Costume designer Ruth E. Carter was born on April 10, 1960 in Springfield, Massachusetts to Mabel Carter and Ralph Carter. Carter received her B.A. degree in theater arts from the Hampton Institute (later Hampton University) in 1982.

After graduating from the Hampton Institute, Carter completed internships at City Stage in Springfield, Massachusetts and the Santa Fe Opera in New Mexico. She then moved to Los Angeles, California, where she worked for the Los Angeles Theatre Center. Carter made her debut as a film costume designer when she worked on director Spike Lee’s School Daze in 1988. Throughout her career, Carter has served as the costume designer for over sixty film and television projects including Spike Lee’s Do The Right Thing in 1989, Spike Lee’s Malcolm X in 1992, Steven Spielberg’s Amistad in 1997, Being Mary Jane in 2013, Ava DuVernay’s Selma in 2014, Roots in 2016, Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther in 2018, Craig Brewer’s Dolemite Is My Name in 2019, Craig Brewer’s Coming 2 America in 2021, and Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever in 2022. Carter won an Academy Award for her work on Black Panther in 2019, making her the first African American person to win an Academy Award in Best Costume Design. She also became the first African American female to win two Academy Awards in 2023. Carter’s costumes have been featured in two traveling exhibits: Heroes & Sheroes: The Art and Influence of Ruth E. Carter in Black Cinema and Ruth E. Carter: Afrofuturism In Costume Design in 2023. That same year, Carter published her book The Art of Ruth E. Carter: Costuming Black History and the Afrofuture, from Do the Right Thing to Black Panther with Chronicle Books.

Carter has received numerous awards and honors including the Career Achievement Award from the American Black Film Festival in 2002, the 2015 Black Women in Hollywood Visionary Award from Essence Magazine, an Emmy Award nomination from the Television Academy for Roots in 2016, the Costume Designers Guild Award for Excellence in Fantasy Film in 2018, the Career Achievement Award from the Costume Designers Guild in 2019, the San Diego Film Critic Society (SDFCS) Award for Best Costume Design in 2020, a Satellite Award for Best Costume Design from the International Press Academy in 2020, a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame from the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce in 2021, the Costume Designers Guild Award for Excellence in Contemporary Film in 2021, the NAACP Image Award in 2023, three Black Reel Awards for Outstanding Costume Design from the Foundation for the Augmentation of African Americans in Film (FAAAF) in 2018, 2019, and 2022, and three Critics’ Choice Movie Awards for Best Costume Design from the Critics’ Choice Association in 2018, 2019, and 2022. In addition, Carter received an Academy Award for Best Costume Design for Black Panther in 2019 and again in 2023 for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. She also received an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Hampton University in 2023.

Ruth E. Carter was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on April 15, 2023.

University president and cardiologist Dr. Paula A. Johnson was born in New York City to Grayce Young Johnson and Edward Johnson on September 24, 1959. Johnson received her B.A. degree cum laude in biology with a minor in history from Harvard University’s Radcliffe College in 1980, her M.D. degree from Harvard Medical School in 1985, and her M.P.H. degree from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in 1985.

In 1985, Johnson joined Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts as a medical resident. In 1990, Johnson became an instructor for Harvard Medical School, a role she held for ten years. Johnson was promoted to assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School in 1997, associate professor in 2003, and then professor of medicine in 2013. She became the Grayce A. Young Family professor of medicine in women's health at Harvard Medical School in 2015. In 1992, Johnson was hired as a clinical epidemiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. She also served as the medical director for quality improvement in the Department of Quality Management Services at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital from 1995 to 2002. Johnson founded and served as director of the Center for Cardiovascular Disease in Women at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School as well as the Mary Horrigan Connors Center for Women’s Health and Gender Biology. In 2016, Johnson became a professor of women’s health studies and the first African American president and 14th president of Wellesley College in Wellesley, Massachusetts.

