Notable Kansans of African DescentYou'll find information about some of the people of African descent who have made Kansas history.Most of the information on this page comes from the Notable Kansans of African Descent section of The African American Experience in Kansas, one of nine traveling resource trunks offered to schools and organizations by the Kansas Historical Society. Look for more information about traveling resource trunks.
Dr. William BlountWilliam Blount was born in Luftin, Texas, in 1883. He attended Meharry Medical School in Nashville, Tennessee, graduating in 1908. In 1921 Blount moved his family to Kansas City where he began practicing medicine. He served as representative for Wyandotte District #8 from 1929 - 1936. He was quoted as saying that his office "affords me an opportunity to help bring about a better understanding between the races." Gwendolyn BrooksGwendolyn Brooks was born in Topeka in 1917. She began writing poetry when she was seven and had her first work published at the age of thirteen. Brooks went on to become the first Black to receive a pulitzer prize in 1950 for her book of poems, Annie Allen. In 1968 she was named Poet Laureate of Illinois, succeeding the late Carl Sandburg, and still holds this post. President Bill Clinton awarded Brooks the National Medal of Art. Blanche K. BruceBlanche Bruce, born in Missouri in 1859, was the first Black to graduate from the University of Kansas [1885]. After graduation he was appointed principal of Sumner School in Leavenworth and held this position for fifty-four years. Bruce's uncle and namesake, Blanche Kelso Bruce, had founded the first Black school in the United States in the 1860s. Blanche Kelso BruceBruce was born into slavery in Virginia in 1841. He moved with his master to Missouri before the Civil War. By 1861 Bruce had escaped from slavery and made his way to Lawrence, Kansas, where he survived Quantrill's raid. Blanche Bruce was credited with organizing the first school in the country for Negroes. Moving on to Mississippi by 1868, Bruce became the first Black U.S. senator elected to a full term, 1875-1881. George Washington CarverGeorge Washington Carver was born into slavery in Diamond Grove, Missouri, in the mid-1860s. An orphan, he moved to Fort Scott in 1878 to attend school. After finishing high school, Carver farmed for two years near Beeler in Ness County. He went on to Iowa State University where he received his master's degree in 1896 in the area of agricultural science. Carver soon joined the faculty of Tuskegee Institute in Alabama where he invented new uses for various crops including making soybeans into plastic, sweet potatoes into cereal, and from peanuts creating more than three hundred by-products such as milk, coffee, and shaving cream. Although George Washington Carver received many awards for his work, he refused to accept any royalties from the sale of his products. 
Wilt ChamberlainBorn in Philadelphia in 1936, Wilt Chamberlain grew to be 7'2" tall. He moved to Kansas in 1955 to play basketball at the University of Kansas where he averaged thirty points per game. Wilt was twice named All-American. After college he joined the Harlem Globetrotters. He also played for the Philadelphia Warriors, Philadelphia 76ers, and the Los Angeles Lakers. Chamberlain retired from basketball in 1973. Nick ChilesNick Chiles was born in South Carolina and moved to Topeka, Kansas, in 1886. There he founded and edited the Plaindealer, a newspaper that ran from January 1899 to November 1958. Chiles's Plaindealer was said to be the most successful Black-owned newspapers in Kansas and one of the strongest in the nation. It also became the longest running Black newspaper in the United States. Wilbur "Buck" ClaytonClayton was born November 12, 1911, in Parsons, Kansas. As a young adult Clayton's trumpet talents took him to China where he traveled with Teddy Weatherford's band from 1934 to 1936. Upon returning to the United States, he joined Count Basie's band until he was drafted into World War II. Clayton was noted for his ensemble and solo work, particularly with Lester Young and Billie Holliday. Clayton died in 1991. Frank Marshall DavisFrank Marshall Davis was born in 1905 and became a writer, poet, editor, and journalist. His works were especially popular during the Harlem Renaissance and during the Black Arts Movement in the 1960s and 1970s. Growing up in Arkansas City, Kansas, Davis discovered reading in the local public library. At Kansas State University he studied journalism and published his first poems. Davis patterned his free verse poetry style after the blues and jazz music he heard in Kansas. As an editor, Davis worked for the Associated Negro Press. Frank Marshall Davis died in 1987. Aaron DouglasAaron Douglas was born in Topeka in 1899. He received a degree in art from the University of Nebraska and a master's in fine arts from the Teacher's College at Columbia University in New York in 1944. Douglas moved to Harlem, New York in June 1925, resigning his two-year post as teacher at Lincoln High School in Kansas City, Missouri. Years later, art historian David Driskell dubbed Douglas the "father of Black American art." He looked upon his African ancestry to inspire his paintings. Aaron Douglas created a mural series "Aspects of Negro Life," completed in 1934 for the 135th Street branch of the New York Public Library. The titles of the four murals are: "The Negro In An African Setting," "An Idyll of the Deep South," "From Slavery Through Reconstruction," and "Song of the Towers." Douglas was invited by sociologist Charles S. Johnson, the first black president of Fisk University as a mentor from Harlem, to join the faculty of Fisk University as chairman and founder of the Department of Education. Alfred FairfaxFairfax was born into slavery in 1840. He was sold into the Deep South by the age of eighteen for attempting to run away. He lived in Louisiana until 1862 when he organized a band of enslaved peoples who confiscated mules and joined the Union army. At the age of twenty-two Fairfax learned to read and write. After the Civil War Fairfax returned to Louisiana where he farmed and was elected to Congress in 1878. But the Democrats in the area would not allow him to serve, so Fairfax was forced to flee. By 1880 he had moved into Kansas, bringing more than two hundred families with him to Chautauqua County. In 1889 he was the first Black elected to the state legislature as a representative for Chautauqua County. Lorenzo Fuller Jr.Fuller was born in Stockton, Kansas, in 1919. This actor attended the University of