Lawyer and political leader Karen Freeman-Wilson was born on October 24, 1960 in Gary, Indiana to Myrlin and Travis Freeman. She earned her B.A. degree in economics and African American Studies from Harvard University in 1982 and her J.D. degree from Harvard Law School in 1985 in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

After law school, Freeman-Wilson became director of the Indiana Civil Rights Commission in Indianapolis, serving in this role from 1988 to 1992. In 1988, she went into private practice in Gary, Indiana and was elected in 1994 to serve as a judge on the Gary City Court. In 2000, she went to serve for one year as the Indiana Attorney General. That same year, Freeman-Wilson joined the National Association of Drug Court Professionals in Alexandria, Virginia, and later served as its president and chief executive officer for five years. Then, in 2011, Freeman-Wilson made history when she was elected as the first female Mayor of Gary, Indiana. She served in this role until 2019. She became president, in 2020, of the Chicago Urban League in Chicago, Illinois. In addition to her legal and civic leadership, Freeman-Wilson also pursued legal education as a profession as an adjunct professor of family law at the Valparaiso University School of Law in Valparaiso, Indiana from 1987 to 1988 and as an adjunct professor of trial advocacy at Indiana University School of Law in Indianapolis, Indiana from 1990 to 1992. Subsequently, from 2001 to 2006, she served as the lead faculty member at the National Judicial College in Reno, Nevada.

During her career, Freeman-Wilson served on the boards of Sandy Hook Promise, the National Police Foundation, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Center for Community Progress, the Cities for Financial Empowerment Fund, and the National Association of Drug Court Professionals. She is a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., the Northern Indiana Chapter of Links, Inc., the American Bar Association, and the Indiana State Bar Association.

Her numerous honors include the Sagamore of the Wabash Award (from former Indiana Governors Evan Bayh and Frank O’Bannon), the Achievement in Civil Rights Award from Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., the Senator Carolyn Mosby Above and Beyond Award from Indiana Black Expo, a Woman of Distinction Award from the YWCA of Gary, induction into the Stanley Goldstein Drug Court Hall of Fame, a bicentennial medal from Indiana University in 2019, and the Edward H. Wright Award from the Cook County Bar Association in 2022. Ebony magazine featured Freeman-Wilson on its 50 Leaders of the Future list in 1989.

She resides in Gary, Indiana with her husband, Mr. Carmen Wilson II, and they have children.

The Honorable Karen Freeman-Wilson was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on May 22, 2023.

Activist Velma Murphy Hill was born on October 17, 1938 in Chicago, Illinois to Ruby and Wilson Murphy. As a child, Hill attended labor protests with her mother, Ruby Murphy, who was a labor organizer. Hill graduated from Wendell Phillips Academy High School in Chicago in 1956 and attended Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Illinois and Roosevelt University in Chicago, Illinois.

Hill became president of the Chicago South Side NAACP Youth Council in 1960. That same year, she led a wade-in protest at Lake Michigan’s Rainbow Beach alongside Norman Hill, who would later become her husband. In 1961, Hill moved to New York City, where she began working as a field secretary for the Congress of Racial Equality. In 1963, she collaborated with Norman Hill, Bayard Rustin, A. Philip Randolph, and other civil rights and labor leaders to help organize the March on Washington. Following the creation of the A. Philip Randolph Institute in 1965, Hill was appointed a founding board member of the organization of African American trade unionists. In 1968, Hill left the Congress of Racial Equality and joined the United Federation of Teachers in New York City. There, she founded the paraprofessionals chapter and became the first person to serve as chapter chair. She also worked as assistant to the president and as a community organizer. Hill remained at the United Federation of Teachers for four years before becoming a vice president of the American Federation of Teachers in 1972. She stayed with the union for forty-one years. During her career as a labor organizer, Hill also served as civil and human rights director for the Service Employees International Union.

In 2021, Hill and her husband co-authored the article, A Vision of Racial and Economic Justice, for Dissent magazine, and in 2023, they published their joint memoir, Climbing the Rough Side of the Mountain: The Extraordinary Story of Love, Civil Rights, and Labor Activism, with Regalo Press.

