Born on Jan. 17, 1931, Wilder was raised in the "gentle poverty" of Depression-era Richmond, which was segregated strictly by race. His father, Robert Judson Wilder, was the son of slaves, and his mother, Beulah Olive Richards, was born to freed blacks in Charles City County.

She was an interior design and architecture major at Northwestern University who became a model who became an actress who wound up as director of operations for the movie studio she launched with her husband.

From his headquarters in Norfolk, Adm. J. Paul Reason commands 109,000 men and women, 189 ships and 1,277 aircraft in the U. S. Navy. His command spans the Atlantic Ocean and reaches into the Mediterranean Sea and the Caribbean Sea.

She was the first woman and first black person elected to the Newport News City Council in 1970, and would mark similar firsts as mayor of that city 16 years later.

Born in Richmond in 1874, Virginia Estelle Randolph grew up and was educated during the South’s stormy Reconstruction period. The daughter of former slaves, she was a teacher by the time she was 16, and she became an internationally known authority on vocational education for black students.

Gabriel Prosser would herald the cause of independence for himself and for all slaves. It was a cause for which he was willing to take the most extreme measures.

Faith fueled the life of Samuel DeWitt Proctor.

In January 2001, Colin Luther Powell became the 65th U.S. secretary of state and the first black to hold the office.
He helped launch America’s war on terrorism after the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

It is a safe bet to say that when Vivian Pinn attended the University of Virginia School of Medicine in the 1960s, she stood out.

The most telling legacy 1984 Olympic champion Benita Fitzgerald Mosley will leave is that of her dedication to promoting equality and fairness.

Before there was Rosa Parks, there was Irene Morgan.

Moore died in 1989. Her values and experiences live on in her music.

John Mitchell Jr. was aptly described as "a man who would walk into the jaws of death to serve his race." Mitchell—newspaper editor, entrepreneur, city councilman and candidate for governor—was one of the most respected black leaders of his day.

Dorothy Maynor, the daughter and granddaughter of Norfolk clergymen, was one of the most highly praised singers of the 1940s and ‘50s.

State Sen. Henry L. Marsh III set precedents as a civil rights lawyer and made history as Richmond’s first African-American mayor.