Kansas and received a fellowship to attend the Juilliard School of Music in 1946. He was the first Black to receive this honor diploma. Fuller held roles in Broadway plays such as "Finian's Rainbow" and "Kiss Me Kate," and appeared on radio shows in the 1940s. He is considered to be the first Black to host a national television show--a fifteen-minute show on NBC in 1947. Bishop John A. GreggJohn A. Gregg was born February 18, 1877, in Eureka, Kansas. This bishop of the A.M.E. Church served as a minister in Kansas, Missouri, and South Africa. He also served as president of Edward Waters College in Florida, Wilberforce University in Ohio, and Bethel Institute in Cape Town, South Africa. Although Gregg was elected the first Black president of Howard University, he declined to serve. During World War II, as the representative of the fraternal Council of Negro Churches, Gregg visited all war fronts under the appointment of President Franklin Roosevelt. Junius GrovesBorn in 1859 in Louisville, Kentucky, Groves came to Kansas at the age of nineteen. He worked at the meat packing houses in Armourdale and later moved to Edwardsville. Here he purchased eighty acres of land and began to raise white potatoes. His business prospered and he became known as the "Potato King of the World." At the height of his success he owned more than five hundred acres. Groves and his wife Matilda built a twenty-room mansion, and the Union Pacific Railway built a special track to his property. In 1913 he founded the community of Groves Center, selling small tracts of land to Black families, which contributed to the exoduster movement. Coleman Hawkins
Born in 1904 in St. Joseph, Missouri, Coleman Hawkins became a prominent figure in jazz and a great tenor saxophone playear. He became interested in music early in his life after attending frequent concerts with his mother at the Topeka auditorium where they had season tickets. He attended Washburn College for about two years and began playing with a band full time in Chicago by the time he was seventeen years old. He played with mamie Smith's Jazz Hounds (1921-1923) and fletcher Henderson's orchestra (1923-1934). He is considered one of the most dynamic and crucial tenor sax figures of the first half of the Twentieth Century. Hawkins died in 1969 in New York. James Langston HughesLangston Hughes is one of America's best-known poets. Although he grew up being identified as Black, his ancestry also included a mixture of Indian and white. His family knew the longtime struggle for racial freedom as his grandmother's first husband had died fighting alongside John Brown at Harper's Ferry, Virginia. Hughes lived most of his childhood years in Kansas where he was introduced to his great love of books. He loved poetry and began writing at an early age. Because of the discrimination and segregation that was present in Kansas during this time, Hughes left Kansas for Chicago in 1915. He later moved to New York City where he built his artistic reputation as part of New York's Harlem Renaissance. One of Hughes's most noted works, Not Without Laughter, is a novel about a boy growing up in a small Kansas town. Langston Hughes is also featured in Biographies. Two articles from Kansas History are also available: Mark Scott's "Langston Hughes of Kansas" and Richard B. Sheridan's "Charles Henry Langston and the African American Struggle in Kansas". 
Eva JessyeEva Jessye's life was centered around the arts, and she made contributions as a singer, actress, choral director, author, and poet. Jessye was born in Coffeyville and was acknowledged as the first African American woman to win international distinction as a director of a professional choral group. She directed the Eva Jessye Choir, which performed many styles of music including spirituals, work songs, mountain ballads, ragtime, jazz, and light opera. She also wrote poetry which she saw as another form of music. Delano LewisKansan Delano Lewis studied law at Washburn School of Law in Topeka. He went on to become an attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice. Lewis served as director of the Peace Corps in Nigeria and Uganda and president of the Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Company in Washington, D.C. He was the first Black president of National Public Radio in 1993. Lewis was born in Arkansas City. Nat LoveNat Love was born into slavery in Tennessee around 1854. As a young boy Nat learned the skills of roping, herding, and branding cattle and horses. After the Civil War, at the age of fifteen, Nat left his family and moved to Kansas to find work as a cowboy. His skills paid off and Nat Love was soon driving cattle up the trails. Legend says that Love earned the title of "Deadwood Dick" after winning a shooting contest in Deadwood City. Love was a working cowboy most of his life, recording his memories in later years. He died in 1925 at the age of seventy-one. Lutie LytleLutie Lytle was born in Murfreesboro, Tennessee around 1875. Lutie's parents, John R. and Mollie, her grandmother, and three siblings moved around 1882 to 1435 Monroe Street in Topeka. She and her brothers attended Topeka High School. Her father's involvement with the Populist Party led to her first job with a Black newspaper in Topeka, which inspired her to become a lawyer. At the age of 21 Lutie moved to Chattanooga, Tennessee, where she served as a teacher while studying law at Central Tennessee College. She earned her degree in 1897. A year later Lytle became an instructor there, teaching law of domestic relations, evidence, real property, crimes, and criminal procedure. Lytle was reportedly the only woman law instructor in the world at this time. She later married Alfred C. Cowan and lived in Brooklyn, New York. Lutie's death date is unknown. Edward McCabeEdward McCabe was one of the early settlers in Nicodemus, Kansas. He began his political career as clerk of Graham County in 1880, making him one of the first Black officials to be appointed in Kansas. Two years later McCabe became the Kansas state auditor on the Republican ticket, which gave him the distinction of being the first Black to hold a statewide office in a northern state. McCabe held this office for two terms. However, by 1888 opportunities for Blacks in Kansas were decreasing, and McCabe was not renominated. McCabe soon focused his efforts on creating a state for Blacks in Oklahoma Territory, a dream that never materialized. McCabe did, however, keep his hand in politics, serving as deputy auditor of Oklahoma Territory from 1897 to 1907.
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