“Born and raised in Los Angeles, the daughter of a teacher and an electrical engineer (her parents divorced when she was eight), King seems to have moved smoothly from teenage sitcom stardom into the flowering black cinema scene of the 1990s, making her movie debut in John Singleton’s seminal Boyz n the Hood…”

“Martin Robison Delany was a jack-of-all-trades. He was at times a physician, dentist, abolitionist, Underground Railroad agent, military officer, [B]lack nationalist, and coeditor (with Frederick Douglass) of the North Star newspaper. His mother…”

“Vocalist Madison McFerrin is a genre-bending singer/songwriter known for her understated yet emotionally open mix of a cappella, electronic pop, jazz, and soul. The daughter of acclaimed vocalist Bobby McFerrin, she issued two a cappella-based EPs before…

“A prolific author, [Julius] Lester had more than four dozen books for adults and children to his credit. He was also variously a literary and cultural critic, folklorist, photographer, civil rights worker and professional musician. As an essayist…

Bridget “Biddy” Mason was born into slavery in Georgia in 1818 and was eventually acquired by Robert Marion Smith. In 1848, Smith, a Mormon convert, decided to move West, and Biddy was forced to walk the 1,700 mile journey from Mississippi to Utah. After two years in Utah, Smith agreed to move to California and help establish a Mormon community in San Bernardino. On the journey…