As a committed civic leader, Johnson served on numerous boards including the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the Center for Reproductive Rights, the Isabella Stewart Gardener Museum, and the Museum of Science, Boston. Johnson also served as vice chair of the Harvard Medical School Alumni Association, was a member of the National Academy of Medicine, and was appointed to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences' Commission on Investment Imperatives for a Healthy Nation.

Johnson received numerous awards and honors including the Excellence in Women’s Health Award from the Jacobs Institute for Women’s Health at George Washington University in 2007, an induction into the International Women’s Forum Hall of Fame in 2015, the Walker Prize from the Museum of Science, Boston, in 2016, the Alma Dea Maran, MD Renaissance Woman Award from the Foundation for the History of Women in Medicine in 2016, the Wainwright Social Justice Award from Eastern Bank in 2018, a feature on The Boston Business Journal’s “Power 50” list in 2020, a feature on the Commonwealth Institute’s “Top 100 Women-Led Businesses” list in 2020, the Alumni Award of Merit from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in 2021, and the Harvard Medal in 2023. Johnson also received honorary degrees from Russell Sage College in 2016, Simmons College in 2016, the University of Maryland, Baltimore County in 2018, the UMass Chan Medical School in 2022, and Princeton University in 2024.

Dr. Paula A. Johnson was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on March 3, 2023.

Cultural activist Arif Khatib was born on June 7, 1934, to Claudia and Mack Smith in Leola, Arkansas. Khatib attended El Cerrito High School and then transferred in his junior year to Contra Costa College. He left the college in 1954. In the 1960s, he did a two year radiology program at Merritt College. He later attended correspondence courses at Golden Gate University before transferring to San Jose State University, where he earned his B.A. degree in business.

Khatib began his career working in the passenger services, operations department for Southern Pacific Railroad in 1953. In 1960, Khatib started representing the business and financial affairs of several African American players with the Oakland Raiders, Oakland A's, San Francisco Giants, and San Francisco Warriors. He then served as a member of the Afro-American Association in Oakland, California in 1962, worked as the special event coordinator on the campaign of then Berkeley Councilman Ronald Dellums in 1968, and taught industrial relations and labor management at the University of California, Berkeley in 1969. In 1968, Khatib was hired as the national sales coordinator for the Black and Brown Trading Stamp and then he helped to establish the Russian River Jazz Festival in Guerneville, California in 1972. Khatib founded his own record label, Skytime Entertainment, in 1986 before selling the label in 1998. In 1992, Khatib also founded the Rodney Strong Vineyard Summer Concert Series. In 2000, Khatib founded the African American Ethnic Sports Hall of Fame, later renamed as the Multi-Ethnic Sports Hall of Fame, where he served as president. He then launched the internet radio show, National & International Roundtable, which he co-hosted with Judge Fad Wilson Jr. in 2013. Khatib wrote six books including two books co-authored with Pete Elman: In the Shadow of Obscurity: Toiling in a Reluctant Society in 2020 and Remember Their Sacrifice: Stories of Unheralded Athletes of Color in 2023. Khatib also wrote the preface to Dr. Linda Taylor’s A Woman’s Ticket to Understanding Football in 2024. In the same year, Khatib served as the executive producer of the documentary film Because They Believed, which streamed on numerous platforms including Amazon Prime and Apple TV.

Khatib joined the NAACP in 1980. Since 1998, he served on the Life Long Medical Care board. In 2011, Khatib started serving as a consultant in Allen Temple Church’s drug and violence prevention program. Khatib also worked as a cultural ambassador for the Indian American Hindu Community.

Khatib received numerous recognitions for his professional achievements, including an “Ambassador for Peace Award” from the Universal Peace Federation in 1984.

Khatib resides in Oakland, California. He has four children, Lorre, Phyllis, Khalil, and Khadijah.

Arif Khatib was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on January 5, 2024.

