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Vada Somerville
Vada Watson Somerville, D.D.S. (November 1, 1885 – October 28, 1972) was a civil rights activist and the second African-American woman in California to receive a Doctor of Dental Surgery degree. Personal life and family Vada Somerville was born on November 1, 1885, in Pomona, California. Her mother was Dorothy Watson McDonald, a migrant from Arkansas. Education In 1903, Somerville received a scholarship through the Los Angeles Times to the University of Southern California (USC). After graduating from USC, Somerville worked as a book keeper and a telephone operator. In 1912, she married John Alexander Somerville, a Doctor of Dental Surgery who she met while in college. A graduate of the USC School of Dentistry, John Somerville originally planned to return to his native Jamaica to practice dentistry. After their marriage, the couple decided to stay in Los Angeles. In 1914, the couple founded the NAACP Los Angeles center. After the United States entered World War I, Vad ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Alexander Somerville
John Alexander Somerville, D.D.S. (1882 – February 11, 1972) was an African American Civil rights activist, dentist, and entrepreneur. A well-known community figure in Los Angeles, Somerville was an accomplished dentist who went on to co-found the Los Angeles branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. He is most well known for building Hotel Somerville, now known as Dunbar Hotel. Early life and education John Alexander Somerville was born in Jamaica in 1882 to Thomas G. Somerville and Frances A. Somerville née Cowell. Thomas was a principal and Anglican minister, while Frances taught at the Anglican school that Thomas administered. Somerville completed his pre-college education in Jamaica, but he failed an exam for a university scholarship. Rather than re-take the exam, he became a bookkeeper for an export company. After two years of saving, he relocated to the United States at the age of 20. Arriving in San Francisco in 1902, Somerville initial ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
University Of California, Los Angeles
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California State Normal School (now San José State University). This school was absorbed with the official founding of UCLA as the Southern Branch of the University of California in 1919, making it the second-oldest of the 10-campus University of California system (after UC Berkeley). UCLA offers 337 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in a wide range of disciplines, enrolling about 31,600 undergraduate and 14,300 graduate and professional students. UCLA received 174,914 undergraduate applications for Fall 2022, including transfers, making the school the most applied-to university in the United States. The university is organized into the College of Letters and Science and 12 professional schools. Six of the schools offer undergraduate degre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
NAACP Activists
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E. B. Du Bois, Mary White Ovington, Moorfield Storey and Ida B. Wells. Leaders of the organization included Thurgood Marshall and Roy Wilkins. Its mission in the 21st century is "to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate race-based discrimination". National NAACP initiatives include political lobbying, publicity efforts and litigation strategies developed by its legal team. The group enlarged its mission in the late 20th century by considering issues such as police misconduct, the status of black foreign refugees and questions of economic development. Its name, retained in accordance with tradition, uses the once common term ''colored people,'' referring to those wi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1972 Deaths
Year 197 ( CXCVII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Magius and Rufinus (or, less frequently, year 950 '' Ab urbe condita''). The denomination 197 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years. Events By place Roman Empire * February 19 – Battle of Lugdunum: Emperor Septimius Severus defeats the self-proclaimed emperor Clodius Albinus at Lugdunum (modern Lyon). Albinus commits suicide; legionaries sack the town. * Septimius Severus returns to Rome and has about 30 of Albinus's supporters in the Senate executed. After his victory he declares himself the adopted son of the late Marcus Aurelius. * Septimius Severus forms new naval units, manning all the triremes in Italy with heavily armed troops for war in the East. His soldiers embark ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1885 Births
Events January–March * January 3– 4 – Sino-French War – Battle of Núi Bop: French troops under General Oscar de Négrier defeat a numerically superior Qing Chinese force, in northern Vietnam. * January 4 – The first successful appendectomy is performed by Dr. William W. Grant, on Mary Gartside. * January 17 – Mahdist War in Sudan – Battle of Abu Klea: British troops defeat Mahdist forces. * January 20 – American inventor LaMarcus Adna Thompson patents a roller coaster. * January 24 – Irish rebels damage Westminster Hall and the Tower of London with dynamite. * January 26 – Mahdist War in Sudan: Troops loyal to Mahdi Muhammad Ahmad conquer Khartoum; British commander Charles George Gordon is killed. * February 5 – King Leopold II of Belgium establishes the Congo Free State, as a personal possession. * February 9 – The first Japanese arrive in Hawaii. * February 16 – Charles Dow publishes ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rosa Parks