Hill lives with her husband, Norman Hill, in New York City, New York.

Velma Murphy Hill was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on May 11, 2023.

Fashion designer and producer Jon Haggins was born on September 5, 1943 in Tampa, Florida, to Willie and John Haggins. He graduated from the High School of Fashion Industries in New York City in 1960 and earned his A.A.S. degree in fashion design from the Fashion Institute of Technology in 1964.

In 1965, Haggins launched Jon Haggins Designs in New York City, New York. His work and is work gained wide acclaim appearing in such publications as Cosmopolitan, Essence, Harper’s Bazaar, and Vogue. His clients included entertainers like Eartha Kitt and Martha Reeves. While Joe Haggins Designs would close between the years of 1975 to 1979, it would reopen in 1980. Haggins also performed as a cabaret singer for several years. In 197, he partnered with his friend Kiko Morgan and co-founded Teeze, Inc., a T-shirt printing business. From 1989 to 1999, he worked as a tour guide for Black heritage tours in New York City while producing several travel television programs. In 2000, Haggins became the producer and host of The Globetrotter, a weekly lifestyle and travel television series that aired for twenty-three years. He also published The African American Travel Guide to Hot, Exotic, and Fun-Filled Places in 2002 and his memoir, Just Being Jon, in 2022. In 2006, his work was featured in the Museum of the City of New York’s Black Style Now exhibit.

Haggins’s achievements across the fashion and travel media industries earned him numerous awards and honors. He received a Coty American Fashion Critics’ Award nomination and the Bristol Crème Award in 1980. In 2014, he received the Italian Award from the Italian Tourists Guide. Brooklyn Free Speech honored him with the Free Speech Award in 2016, 2018, 2020, and 2023.

Jon Haggins passed away on June 15, 2023.

Jon Haggins was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on May 11, 2023.

Entrepreneur and hair care company founder Eunice Mosley Dudley was born on February 11, 1943 in Selma, Alabama to Andrew Monroe Mosley, Sr. and Eva Murdock Mosley. She attended Talladega College in Talladega, Alabama.

While enrolled at Talladega College, Dudley spent her summers working as a door-to-door sales representative for the Fuller Products Company in Brooklyn, New York. In 1961, she married Joe Louis Dudley and began working at Fuller Products in 1962. In 1967, they moved to Greensboro, North Carolina, to establish a Fuller Products distributorship and in 1969, they launched both Dudley Products, Inc. and the DudleyQ brand. Dudley also led the design and construction of the company’s manufacturing and office facilities in Kernersville, North Carolina. In 1989, she helped launch the Dudley Cosmetology University and later became executive director of the Dudley Beauty School System.

Dudley served on the boards of the Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro, the Direct Selling Education Foundation, Bennett College, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, Providence Baptist Church, and the Greater Greensboro/Reidsville Club of the National Association of Negro Business and Professional Women’s Clubs, Inc., where she served as the financial secretary. She also was a contributor to the United Negro College Fund.

Over the course of her career, Dudley received many awards and honors. She was recognized with the Athena Award from the Greensboro Area Chamber of Commerce and the Crystal Award from the National Association of Negro Business and Professional Women’s Clubs, Inc. She also received the ASHRAE Technology Award and the Energy Efficient Building Award from Energy User News. In 1991, Bennett College awarded her an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree. She was named Kernersville First Citizen of the Year in 1993 and received the Legacy of Leadership Award from the National African American Women’s Leadership Institute in 2008. In 2013, Dudley was inducted into the Carolina Entrepreneur Hall of Fame at the McColl School of Business at Queen’s College in Charlotte, North Carolina. She received the Ollie Chin Porter Award in 2014 and the Long Leaf Pine Award from the State of North Carolina that same year.

Dudley resides in Kernersville, North Carolina. She has three children, Joe, Ursula, and Genea.

Eunice Mosley Dudley was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on April 21, 2023.

Entrepreneur Blairton Hampton was born on November 9, 1947 in Sanford, North Carolina to Joseph Hampton Jr. and Ernestine Rodgers Hampton. He entered the U.S. Armed Forces in 1968 and served for twenty-one years, attaining the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Army Reserves. He then enrolled at American University in Washington, D.C. earning his B.S. degree in business administration in 1975.