Academic administrator Paula Allen-Meares was born on February 29, 1948, in Buffalo, New York to Mary and Joseph Allen. She graduated from the State University of New York at Buffalo in 1969 with her B.S. degree. Allen-Meares then attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, receiving her M.S.W. degree in 1971 and her Ph.D. degree in social work and educational administration in 1975.

Allen-Meares began working at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1977 as a visiting lecturer in the School of Social Work, becoming an assistant professor in 1978. She was promoted to associate professor in 1983; and, in 1989, she was promoted to full professor and acting dean of the School of Social Work. In 1990, she was promoted to dean and held this position until 1993, when she was hired as dean of the University of Michigan School of Social Work. Under her leadership, she also oversaw the fundraising for and construction of a new facility for the school and the school’s endowment increased by over forty million dollars, which significantly enhanced the financial stability of the school. In 2009, Allen-Meares returned to the University of Illinois as Chancellor and had faculty appointments in the schools of education and social work, as well as in the school of public health beginning with a dual appointment at University of Illinois Chicago campus and University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign campus. She was also appointed the John Corbally Presidential Professor and the Chancellor of the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), a role she held until 2015. As Chancellor, she was instrumental in raising almost $676 million for the school, which is the most money ever raised by UIC.

Allen-Meares served on the visiting committees of the schools of social work at the University of Pittsburgh, Washington University in St. Louis, and the University of Southern California. She also became a member of the National Association of Social Workers in 1982 and chaired its communications committee from 1993 to 1997. Allen-Meares served on the board of trustees of the W.T. Grant Foundation from 1999 to 2008 and was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies in 2004 and as a trustee of the New York Academy of Medicine in 2007.

Allen-Meares authored numerous academic articles and books including Social Work Practice: Integrating Qualitative and Quantitative Data Collection Techniques, Is Social Work Racist? A Content Analysis of Recent Literature, and Neglected Victims of Murder: Children's Witness to Parental Homicide and the seventh edition of Social Work Services in Schools, which was published by multiple presses, in 2015. She coauthored the book The School Services Sourcebook: A Guide for School-Based Professionals.

Allen-Meares is married to Henry Meares. The couple have three daughters, Tracey, Nicki, and Shannon.

Paula Allen-Meares was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on November 12, 2024.

Art historian and curator Cheryl Finley was born on February 15, 1964 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Gail Tabourne Finley and Harold Euguene Finley, Jr. Finley received her B.A. degree in Spanish from Wellesley College in 1986, her M.A. degree in African American studies and the history of art from Yale University in 1988, and her Ph.D. degree in African American studies and the history of art from Yale University in 2002.

Between 1988 and 1992, Finley worked as an art appraiser for Penelope Dixon & Associates. She founded the Art Research Consortium in 1993, where she worked as a writer, consultant, and appraiser. In 2002, Finley served as an adjunct curator and visiting assistant professor at Wellesley College. She then joined Cornell University in 2003 as a visiting assistant professor and then, in 2004, was promoted to assistant professor and visiting art critic at Cornell University. By 2009, Finley rose to become the director of visual studies at Cornell University and associate professor in 2012. In 2015, she was a faculty-in-residence at Cornell University’s North Campus Faculty Program. Beginning in 2019, Finley served as the inaugural director of the Atlanta University Center Art History Curatorial Studies Collective and as a distinguished visiting professor at Spelman College. Finley additionally was a Harvard University visiting assistant professor, a University of Johannesburg research associate, an Alphonse Fletcher, Sr. fellow, and a Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture scholar-in-residence.

Finley was active in different community organizations. She joined The Girl Friends, Inc. in 1988 and since 2021, she served on the board of the Island Grown Initiative. In 2023, she joined the board of directors of the Menil Foundation and in 2024, she joined the board of Creative Capital.

Finley received numerous awards for her professional accomplishments. These awards include the James A. Porter Book Prize from Howard University in 2023, the Mr. and Mrs. Raymond J. Horowitz Book Prize from the Bard Graduate Center in 2019, the Historians of British Art Book Prize from the Historians of British Art in 2019, and the Sylvia Ardyn Boone Prize from Yale University in 1998.