Rosa Louise McCauley Parks (February 4, 1913 – October 24, 2005) was an American activist in the civil rights movement best known for her pivotal role in the Montgomery bus boycott. The United States Congress has honored her as "the first lady of civil rights" and "the mother of the freedom movement". On December 1, 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, Parks rejected bus driver James F. Blake's order to vacate a row of four seats in the "colored" section in favor of a White passenger, once the "White" section was filled. Parks was not the first person to resist bus segregation, but the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) believed that she was the best candidate for seeing through a court challenge after her arrest for civil disobedience in violating Alabama segregation laws, and she helped inspire the Black community to boycott the Montgomery buses for over a year. The case became bogged down in the state courts, but the federal Montgomery bu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brown V
Brown is a color. It can be considered a composite color, but it is mainly a darker shade of orange. In the CMYK color model used in printing or painting, brown is usually made by combining the colors Orange (colour), orange and black. In the RGB color model used to project colors onto television screens and computer monitors, brown combines red and green. The color brown is seen widely in nature, wood, soil, human brown hair, hair color, eye color and Human skin color, skin pigmentation. Brown is the color of dark wood or rich soil. According to public opinion surveys in Europe and the United States, brown is the least favorite color of the public; it is often associated with plainness, the rustic, feces, and poverty. More positive associations include baking, warmth, wildlife, and the autumn. Etymology The term is from Old English , in origin for any dusky or dark shade of color. The first recorded use of ''brown'' as a color name in English was in 1000. The Common Germanic a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alpha Kappa Alpha
Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. () is the first intercollegiate historically African American sorority. The sorority was founded on January 15, 1908, at the historically black Howard University in Washington, D.C., by a group of sixteen students led by Ethel Hedgeman Lyle. Forming a sorority broke barriers for African-American women in areas where they had little power or authority due to a lack of opportunities for minorities and women in the early 20th century. Alpha Kappa Alpha was incorporated on January 29, 1913. The sorority is one of the nation's largest Greek-letter organizations, having had more than 300,000 members in 1,024 chapters in the United States and several other countries. Women may join through undergraduate chapters at a college or university, or they may be invited to join by a graduate chapter after acquiring an undergraduate or advanced college degree. Alpha Kappa Alpha is part of the National Pan-Hellenic Council (NPHC). The current International Pr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
National Council Of Negro Women
The National Council of Negro Women (NCNW) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1935 with the mission to advance the opportunities and the quality of life for African-American women, their families, and communities. Mary McLeod Bethune, the founder of NCNW, wanted to encourage the participation of Negro women in civic, political, economic and educational activities and institutions. The organization was considered as a cleaning house for the dissemination of activities concerning women but wanted to work alongside a group who supported civil rights rather than go to actual protests. Women on the council fought more towards political and economic successes of black women to uplift them in society. NCNW fulfills this mission through research, advocacy, national and community-based services and programs in the United States and Africa. NCNW serves as a super organization that acts as a cohesive umbrella for the other African-American groups that already existed. With its 28 natio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dunbar Hotel
The Dunbar Hotel, originally known as the Hotel Somerville, was the focal point of the Central Avenue African-American community in Los Angeles, California, during the 1930s and 1940s. Built in 1928 by John Alexander Somerville, it was known for its first year as the Hotel Somerville. Upon its opening, it hosted the first national convention of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) to be held in the western United States. In 1930, the hotel was renamed the Dunbar, and it became the most prestigious hotel in LA's African-American community. In the early 1930s, a nightclub opened at the Dunbar, and it became the center of the Central Avenue jazz scene in the 1930s and 1940s. The Dunbar hosted Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong, Lionel Hampton, Count Basie, Lena Horne, and many other jazz legends. Other noteworthy people who stayed at the Dunbar include W. E. B. Du Bois, Joe Louis, Ray Charles, and Thurgood Marshall. Former ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
YWCA
The Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) is a nonprofit organization with a focus on empowerment, leadership, and rights of women, young women, and girls in more than 100 countries. The World office is currently based in Geneva, Switzerland, and the nonprofit is headquartered in Washington, DC. The YWCA is independent of the YMCA, but a few local YMCA and YWCA associations have merged into YM/YWCAs or YMCA-YWCAs and belong to both organizations, while providing the programs from each. Governance Structure The World Board is the governing body of the World YWCA, and includes representatives from all regions of the global YWCA movement. The World Council is the legislative authority and governing body of the World YWCA. The 20 women who serve on the World Board are elected during the World Council, which meets every four years to make decisions that impact the entire movement. This includes the World YWCA’s policy, constitution, strategic direction, and budgets. Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
