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is an intern at The Root and senior journalism major at Howard University. Memnon was one of several protégés of the wealthy Athenian businessman and philosopher Herodes Atticus. His name was probably inspired by Memnon, the Ethiopian ally of Troy as described in Homer’s Iliad. Although few details of his life are known, his origins…

Aug. 13, 1960. Press talking with Alton Yates (left), first vice president of Jacksonville, Fla.’s NAACP Youth Council, and Rodney Hurst, 16-year-old president of the Youth Council. After two weeks of demonstrating, youth council members were attacked on Aug. 27 by about 200 white males wielding ax handles and baseball bats in an underreported event called “Ax Handle Saturday.”…

is an intern at The Root and senior journalism major at Howard University. In terms of his political career, it may be accurate to say that former D.C. mayor and current City Councilman Marion Barry has nine lives. Still, when your most famous words are, “Bitch set me up” in reference to being caught smoking…

is an intern at The Root and senior journalism major at Howard University. Prior to the Civil War, despite severe restraints on their movements and limited capital, slaves and free blacks developed enterprises that paralleled mainstream business activity. In the 18th century, Paul Cuffe, the son of an Ashanti from Ghana and a Wampanoag Indian…

is an intern at The Root and senior journalism major at Howard University.

is an intern at The Root and senior journalism major at Howard University. USA Height: 6-foot-2  Weight: 185 lbs Event: Speed skating 500 meters, 1000m, 1500m 5000m, 10,000m The native Chicagoan may be the world’s fastest man on two skates. In 2006, he won the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics gold medal in the men’s…

is an intern at The Root and senior journalism major at Howard University. Feb. 1, 1960, four students at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College in Greensboro, N.C., begin a sit-in at Woolworth’s Drug Store. Oct. 1: James Meredith becomes the first black student to enroll at the University of Mississippi, escorted by U.S. marshals…

The former U.S. president gets major props for traveling halfway around the globe to help out a brother in a bind: American teacher Aijalon Gomes, who had been jailed in North Korea since January 2010. Carter secured Gomes’ release Aug. 26, 2010. (In a side note, apparently Carter is distantly related to President Barack Obama, as…

is an intern at The Root and senior journalism major at Howard University. Martin and Coretta King in the early days. Dr. King, Ralph Abernathy, John Lewis and others prepare to lead marchers on the third leg of the infamous march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. The march started with the gruesome “Bloody Sunday” that resulted…