Finley resides in Atlanta, Georgia. She has one daughter, Noura Elise Finley.

Cheryl Finley was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on July 30, 2024.

Stage manager Femi Sarah Heggie was born on March 6, 1948 to Mattie Scott and James T. Heggie in Kansas City, Kansas. Through a transitional year program, Heggie attended Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut and Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York, where she received her B.A. degree in journalism in 1971.

In 1968, Heggie worked as a journalist for the Southern Courier Newspaper, which did stories about people of color in the South, before joining the Negro Ensemble Company in 1969, writing articles about the company for the Southern Courier Newspaper, which included interviews of company members, Hattie Winston and co-founders Douglas Turner Ward and Robert Hooks. In 1970, she became Nina Simone’s personal assistant. She also worked in advertising sales for the Amsterdam News between 1971 and 1972. Heggie fulfilled her lifelong dream of working for Aretha Franklin when she was hired as her personal assistant in 1972. That same year, she served as a personal assistant to Hilda Harris. She was the personal assistant to Lena Horne in 1996. Between 1999 and 2004, Heggie served as the production manager for Aaron Davis Hall and taught as an adjunct professor of theatre at Pace University in New York City in 2003.

Throughout her career, Heggie was involved in numerous theatrical and film productions, including theatrical director Woodie King, Jr.’s first play, Why Charlie Can’t Win No Wars on the Ground & Misjudgment. She designed the costumes for the play Black Girl in 1971. In 1976, she served as a stage manager for the first national tour of Bubbling Brown Sugar, featuring actors Charles “Honi” Coles, Tamara Tunie, and Jasmine Guy. She was also a stage manager for the international tour of the Houston Grand Opera’s production of Porgy and Bess, as well as Once on This Island and Chess in 1990. While working on Once on This Island, Heggie went to New York to see Jelly’s Last Jam, eventually becoming a stage manager of that show in 1992. Heggie worked on 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks’ production crew for Spike Lee’s Malcolm X. She was also a personal assistant on The Preacher’s Wife, starring Denzel Washington and Whitney Houston, in 1996. Throughout the 1990s, Heggie worked as a stage manager on Broadway productions including The Song of Jacob Zulu with Ladysmith Black Mambazo in 1993 and Rollin on the T.O.B.A. in 1999. She also worked on B.J. Ward’s Stand-Up Opera, which was a touring production, and the national tour of Bring In Da Noise/Bring In Da Funk. Additionally, she was the production stage manager of The Jenny Burton Experience and a stage manager of The Wiz in Japan with Stephanie Mills.

Heggie helped develop the Vivian Robinson/AUDELCO (Audience Development Awards) Recognition Awards in 1973 and served as a board member for The Stage Managers’ Association (SMA) in 1982. She also served on the board of the Duke Ellington Center for the Arts in New York. In 2005, Heggie was featured on the cover of Lawrence Stern’s eighth edition of the manual Stage Management, as well as in features in the ninth and eleventh editions and a Chinese translation.

Heggie resides in New York City, New York.

Femi Sarah Heggie was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on February 14, 2024.

Civic leader, political leader, and mortician Marco S. Sommerville was born on July 1, 1951 to Jewel and Robert Sommerville in Akron, Ohio. Sommerville graduated from Buchtel High School in Akron, Ohio in 1969. He then attended Kent State University before attending the Cincinnati College of Mortuary Science, where he received his B.M.S. degree in 1974.

In 1974, Sommerville founded Sommerville Funeral Services to service Akron’s African American community. He then began his career in city government in 1987 as a city councilman for the City of Akron, Ohio in 1987 and served in that capacity until 2015. He also served as president of Akron City Council between 2001 and 2013 and the director of Akron’s planning and urban development department from 2013 to 2016. In 2016, he became the deputy mayor of intergovernmental affairs.

