b. Trenton, N.J. After graduating (1956) from Brooklyn Law School, he went into private law practice. Active in Democratic politics in New York City, he held the office of Manhattan borough president from 1986 to 1989. In 1989 he became the first African American to be elected mayor of New York City; he served for one term (1990?93).
1852 – 1918
Born in New Haven, Connecticut, Bouchet was the first African American to graduate (1874) from Yale College. In 1876, upon receiving his Ph.D. in physics from Yale, he became the first African American to earn a doctorate. Bouchet spent his career teaching college chemistry and physics.
(b. Aug. 25, 1927, Silver, S.C., U.S.), American tennis player who dominated women’s competition in the late 1950s. She was the first black to win the Wimbledon and U.S. singles championships.
Gibson grew up in Harlem in New York City and in 1950 became the first black athlete to play Forest Hills, narrowly losing to third-seeded Louise Brought in the second round. She graduated from Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University, Tallahassee, in 1953, and rose to sudden prominence in 1956, becoming the first black to win a major title–the Wimbledon doubles–as well as the French singles and doubles and the Italian singles. She went on to win the Wimbledon singles and doubles and the U.S. singles in 1957-58, as well as the U.S. mixed doubles and the Australian women’s doubles (in 1957).
Gibson turned professional in 1958, but women’s professional tennis at that time offered few tournaments and prizes. After winning the U.S. professional women’s title in 1960, she became a professional golfer in 1963, with moderate success. She married William Darben in 1965 and attempted professional tennis again, after open tennis started in 1968, but without much success. In 1971 she was elected to the National Lawn Tennis Hall of Fame. In 1975 she was named athletic director for the state of New Jersey.
(b. July 10, 1943, Richmond, Va., U.S.–d. Feb. 6, 1993, New York, N.Y.), American tennis player, the first black winner of a major men’s singles championship.
Ashe began to play tennis at the age of seven in a neighbourhood park. He was coached by Walter Johnson of Lynchburg, Va., who had coached tennis champion Althea Gibson. Ashe moved to St. Louis, Mo., where he was coached by Richard Hudlin, before he entered the University of California at Los Angeles on a tennis scholarship. In 1963 Ashe won the U.S. hard-court singles championship; in 1965 he took the intercollegiate singles and doubles titles; and in 1967 he won the U.S. clay-court singles championship. In 1968 he captured the U.S. (amateur) singles and open singles championships. He played on the U.S. Davis Cup team (1963-70, 1975, 1977-78) and helped the U.S. team to win the Davis Cup challenge (final) round in 1968, 1969, and 1970. In the latter year he became a professional.
His criticism of South African apartheid racial policy led to denial of permission to play in that country’s open tournament, and, as a consequence, on March 23, 1970, South Africa was excluded from Davis Cup competition. In 1975, when he won the Wimbledon singles and the World Championship singles, he was ranked first in world tennis. After retiring from play in 1980, he became captain of the U.S. Davis Cup team, a position he held from 1981 to 1985.
Ashe underwent coronary bypass operations in 1979 and 1983. In April 1992 he revealed that he had become infected with the virus that causes AIDS, probably through a tainted blood transfusion received during one of those operations. For the remainder of his life, Ashe devoted considerable time to efforts to educate the public about the disease.
The only African American of the 19th century that was more prominent and influential than John Mercer Langston was Frederick Douglass. John Mercer Langston was the first Black American elected to public office in the United States and was twice suggested as a candidate for vice-president of the United States on the republican ticket. During his lifetime, Langston’s career would involve education, law and politics.
John Mercer Langston was born free in 1829 and was an orphan by his fifth birthday. As an orphan, Langston was raised in both black and white households. By the age of fourteen, Langston began study at Oberlin College where he obtained both a Bachelors and Master of Arts degree. By his eighteenth birthday he was a speaker at the first national black convention in 1848 on the subject of aid to fugitive slaves.
Langston was elected town clerk and allied himself with the Republican Party as was common among Blacks in the 19th century. He said that “if the republican party is not anti-slavery enough, take hold of it and make it so.” Langston is given credit for shaping the character of the Republican party in the 19th century in terms of its then progressive relationship to African Americans. He was responsible for organizing black political clubs across the country. As a result of his political contacts Langston was chosen to lead the western recruitment of black soldiers to fight in the Civil War. He also actively worked for the fair and equal treatment of black soldiers in the Union Army. After the Civil War, Langston worked both independently and with the Republican Party for the redistribution of wealth and power in the country. Both before and after the Civil War along with many others, he struggled for black voting rights.
Langston spent six and a half years at Howard University where he served as a Law professor, Dean of the Law Department, vice-president and acting president. The white conservative trustee board of Howard University had problems with his progressive views and were troubled with Langston’s desire to expand the Law Department. Langston knew that the life of the Blacks in this country could be changed if laws were changed. The trustees forced him out of Howard, but the entire Law Department resigned in protest of the actions of the board of trustees.
Langston was appointed to the diplomatic corps and served in Haiti for eight years. He left in protest when the new democratic administration reduced his salary by 30%. Langston ran for Congress in the state of Virginia and won. He fought an eighteen month battle to be seated in congress because of attempts to rig the polls on election day. After serving in Congress for only three months (because of the attempt to steal his seat) Langston spent the rest of his life in Washington where he continued to fight for justice for African Americans.