Born in New York City, Aldridge's first professional acting experience was in the early 1820s with the African Grove Theatre troupe. Facing discrimination in America, he left in 1824 for England and made his debut at London's Royal Coburg Theatre. As his career grew, his performances of Shakespeare's classics eventually met with critical acclaim and he subsequently became the manager of Coventry's Coventry Theatre Royal. From 1852, Aldridge regularly toured much of Continental Europe and received top honours from several heads of state. He died suddenly while on tour in Poland and was buried with honours in Łódź. Aldridge is the only actor of African-American descent honoured with a bronze plaque at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon. Two of Aldridge's daughters, Amanda and Luranah, became professional opera singers.

Esther Lee Jones born c. 1918, date of death unknown, known by her stage names "Baby Esther", "Little Esther", and other similar variations, was an American singer and child entertainer of the late 1920s, known for interpreting popular songs with a "mixture of seriousness and childish mischief".After gaining attention in her hometown of Chicago, she became an international celebrity before leaving the public spotlight as a teenager

Larry Hoover Sr (born November 30, 1950 is a former American gangster and street gang kingpin. He is the founder of the Chicago street gang, the Gangster Disciples.Hoover is currently serving six life sentences at the ADX Florence prison facility in Fremont County, Colorado. He was previously sentenced to life imprisonment plus 200 years for a 1973 murder. However, in 1997, following a 17-year investigation, he was convicted of conspiracy, extortion, money laundering, and running a continuing criminal enterprise from state prison, and received another life term. He has made multiple attempts to have his sentence shortened.

Larry Davis May 28, 1966 – February 20, 2008, later known as Adam Abdul-Hakeem, was a man from New York City who gained notoriety in November 1986 for his shootout in the South Bronx with officers of the New York City Police Department, in which six officers were shot. Davis, asserting self-defense, was acquitted of all charges aside from illegal gun possession. Davis was later convicted in April 1991 of a Bronx drug dealer's 1986 murder. In 2008, Davis died via stabbing by a fellow inmate.

Zelda Valdes was born Zelda Christian Barbour in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, and grew up in Charlotte, North Carolina. She trained as a classical pianist at the Catholic Conservatory of Music. In the early 1920s, Valdes started to work in the tailoring shop of her uncle in White Plains, New York. Around the same time, Valdes began working as a stock girl at a high-end boutique. Eventually, she worked her way up to selling and making alterations, becoming the shop's first black sales clerk and tailor. Looking back, Valdes said "It wasn't a pleasant time, but the idea was to see what I could do."Despite the struggles she experienced in her early experiences in the alteration industry, Valdes and her sister, Chez Valdes, opened the first African American owned Manhattan boutique in 1948.

Buffalo Soldiers were United States Army regiments composed exclusively of African American soldiers, formed during the 19th century to serve on the American frontier. On September 21, 1866, the 10th Cavalry Regiment was formed at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. The nickname "Buffalo Soldiers" was purportedly given to the regiments by the American Indian tribes who fought against them during the American Indian Wars, and the term eventually became synonymous with all of the African American regiments that were established in 1866, including the 9th Cavalry Regiment, 10th Cavalry Regiment, 24th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Regiment and 38th Infantry Regiment.

Eugene Jacques Bullard (born Eugene James Bullard; October 9, 1895 – October 12, 1961 was one of the first African-American military pilots,although Bullard flew for France, not the United States. Bullard was one of the few black combat pilots during World War I, along with William Robinson Clarke, a Jamaican who flew for the Royal Flying Corps, Domenico Mondelli it from Italy, and Ahmet Ali Çelikten of the Ottoman Empire. Also a boxer and a jazz musician, he was called "L'Hirondelle noire" in French literally "Black Swallow

nry "Box" Brown (c.1816–June 15, 1897)[1] was a 19th-century Virginiaslave who escaped to freedom at the age of 33 by arranging to have himself mailed in a wooden crate in 1849 toabolitionists in Philadelphia,Pennsylvania. For a short time Brown became a noted abolitionist speaker in the northeast United States. As a public figure and fugitive slave, Brown felt endangered by passage of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, which increased pressure to capture escaped slaves. He moved toEngland and lived there for 25 years, touring with an anti-slavery panorama and becoming a mesmerist and showman. Mostly forgotten in the United States,[2] he married an English woman and had a second family with her. He returned to the US with them in 1875 and continued to earn a living as an entertainer. He toured and performed as a magician, speaker, and mesmerist until at least 1889, and the last decade of his life (1886-1897) was spent in Toronto, where he died...

Ned Huddleston (also known as Isom Dart) was born into  slavery  in  Arkansas  in 1849. His reputation as a rider, roper and bronco-buster earned him the nicknames of the “Black Fox” and the “Calico  Cowboy .”  He was also a notorious  Wyoming  Territory  outlaw . In 1861 twelve-year-old Huddleston accompanied his owner, a Confederate officer, into  Texas  during the  Civil War . After being freed at the end of the war Huddleston headed for the southern Texas- Mexico  border region where he found work at a rodeo, became a stunt rider and honed his skills as a master horseman. Huddleston straddled both sides of the law. For a time he and a young Mexican bandit named Terresa survived as rustlers stealing horses in Mexico and selling them in Texas. Huddleston later joined a cattle drive heading northwest to Brown’s Hole in the  Colorado -Wyoming area around 1871. The 6’2” Huddleston briefly found success mining go...

Reeves was born into slavery in 1838 in  Crawford County ,  Arkansas . [1] [2] Reeves was named after his grandfather, Basse Washington. Bass Reeves and his family were slaves of Arkansas state legislator William Steele Reeves. [1] When Bass Reeves was eight (about 1846), William Reeves moved to  Grayson County ,  Texas , near  Sherman  in the Peters Colony. [1]  Bass Reeves may have served William Steel Reeves son, Colonel  George R. Reeves  who was a legislator in Texas until the time of his death from rabies in 1882. George Reeves was the  Speaker of the House . [3]  During the  American Civil War , Bass parted company with George Reeves, perhaps "because Bass beat up George after a dispute in a card game." [2] [3] [4]  Bass Reeves fled north into the  Indian Territory  (now  Oklahoma ) and lived with the  Cherokee ,  Seminole , and  Creek Indians  until he was freed by the thirteen...

Samuel Jesse Battle (January 16, 1883 - August 7, 1966) was the first African American police officer in New York City. After attending segregated schoolsin North Carolina, Battle moved north, first to Connecticut, then to New York City, where he took a job as a train porter and began studying for the New York City Police Department civil service exam. He was sworn in on March 6, 1911.[1][2] Biog raphyEdit He was born on January 16, 1883 inNew Bern, North Carolina. His brother-in-law was PatrolmanMoses P. Cobb, who started working for the Brooklyn Police force in the early 1890s before the unification of NYC and acted as Battle's mentor. "Big Sam" as he was known — 6 feet, 3 inches tall, 280 pounds — earned the respect of his fellow officers after saving one officer's life in the early 1920s. They subsequently voted to allow him into the Sergeant's Academy. As the NYPD's first black lieutenant, during the intenseHarlem Riots of 1935 - after 3 days of violenc...