Hampton moved to Burlington, North Carolina in 1980 and was hired by the North Carolina National Bank, where he worked for seven years. In 1987, Hampton founded Century Products, LLC, a janitorial equipment and sales company, in Greensboro, North Carolina and served as its president and CEO until his retirement in 2020. His major clients included the Burger King Corporation, the Empire Brush Company, Hardee’s Restaurants, LLC, and the McDonald’s Corporation.

In 1995, Hampton founded and organized the Black-Owned Suppliers Association in partnership with other prominent Black suppliers to McDonald’s, serving as an active member for twenty-five years. Hampton also held positions on the Ronald McDonald House Charities Board, the Guilford Heart and Stroke Association Board, and the Cone Health Alamance Regional Philanthropy Board. Hampton volunteered and served on the board of directors for the American Heart Association, where in 2017 he launched the Minority Leaders Luncheon on Cardiovascular Health alongside Gerry McCants and Heart Walk directors Cory Phillips and Garet Beane. In 2018, Hampton collaborated with the American Heart Association, Mount Zion Baptist Church in Greensboro, North Carolina, and the Guilford County Health Department to establish the Hampton Family Community Health Initiative and the Hampton Family Mobile Kitchen, delivering healthy cooking courses to under-served communities across North Carolina’s greater Guilford County area.

During his career, Hampton received numerous honors and awards including the Minority Small Business Person of the Year Award from the Small Business Administration in 2014.

Hampton lives with his wife, Brenda Carol Parker, in Elon, North Carolina. They have two sons, Brandon Hampton and Brent Hampton, who has succeeded his father as the owner and CEO of Century Products, LLC.

Blairton Hampton was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on April 18, 2023.

Civic leader and federal government appointee Robert J. Brown was born on February 26, 1935 in High Point, North Carolina where he was raised by his grandparents, Nellie Marshall Brown and Marcus Brown. Brown graduated from the Penn-Griffin School for the Arts in High Point, North Carolina in 1953. He went on to attend North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University in Greensboro, North Carolina and Virginia Union University in Richmond, Virginia.

In 1956, Brown became one of the first African American police officers in the High Point Police Department. He joined the U.S. Department of the Treasury in 1958 as a federal narcotics agent in New York City, New York. After two years, Brown retired from policing and returned to High Point, North Carolina where he founded B&C Associates, Inc., a public relations firm, with his wife, Sallie Brown, in 1960 and served as its chief executive officer. As CEO, he worked with clients such as F.W. Woolworth Corporation, A&P Supermarkets, and S.C. Johnson. From 1968 to 1971, Brown took a leave from B&C Associates to serve as a special assistant to President Richard Nixon. During this time, he developed the U.S. Minority Enterprise Program and the U.S. Black College Program. In 1980, Brown founded the International BookSmart Foundation, which distributed more than five million books and opened more than 300 libraries across Africa.

Brown also worked as an advisor to several political and civic leaders, including as the director of information and research for Senator John F. Kennedy’s presidential campaign in New York in 1964. He also advised and raised funds for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and served as a confidant to the family of Nelson Mandela.

Brown sat on the boards of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the Nixon Foundation, Carl Byoir & Associates, the Wachovia Corporation, Sonoco Products, and Duke Energy Corporation. Throughout his career, he received numerous awards and honors, including ten honorary degrees from various universities. Brown received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the U.S. Small Business Administration; the Distinguished American Award from the Horatio Alger Association in 1990; the Alexis de Tocqueville Society Award from the United Way of Greater High Point in 2002; the High Point Citizen of the Year Award from High Point Enterprise in 2005; the Abe Venable Legacy Award for Lifetime Achievement from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Minority Business Development Agency in 2006; and the Collins Award from the National Urban League in 2009. In 2010, Brown was honored with the Executive Networking Conference Trailblazer Award, which is now named in his honor.

Brown resides in High Point, North Carolina.

Robert J. Brown was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on April 18, 2023.

