Howard University

Taraji P. Henson is an Academy Award-nominated actress, producer, and mental health advocate. She was born in Washington, D.C., and raised in an apartment that she described as “one step up from the projects”. Henson’s path to an acting career was not always clear-cut. After graduating high school, she pursued a degree in electrical engineering at North Carolina University, but dropped out after failing a math class. Henson transferred to Howard University, where she studied theater while working two jobs to support herself and her newborn son.

After graduating from Howard in 1995, Henson moved to Los Angeles, where she took on an office job and landed small roles in various television series. Her breakthrough role came in 2001, when she starred in the film, “Baby Boy.” From there, her repertoire of film roles grew, and in 2008, she was nominated for an Academy Award for her role as the titular character’s mother in “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.” She focused primarily on film until 2015, when she returned to television in “Empire” as Cookie Lyon, a role for which she received an Emmy nomination and a Golden Globe award. Her 2016 role as Katherine Johnson in the critically acclaimed film “Hidden Figures” cemented Henson’s popularity and iconic status.  In 2018, Henson founded The Boris Lawrence Henson Foundation, a nonprofit committed to challenging the perception of mental illness in the African American community. 

Kwame Ture (formerly Stokely Carmichael) was a civil rights activist, writer, and orator known as a lead figure within the Pan-African and Black nationalist movements, and for coining the slogan, “Black power.” Ture was born in Trinidad in 1941 and immigrated to New York City in 1952. In high school, watching a televised sit-in for civil rights inspired him to join the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and participate in sit-ins across the United States. During his freshman year at Howard University, where he majored in philosophy, he participated in his first Freedom Ride. The Freedom Rides were integrated bus trips through the American South in protest of the segregated public transportation system.

After graduating from Howard in 1964, Ture became a field organizer with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). He played a vital role in the Freedom Summer, a campaign to register black voters in the Deep South. However, he eventually became disillusioned with the slow pace of progress and continued police violence faced by activists for integration. In 1966, Ture gave the speech wherein he first spoke the words “Black Power,” calling for cultural, political, and economic self-determination for Black people around the world. He joined the Black Panther Party and journeyed around the world to visit with revolutionary leaders, eventually ending up in Conakry, Guinea, where he changed his name from Stokely Carmichael to Kwame Ture in 1969. There, he dedicated the rest of his life to Pan-African unity. In his writings and speeches, Ture helped to redefine African American identity--as well as Black identity around the globe--with his revolutionary proclamation that Black is beautiful.

Jessye Norman was a Grammy Award-winning operatic singer, humanitarian, and Howard alumna known for her powerful voice and stage presence. She was born in 1945 in Augusta, Georgia to a musical family that nurtured her budding talent. Growing up in the Jim Crow South, Norman helped to integrate local businesses, participating in sit-ins at segregated lunch counters. At the age of 16, Norman’s performance at a vocal competition earned her a full scholarship to Howard University. She graduated from Howard in 1967 with a degree in music, then went on to complete her graduate education at the Peabody Conservatory and later at the Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance. Over the course of her lifetime, she earned several honorary degrees from a number of other prestigious institutions.

Norman’s opera career took off in Europe. She made her debut in 1969 in Germany, then continued to perform at famous opera houses around the world. Her worldwide success as a Black woman on the operatic stage was both rare and groundbreaking. Though billed as an operatic soprano, Norman had an impressive vocal range and a diverse range of musical interests, including popular music, gospel, blues, and more. As a humanitarian, Norman addressed hunger, homelessness, youth development, and arts education. In 2003, the Jessye Norman School of the Arts opened in her hometown of Augusta to provide free education in the arts to underprivileged children. After a long and successful career, she died of complications related to a spinal injury in 2019. Thanks in part to her trailblazing efforts, Norman left the opera world a more inclusive place than when she entered it.

Dr. Patricia Bath was an ophthalmologist, inventor, researcher, and humanitarian. Born in 1942 to parents who encouraged her interest in science, Dr. Bath’s research began at the young age of 16, when she won a merit award for her discoveries at a cancer research workshop. She received her medical degree at Howard University, graduating with honors in 1968. Dr. Bath’s career was full of “firsts”: In 1974, she was the first woman ophthalmologist appointed to the faculty of the University of California; in 1983, she became the first woman chair to an ophthalmology residency program in the United States. Dr. Bath was dedicated to bringing ophthalmic health services to underserved communities. She conducted epistemological research and found that blindness occurred in black patients at twice the rate of white patients.