Sommerville has a history of community service and has served on the board of the Summit County Visitor Bureau, the Summit County Land Bank, the Akron Zoo, the Akron Summit Community Action, the Summit County Board of Elections, and the Summit County Public Health, as well as chaired the Akron Joint Board of Review. Sommerville was the president of Westside Neighbor and Cleveland Funeral Directors. He is a member of the Buckeye Funeral Directors, the NAACP, Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, and a 33rd degree Mason. In 2019, he was appointed to the Akron Metropolitan Housing Authority, becoming its chair in 2022. In 2022, he also was appointed honorary chair of the Akron Bicentennial Commission.

Sommerville has received numerous awards for his achievements. These awards include the Leadership Extraordinaire Award from the Akron Urban League in 1985, the Appreciation Award from the Akron NAACP in 1990, the Summit County Government on the Move Award from Summit County in 1992, the Summit County Democratic Party Democrat of the Year Award in 2002, the Ohio School Boards Association President’s Award in 2006, Akron’s Project Grad Lifetime Achievement Award in 2017, Kent State University Black Alumni Chapter’s Community Service and Leadership Award in 2023, and the TriCounty Regional Labor Council’s Peter Bommarito Community Award in 2023.

Sommerville and his wife, Debra, reside in Akron, Ohio. They have three children, Marco, Shayla, and Margo.

Marco Sommerville was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on October 31, 2023.

School superintendent Blondean Y. Davis was born on August 5, 1949, in Chicago, Illinois, to Beulah and Willie Harmon. In 1965, Davis graduated from Francis W. Parker High School in Chicago, Illinois. Davis received her B.S. degree in history in 1970, her M.Ed. degree in administration and supervision in 1975, and her Ed.D. degree in 1983, respectively from Loyola University in Chicago, Illinois.

Davis joined the Chicago Vocational High School as a coordinator for attendance and discipline in 1976 and worked there until 1983. From 1984 to 1993, Davis served as the principal of Gompers Fine Arts School in Chicago before becoming the superintendent of Chicago Public Schools (CPS) District 10. In 1995, Davis was promoted to deputy chief education officer and then rose to chief of schools and regions in 1997. Davis served at the Chicago Public Schools for over thirty years. In 2001, Davis worked as a consultant to Chicago City Colleges and St. Xavier University in training prospective school principals. In 2002, Davis became the superintendent of Matteson School District 162 in Matteson, Illinois, where she oversaw six elementary schools and a middle school and led each school to an Illinois Academic Improvement Award. In 2010, Davis became the founding CEO of Southland Prep Charter High School in Matteson, the first public charter high school in the Chicago suburbs.

Davis served on the board of directors for Governors State University, the National Conference for Community and Justice, the Lincoln Park Zoo, and as the Chicago citywide chair of the United Negro College Fund. Davis also worked as a member of The School Superintendents Associations (AASA) beginning in 2007.

Davis has received numerous awards and honors, including the Diversity Inc. Outstanding Administrator Award in 2006, an honorary doctorate of humane letters from Governors State University in 2009, the Ida B. Wells Risk Taker Award from the National Alliance of Black School Educators in 2017, and the School Superintendent Association’s Women in School Leadership Superintendent Award in 2018. In 2008, she was named Superintendent of the Year by the Illinois Association of School Administrators.

Davis lives in Orland Park, Illinois.

Blondean Y. Davis was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on January 28, 2023.

Music publisher Gale Grain Monk was born on July 30, 1958 to Dora and Walter Grain in Brooklyn, New York City, New York. Monk attended Jamaica High School in Queens, New York and received her high school diploma in 1976. In 1984, she received her B.A. degree in broadcast journalism from the City College of New York and later attended Long Island University in Brooklyn, New York.

