This Week in History, September 5-11:
Contributions of African-Americans
   
Note: Here, learn about some of the African-Americans who have influenced history and contributed to the culture we now enjoy. To learn more about each individual, click on that person's name. Information for "This Week in History" is taken from the African American Registry.

September 5
On this day in 1901, African-American educator, poet, and social worker Clarissa Scott Delaney was born. A celebrated Harlem Renaissance writer, she also worked as a social worker with the National Urban League and the Woman’s City Club of New York.

September 6
On this day in 1883, African-American writer, lecturer, anthropologist, historian, journalist, and publisher Joel Augustus Rogers was born. Rogers became a scholar unparalleled in assembling information about African people, and probably did more to popularize African history than any single writer of the twentieth century.

September 7
On this day in 1877, African-American sculptor May Howard Jackson was born. The first Black student to receive a scholarship to attend the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, her work powerfully demonstrated her fascination with the complex and varied physiognomy of Black people as a result of race mixing after slavery.

September 8
On this day in 1954, African-American activist Ruby Bridges was born. On November 14, 1960, she was the focus of the historic day public schools were integrated when U.S. marshals escorted her from her car through the doors of her school building in New Orleans.

September 9
On this day in 1914, African-American mathematics professor Marjorie Lee Brown was born. The first recipient of the W. W. Rankin Memorial Award for Excellence in Mathematics Education, she used her own money to provide financial aid to many gifted young people so they could pursue their educations.

September 10
On this day in 1847, Mississippi Congressman John Roy Lynch was born. Always active in the Republican Party, Lynch served as a delegate to the national Republican conventions of 1872, 1884, 1888, 1892, and 1900, and was the first Black to preside over a national convention of a major U. S. political party.

September 11
On this day in 1914, civil rights attorney Crispus Attucks Wright was born. He co-founded the John M. Langston Bar Association of Los Angeles, which remains the principal Black legal association in the LA area. A member of the National Bar Association, the American Bar Association, and the Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity, Wright gave $2 million to the University of Southern California's Law Center to establish a scholarship in his name. His decision to donate to his old school was partially inspired by the $50 scholarships that helped him through law school.