Civic leader Shirley T. Frye was born on October 12, 1931 in Fremont, North Carolina to Edlenzie Taylor Sr. and Mattie Taylor. Frye received her B.S. degree in elementary education and English from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical (A&T) State University in Greensboro, North Carolina in 1953 and her M.S. degree in special education and psychology from Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York in 1958.

Frye began her career teaching both second grade and gifted children in the Greensboro Public Schools. Then, in 1955, she worked during summers as a visiting professor at her alma mater, North Carolina A&T State University for more than twenty years, until 1976. This is the same year that she joined the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction as a directional specialist for mentally and physically challenged students after leaving the public schools in 1967 to join Bennett College in Greensboro, North Carolina as a coordinator and professor of special education. Frye became a full-time employee at North Carolina A&T State University in 1977, working as assistant vice-chancellor of development and university relations and assistant director of the university foundation. Between 1987 and 1988, she co-managed Robert B. Jordan’s Democratic campaign for governor of North Carolina. Frye returned to Bennett College as special assistant to the president and director of planned giving in 1989. Three years later, Frye was employed by WFMY News-2 Television as a community affairs manager. She was promoted to vice president of community relations in 1994 and remained in this role until 2003. In 2006, Frye returned to North Carolina A&T State University as a special assistant to the chancellor.

Frye also was active in the community serving on the boards of numerous organizations including the Joseph McKinley Foundation, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina, the Greater Greensboro United Way, North Carolina A&T State University, Housing Opportunities of North Carolina, the Greensboro YWCA, and the Greensboro Chamber of Commerce.

During her career, she also received numerous awards and honors including the Nathaniel Greene Award for Community Service from the Greensboro Chamber of Commerce in 1972, the Woman of the Year Award from the National Council of Negro Women in 1986, the Living Legend Award from the YWCA in 2003, an honorary doctorate of humane letters from Bennett College in 2005, the North Carolina Award from the State of North Carolina in 2008, the Greensboro Partnership’s Distinguished Citizen Award in 2009, and the North Carolina A&T State University Alumni Achievement Award in 2013. In 2015, the Greensboro YWCA unanimously voted to change their facility’s name to the Shirley T. Frye building.

Frye lives with her husband, the Honorable Henry E. Frye, in Greensboro, North Carolina. They have two children, Henry and Harlan.

Shirley T. Frye was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on April 17, 2023.

Lawyer and politician Kwame Y. Raoul was born on September 30, 1964 in Chicago, Illinois to Marie and Dr. Janin Raoul. He earned his B.A. degree in political science in 1987 from DePaul University in Chicago and was awarded his J.D. degree in 1993 from Chicago-Kent College of Law.

Raoul began his legal career in 1993 as a prosecutor in the Criminal Appeals Division of the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office. In 1995, he ran for alderman of Chicago’s Fourth Ward and entered private practice the following year, co-founding the Jean-Baptiste Raoul Law Firm. He later served as counsel for the City Colleges of Chicago and, beginning in 2000, taught courses on labor law. In 2004, Raoul was appointed to the Illinois State Senate after then State Senator Barack Obama was elected to the United States Senate. Raoul was elected to a full term in 2006 and re-elected in 2010. During his time in office, Raoul continued to practice law and worked for Quarles and Brady LLP from 2012 until 2019. In January of 2019, Raoul was sworn in as the forty-second attorney general of Illinois. During his first term, Raoul joined the twenty-state coalition defending the Affordable Care Act in the U.S. Supreme Court. Raoul also supported police oversight, criminal justice reform, and investigations into retail theft across the state. He was elected to a second term in 2022.

During his career, Raoul has received numerous honors for his public service, including the Public Official of the Year Award from the Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police and the Lifetime Achievement Award from Planned Parenthood of Illinois. From 2014 to 2019, he served on the boards of International Child Care and Legal Prep Charter Academies. In 2000, Raoul founded the Janin and Marie Raoul Foundation, a health advocacy organization. He was also a founding member of the Haitian American Lawyers Association of Illinois. He is a member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc., and of the mentoring organization 100 Black Men of Chicago.

Raoul was married to Dr. Lisa Moore. They have two children, Che and Mizan Raoul, and reside in Chicago, Illinois.

