supper club owned by Jack Johnson, the first African American to be the heavyweight boxing champ. He sold the club to a gangster, Owney Madden, who renamed it the “Cotton Club.” Madden’s primary purpose in buying...
He was born into poverty in 1926 in New York City to an Italian immigrant father and a mother who was born in the U.S. soon after her parents immigrated. When he could go to school, he studied art and music, but he never did complete high school. At age 18, he was...
He grew up in an all-white community in South Dakota. When he was 11 years old, he met his first person of another race. His father had developed his ability to appreciate everyone, and that meeting became a pivotal moment in his life. Studying at LSU in the Jim...
Private Burton Holmes was a Black U.S. soldier fighting in France during World War I. He and his fellow soldiers were confronted by a surprise attack from the Germans. Burton’s gun malfunctioned and he was badly wounded, He returned to the command post, but he...
South Africa has a history of unreliable electrical power. The national power provider has been accused of mismanagement of government funding for upgrades to the nation’s electric grid. As a result, communities across South Africa have begun to apply for waivers...
Steven Chen was born in Taiwan in 1978 and immigrated to the U.S. with his family in 1985. He studied Computer Science at the University of Illinois. He worked for PayPal after graduation, where he met Jawed Karim and Chad Hurley. Jawed Karim was born in 1979 in...
Ralph Baer was born in 1922 to a Jewish family in Germany. In 1938, he and his family immigrated to American to escape the growing persecution of Jews in Nazi Germany. In the U.S., Ralph was largely self-taught because he went to work in a factory to help support...
Dikembe Mutombo was born in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1966. His original career plan was to become a doctor, but his family encouraged him to explore a career in basketball due to his height. He eventually grew to be 7’2". When Dikembe came to America...
