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Harold Washington (1922-1987)

Harold Washington, the first African American mayor of Chicago, Illinois, was born on April 15, 1922, to Roy Washington, a lawyer, Methodist minister and one of the first black precinct captains in Chicago.  Washington’s mother Bertha Washington was a well-known singer in the city.  Washington attended segregated public schools including the newly completed DuSable High School where he set records as a track star.  Despite that success, Washington dropped out of high school at the end of his junior year and worked in a meat packing plant until his father helped him obtain a job at the U.S. Treasury office in Chicago.  There he met Dorothy Finch, his future wife.  The couple married in 1941 when Harold Washington was 19 and Dorothy was 17.  They divorced  ten years later . In 1942 Washington was drafted into the U.S. Army and sent overseas as part of a segregated unit of the Air Force Engineers, then part of the U.S. Army.  Washington served...

The World’s 1st Black Male Supermodel

Known to many as the most beautiful male model of all time. Not much is known about him except that he was a fixture at Studio 54. The actor Raymond St Jacques was his adopted “father”. On any given night at studio 54, Sterling could be seen twirling Bianca Jagger, Pat Cleveland and Grace Jones around the floor. Caroline Kennedy would go to Studio 54 just to dance with Sterling. Sterling, Raymond, Howard Rollins and Paul Winfield were also fixtures in the Castro. Pat and Sterling danced on Soul Train for a minute. Sterling never reached the levels of success as his female counterpart Grace Jones although he did make an attempt in the early eighties at a music career. People talk about Tyson Beckford, but Sterling was the first to walk the runways for Givenchy, Halston and Yves Saint Laurent. He came, he danced and died with no fanfare. So every time you see a black man walking a runway or modeling in print just think about Sterling for a minute because he was the first.