In response to this discovery, Dr. Bath created community ophthalmology, a new discipline that brought volunteer ophthalmic health services to thousands of people who otherwise would not have been able to afford treatment. She didn’t stop there: In 1976, Dr. Bath and three of her colleagues founded the American Institute for the Prevention of Blindness, an organization that operates on the principle that eyesight is a basic human right. She also invented the Laserphaco Probe, a surgical tool that uses lasers to treat cataracts with less pain and more precision than previous treatments. She patented the device in 1988, becoming the first African American female doctor to patent a medical technology.

Rep. Elijah E. Cummings was a lawyer, orator and advocate who worked throughout his lifetime to preserve American democracy. Born to former sharecroppers in Baltimore, Maryland in 1951, Cummings was no stranger to adversity. With the encouragement of his mother, who had only a fourth-grade education herself, Cummings went on to become the first African American in Maryland history to be named Speaker Pro Tempore, a senior member of the majority party chosen for skill in presiding. 

Elijah Cummings graduated from Howard University in 1973 with a bachelor’s degree in political science. He then went to law school at the University of Maryland. He maintained a close relationship with Howard University throughout his lifetime. Cummings practiced law and served in the Maryland House of Delegates for 14 years. In 1996, he was elected to the Federal House of Representatives, where he advocated for the working class in his Black-majority district. He became a powerful voice against voter suppression, launching investigations in Georgia, Texas, and Kansas, as well as monitoring organizations accused of targeting voters of color. The issue of voter suppression was personal to Cummings, who, during a speech in February 2019, recalled his mother’s dying words: “Do not let them take our votes away from us.” In that same speech, Cummings vowed to fight until death to defend the right to vote—and fight he did, until his passing in October of 2019. Rep. Elijah E. Cummings’s legacy as an advocate who fought tirelessly for the rights of all Americans lives on, both at Howard and in the countless lives he touched. 

Beth Brown, Ph.D., was an astrophysicist and educator who studied elliptical galaxies and worked on multiple outreach projects. Born in Virginia in 1969, Brown cultivated a fascination in science from an early age, starting with her interest in science fiction. She studied astrophysics at Howard University, undertaking two internships at NASA during her undergraduate years. She went on to graduate school at the University of Michigan, where she became the first black woman to get a doctorate in astronomy from the institution. An astronomy course she developed during her graduate education is still taught and remains popular at the University of Michigan. Having attained her doctorate, Brown was then hired as an astrophysicist at NASA, where she collected data on elliptical galaxies. 

Brown’s wonder at the night sky translated into a desire to share that wonder with others. She represented NASA on television interviews, combining her warm presence with her astronomical expertise to present information on astronomy to the general public in an accessible manner. She was passionate about helping minorities to succeed in physics. Her greatest achievement, in her own words, was “…convincing a young woman not to give up on her dreams of becoming a scientist.” 

David Norman Dinkins was an American politician, lawyer and author who became the first African American Mayor of the New York City, from 1990 to 1993. He joined the faculty of Columbia University upon leaving office.

Born on July 10, 1927, in Trenton, New Jersey, Dinkins served in the United States Marine Corps during World War II. He used the 1944 GI Bill to earn his bachelor of science degree in mathematics from Howard University in 1950. He later obtained his law degree from Brooklyn Law School in 1956.  Dinkins was a founding member of the Black and Puerto Rican Legislative Caucus of New York State, the Council of Black Elected Democrats of New York State, and the One Hundred Black Men. He was also vice president of the United States Conference of Mayors, and a member-at-large of the Black Leadership Forum.

Dinkins passed away in November of 2020 at age 93.

Zora Neale Hurston is considered one of the foremost female writers of the 20th century. She was born in Notasulga, Alabama on January 15, 1891. At a young age, her family relocated to Eatonville, Florida where they flourished. Her father became one of the town’s first mayors. In 1917, Hurston enrolled at Morgan College, where she completed her high school studies. She then attended Howard University and earned an associate’s degree. Hurston was an active student and participated in student government. She also co-founded the school’s renowned newspaper, The Hilltop. In 1925, Hurston received a scholarship to Barnard College and graduated with a BA in anthropology.

During her time in New York City, Hurston befriended other writers such as Langston Hughes and Countee Cullen. Together, they joined the black cultural renaissance taking place in Harlem. Hurston dedicated herself to promoting and studying Black culture. She traveled to Haiti and Jamaica to study the religions of the African diaspora. Her findings were included in several newspapers throughout the United States. Hurston often incorporated her research into her fictional writing. As an author, Hurston started publishing short stories as early as 1920. Unfortunately, her work was ignored by the mainstream literary audience for years. One of her most popular works was “Their Eyes were Watching God.” Hurston broke literary norms by focusing her work on the experience of a Black woman.