Photo from the Voces Oral History Center, Moody College of Communication, The University of Texas at Austin. Puerto Rican, Sociology, Activism Frank Bonilla (1925-2010) Dr. Frank Bonilla was an academic researcher and early pioneer of Puerto Rican Studies, serving as the first director of the Center for Puerto Rican Studies at the City University of …
Photograph by Allan Warren taken in Hyde Park, London, 1969 African American, Literature, Cultural History James Baldwin (1924-1987) A prolific writer, activist, cultural theorist, James Arthur Baldwin was born on August 2, 1924, in Harlem, New York, to Emma Berdis Jones, a single mother. His mother married David Baldwin, a laborer and preacher, and they …
Photographer unknown; promotional image used in many publications. Puerto Rican, Material Culture, Folklore, History Teodoro Vidal Santoni (1923-2016) A self-taught historian, Teodoro Vidal Santoni uncovered more than four centuries of Puerto Rican culture, traditions, and popular art, and raised them to international recognition. Born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Vidal Santoni attended the …
Image from NC State Khayrallah Center for Lebanese Diaspora Studies, https://lebanesestudies.ncsu.edu/awards/scholarly/Naff.php Arab American, History Alixa Naff (1919-2013) Dr. Alixa Naff was a pioneering historian widely known as the founder of Arab American Studies. She not only documented the lives of the first Syrian and Lebanese Americans, but also illuminated the experiences of first generation non-European …
Pearl Primus, Rock Daniel, 1944, Barbara Morgan Archives African American, Dance, Ethnography, Theater Pearl Eileen Primus (1919-1994) Dr. Pearl Primus was a dancer, choreographer, educator, and anthropologist whose pioneering work not only explored and celebrated African, Caribbean, and African American dance forms and folkways, but also called attention to social issues faced by people of …
Photo courtesy of Wendy Makoons Geniusz, with permission from the Miniss Kitigan Drum. Native American (Anishinaabe), Ethnobotany Keewaydinoquay Pakawakuk Peschel (1919-1999) The Aadizookaanag, our ancient stories and teaching spirits, are living beings. Keewaydinoquay’s storytelling clearly demonstrated the veracity of this Anishinaabe teaching. As she told stories, deep, “booming” voices of the Aadizookaanag echoed through the …
Self-portrait by Robert McNeill African American, Documentary Photography, Federal Writers’ Project Robert H. McNeill (1917-2005) Robert H. McNeill was a renowned photographer of Black life and culture from the 1930s through the 1970s. Born in 1917 in Washington, DC, to Dr. William C. McNeill, a physician and medical educator and Mary A. McNeill, a DC …
Photo from 2007 NEA National Heritage Fellow announcement, photograph by Michael G. Stewart Japanese American, Literature, Activism, Ethnography Violet Kazue de Cristoforo (1917-2007) Violet Kazue de Cristoforo was a 2007 National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellow, recognized as a writer, translator, and editor of poetry, specifically the Japanese forms of haiku and tanka. …
Image from Dozier’s obituary in American Anthropologist, June 1972 Native American (Tewa Pueblo), Ethnography, Anthropology, Linguistics Edward Pasqual Dozier (Eduardo de Pascua Dozier), PhD (1916-1971) Edward P. Dozier is recognized as the first Native American anthropologist to establish a career as an academic anthropologist. As a linguist and anthropologist, he studied Pueblo communities in Arizona …