While in college, Monk spent two summers interning at CBS Records, working in the Black Music Marketing division her first summer and for the publishing company her second summer. In 1983, she was hired as a reporter at United Press International (UPI) where she remained until 1985. Monk then was a K-6 public school teacher for four years. On September 14, 1985, she married jazz musician Thelonious Sphere “T.S.” Monk, III in Brooklyn, New York. She began managing her husband’s music catalogue after the death of his “T.S. Monk” R&B group bandmates, his sister Barbara Monk and vocalist Yvonne Fletcher. Monk also assumed management of the music catalogue of jazz pianist and composer Thelonious Monk, the father of “T.S.” Monk. Alongside her husband, Monk co-founded the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz in 1986, a non-profit jazz music education organization. In 1989, Monk became the manager of the Thelonious Monk Estate, making her one of the few African American females in jazz music publishing. In this role, she oversaw numerous projects from remastering Thelonious Monk’s works to reinstating the rights to his music. One of the songs Monk worked towards regaining the rights to was Thelonious Monk’s 1943 song “Round Midnight,” which became a jazz standard for jazz musicians and listeners and the most recorded song in the history of jazz. Monk was able to obtain one third of the rights to the song back from the record company and other individuals who had credited themselves on the Thelonious Monk’s songs. Other songs Monk worked on reinstating the rights to include the 1947 song “Ruby, My Dear” and the 1952 song “Bemsha Swing.” In addition to her with the Thelonius Monk Estate, Monk joined the Institution of Jazz Foundation in 2018.

Monk resides in Vineyard Haven, Massachusetts. She has two children, Sierre and Thelonious IV. Sierre is a senior content manager and Thelonious IV works for the Thelonious Monk Estate.

Gale Grain Monk was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on July 28, 1924.

Physicist Michael Duryea Williams was born on January 5, 1957 to Claudia Williams and Henry Williams, Jr. in Dothan, Alabama. Williams attended Dothan High School in Dothan, Alabama and was a 1974 National Achievement Scholarship Program for Outstanding Negro Students finalist. He received his B.S. degree in physics from Morehouse College in 1979, his B.S. degree in nuclear engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology in 1979, his M.S. degree in physics from Stanford University in 1981, and his Ph.D. degree in physics from Stanford University in 1987.

Williams was a research assistant at Stanford University between 1980 and 1986, as well as a visiting scientist at IBM’s Almaden Research Center between 1986 and 1987. In 1987, he became a member technical staff in the Optoelectronics Research Department at Bell Laboratories. He was then hired as an associate professor of physics and the director of the Center of Excellence in Microelectronics and Photonics at Clark Atlanta University in 1994. Williams was promoted to professor of physics in 2013 and became the director of the Center of Excellence in Material Physics in 2014. Williams served as the interim chair of the Clark Atlanta University Department of Physics between 2004 and 2006 as well as between 2018 and 2020. He became the department chair in 2020.

Over the course of his career, Williams published over one hundred scientific articles including Molecular beam studies of H2 and D2 dissociative chemisorption on Pt (111) in 1990 with A.C. Luntz and J.K. Brown, The sticking of O2 on a Pt (111) surface in 1988 with A.C. Luntz and D.S. Bethune, and Electrical study of Schottky barriers on atomically clean GaAs (110) surfaces in 1986 with N. Newman, M. Van Schilfgaarde, T. Kendelwicz, and W.E. Spicer.

Williams became a member of the American Physical Society (APS) in 1980 and in 2002 was appointed as the APS chair of the committee on minorities. Williams joined the American Vacuum Society (AVS) in 1981 and subsequently served in the roles of president, director, and trustee for the AVS. In 2022, he was named as an AVS fellow. Williams became the first African American president of AVS when he was elected to the role in 2023.

Williams and his wife, Felicia Price Williams, reside in Stone Mountain, Atlanta. They have a blended family of five children: Phillip Williams, Jared Williams, Courtney Williams, Reilly Smith and Ryan Smith.

Michael Duryea Williams was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on March 1, 2024.