ROLL OF HONOR The Great, Near-Great and Fallen Get Their Due
Legends of Autumn By Earl A. Birkett
James Meredith (b. 1933)
Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES) (19421946) This World War II U.S. Navy
American civil rights symbol, writer and political advisor. Meredith was the first black student admitted to the racially segregated University of Mississippi, in 1962. An Air Force veteran, he remained a key figure in the Civil Rights Movement after graduation, especially in the area of voter registration, and at times at great risk to his life. He was a domestic advisor to Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) from 1989 to 1991.
branch offered one of the rare opportunities for participation by African American women during the war. In 1944, Harriet Ida Pickens (l.) and Frances Wills (r.) were commissioned as the first black female officers in the WAVES.
Ralph Bunche (1903-1971) American diplomat. Bunch helped found the United Nations and was instrumental in the decolonization of Africanpopulated countries after World War II. In 1950, he became the first African American and person of African descent to win the Nobel Peace Prize for his late 1940s mediation in Israel.
Daniel “Chappie” James Jr. (19201978) American war hero and military officer. James was the first black to reach the rank of four-star general in the U.S. Air Force, in command of U.S. and Canadian strategic aerospace and defense. A native Floridian, he trained black pilots at Tuskegee Institute for the 99th Pursuit Squadron, the famed Tuskegee Airmen. James himself flew combat missions over Korea and Vietnam and has been decorated many times.
Colin Luther Powell (b. 1937) American statesman and military leader. Powell served as the first black chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff from 1989 to 1993 and the first black U.S. Secretary of State from 2001 to 2005. He was instrumental in conducting wartime operations in Kuwait, Afghanistan and Iraq.
Carter Godwin Woodson (18751950) American historian, writer and journalist. Woodson was the founder of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History. Called the “father of black history,” he was one of the first scholars to study the African diaspora. Woodson helped found The Journal of Negro History in 1916 and in February 1926 launched the celebration of what he called Negro History Week, the forerunner of Black History Month.
66
Earl Birkett (1922-2014) American engineer and businessman. Birkett was a pioneer in the nascent field of automation in the 1950s. A native of Harlem in New York City and the son of immigrants from Barbados, West Indies, Birkett was trained as a tool-and-die maker. In 1955, he invented the first machine to automate the assembly of ballpoint pens, thus revolutionizing the
BAVUAL:
The African Heritage Magazine
| Fall 2021