The Honorable Kwame Raoul was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on June 5 and 27, 2024.

Entrepreneur and hair care company founder Joe Louis Dudley, Sr. was born on May 9, 1937 in Aurora, North Carolina to Clara and Gilmer Dudley. In 1962, he earned his B.S. degree in business administration from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical (A&M) State University in Greensboro, North Carolina.

While pursuing his degree, Dudley was hired by the Fuller Products Company as a hair care and beauty supply door-to-door salesman. In 1967, Dudley and his wife, Eunice Mosley Dudley, relocated from New York to Greensboro as independent distributors for Fuller Hair Products. Dudley purchased Rosebud Beauty Products and rebranded Rosebud Hair Pomade to Dudley’s Scalp Special in 1969. He opened the Dudley Products Company in 1975, and its earnings grew to approximately $1.5 million in annual sales that same year. After the Fuller Products Company filed for bankruptcy in 1970, Dudley operated both businesses simultaneously until consolidating them in 1980. In addition, he purchased the Fuller Products Company in 1985 and opened its first corporate office and manufacturing plant the following year. Between 1989 and 1995, the Dudley Products Company founded the Dudley Cosmetology University, several Dudley beauty schools, and cosmetology training programs in Zimbabwe and Brazil. In 2009, Dudley appeared in the documentary Good Hair, produced by comedian Chris Rock.

Dudley authored the book Walking by Faith: I Am, I Can & I Will in 1987. During his career, he also received numerous awards, including an award from the U.S. Commerce Department’s Minority Business Development Agency in 1988. In 1991, former President George H. W. Bush named Dudley the 467th Daily Point of Light for his significant contributions and service to the community. Dudley was also inducted into the National Black College Alumni Hall of Fame and the Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans in 1995.

Dudley had three children—Joe Dudley, Jr., Ursula Dudley Oglesby, and Genea Dudley—with his former wife, Eunice Mosley Dudley.

Dudley passed away on February 8, 2024.

He was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on April 21, 2023.

Judge Henry E. Frye was born on August 1, 1932 in Ellerbe, North Carolina to Pearl and Walter Frye. Frye received his B.S. degree in biology and chemistry from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical (A&T) State University in Greensboro in 1953 and his J.D. degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1959.

After graduating from North Carolina A&T State University, Frye served as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force for three years where he was stationed in San Antonio, Texas; Denver, Colorado; Suwon, South Korea; and Fukuoka, Japan. After returning to North Carolina and completing his J.D. degree, Frye opened his own law firm in Guilford County in 1959. In 1963, U.S. President John F. Kennedy appointed Frye as a U.S. assistant attorney, making Frye the first African American to hold that office in North Carolina. In 1965, Frye was hired as an adjunct professor at North Carolina Central University School of Law in Durham, North Carolin. Then, in 1968, Frye was elected to the North Carolina House of Representatives in 1968 where he served for eleven years, winning re-election five times. During this period, Frye also chaired the House of Representatives’ Guilford Delegation. In addition to his work as a state representative, Frye joined the Greensboro National Bank as its president in 1971. Ten years later, Frye became a senator for the North Carolina Senate, where he led the Appropriations Committee on Education. Frye was appointed to the North Carolina Supreme Court in Raleigh as an associate judge in 1983, winning subsequent elections and remaining on the bench for eighteen years. In 1999, Frye became the first African American to serve as chief justice for the North Carolina Supreme Court. He joined the Brooks Pierce Firm as “of counsel” in 2001. That same year, Frye returned to his alma mater, North Carolina A&T State University, as a professor of political science and criminal justice.

During his career, Frye received numerous awards and honors including the Frank Porter Graham Award from the American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina in 2002 and the North Carolina Award from the State of North Carolina in 2007. In 2009, the North Carolina Democratic Party honored Frye by renaming the Sanford Hunt Dinner ceremony to the Sanford Hunt Frye Dinner.

Frye lives with his wife, Shirley T. Frye, in Greensboro, North Carolina. They have two children, Henry and Harlan.

The Honorable Henry E. Frye was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on April 17, 2023.