Famous African Americans
Lewis Latimer
Ronald McNair
Marion Wright Edelman
Matilda Arabelle Evans
Dizzy Gillespie
Billie Holiday
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Everitt L. Dargon
by Chavez (Grade 1)
September 1998
Everitt Dargon helped people. He was a surgeon. That means he cut people open and fixed their insides so they would not be sick. He helped a lot of people.
Lewis Latimer
by Maria (Grade 5)
September 1998
Lewis Latimer was an African American man who fought for freedom in the Civil War. He was born in Massachusetts in 1848 and he died when he was 80
years old in 1928. He invented the electric lamp. If it wasn't for him, now we would not be able to see at night.
Ronald McNair
by James (Grade 2)
September 1998
Ron McNair played football. He also played basketball and baseball. He was born in 1950. He was the first astronaut to make a movie in space. He died when the space shuttle blew up. Everyone liked him very much. They named a school after him when he died. People miss him.
Ronald McNair
by Kenneth (Grade 3)
September 1998
Click to see my drawing.
Marion Wright Edelman
By Kenneth and Laycell (Grade 3)
September 1998
Marion grew up in an environment where some people thought she would not, and could not, achieve because she was an African American girl. She became the first African American woman lawyer. Now she is 59 years old. Back then, she was younger. She studied in Switzerland, France and the Soviet Union. Marion wrote a book called "Families in Peril." Marion tries to save children
who live in poverty.
Matilda Arabelle Evans
By Kenneth (Grade 3)
October 1998
Matilda Arabelle Evans was born in 1870 and she became a doctor. There were no cars when she was a doctor, so she had to ride a bike or ride on horses. She worked in a hospital called Taylor Lane. She visited sick people. She raised 16 kids. She was a very good person until she died in 1935.
Matilda Arabelle Evans
By Chavez (Grade 1)
October 1998
Matilda was a doctor. She had 16 kids. She was born in 1870. She started a hospital for Black people.
Matilda Arabelle Evans
By James (Grade 2)
October 1998
Matilda raised 16 kids. She was born in 1870. In 1930 she opened a hospital for Black people.
Dizzy Gillespie
By Charkeeta (Grade 4)
October 1998
Dizzy was the last of nine chidren. He was born in 1917. He played the trombone and the trumpet. He played jazz music. In 1989, he played for President George Bush. He also played for three other presidents. He died in 1993.
Dizzy Gillespie
By Laycell (Grade 3)
October 1998
Once there was a man named Dizzy. He was born in 1917. He was 76 years old when he died in 1993. I feel sorry that he died when I was three because I wanted to see him and hear his music. He must have been a nice, helpful man before he died. I hope I become a great man before I die.
Billie Holiday
By Jaton (Grade 4)
November 1998
Billie Holiday was born in 1909. When she was young, she sang in a church choir. She moved to Harlem to sing the blues. Billie got a record contract with Verve records. She died in 1953. In 1973, a movie of her life was made. Two years after her death, they made a statue of her in Baltimore, her hometown.
Billie Holiday
By Chavez (Grade 1)
November 1998
Billie Holiday was born in 1909. She was a blues singer. A movie was made about her life after she died.
Copyright © 1998 BOAST and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.