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United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America
Industrial labor union founded in 1881 by P.J. McGuire. Through much of its history, the UBC has been at the forefront of opening labor's doors to all workers regardless of gender, race or sexual orientation. Former Congressman Charles Hayes was an organizer for the organization in the early years of his career.
United Kingdom
Great Britain, the dominant industrial and maritime power of the 19th century, played a leading role in developing parliamentary democracy and in advancing literature and science. At its zenith, the British Empire stretched over one-fourth of the earth's surface. The first half of the 20th century saw the UK's strength seriously depleted in two World Wars. The second half witnessed the dismantling of the Empire and the UK rebuilding itself into a modern and prosperous European nation. As one of five permanent members of the UN Security Council, a founding member of NATO, and of the Commonwealth, the UK pursues a global approach to foreign policy; it currently is weighing the degree of its integration with continental Europe.
United Negro College Fund
An educational assistance organization founded in 1944, with the goal of increasing access to higher education for African Americans. Through its various programs the UNCF provides tuition assistance to promising African American students, raises money and operating funds for member schools, and supports increased access to technological resources in the nation's historically black colleges and universities.
United States House of Representatives
Lower house of the United States Congress, along with the Senate, it constitutes the Legislative branch of the federal government. Each member of the House represents the residents within a legislative district, a piece of land that is redrawn periodically to reflect demographic changes identified by the census. The House, like the Senate is divided into committees that are responsible for considering and drafting legislation pertaining to different areas of governance. House members are elected to two-year terms and there is no term limit. There are currently 435 members of the United States House of Representatives.
United States Senate
The upper house of the United States Congress. Along with the 435-member House of Representatives, the 100-member Senate comprises the legislative branch of the federal government. The bicameral system emerged as a compromise between large and small states during the Constitutional Convention of 1787. Whereas in the House of Representatives, states receive proportional representation according to their respective populations, in the Senate each state has two senators, putting large and small states on equal footing. The rules of procedure in the Senate differ substantially from those in the House. Most importantly, each member in the Senate has the power to filibuster; an unrestricted stretch of speaking time used to block legislation. Aside from the drafting of legislation, the U.S. Senate is responsible for ratifying foreign treaties and confirming presidential nominees. Until 1913 U.S. Senators were most often elected by state legislatures. However, the 17th Amendment mandated that U.S. Senators be elected by direct popular vote.
United States Supreme Court
The judicial branch of the U.S. government, the U.S. Supreme Court is the highest court of appeals and has the power to overturn any court ruling in the country. The court has nine justices who are appointed by the President and approved by the Senate. Once approved, the justices serve for life. Over the last two centuries the U.S. Supreme Court has played a crucial role in the struggle for civil rights. With the Plessy v. Ferguson decision in 1896, the court officially sanctified racial segregation, stipulating that it was constitutional so long as the facilities for blacks and whites were "equal." In 1954, in the historic Brown v. Topeka Board of Education, the court reversed this ruling, officially ending Jim Crow and institutionalized racial segregation.
University of California Los Angeles
Public university located in Los Angeles California. Since its founding in 1919, the University of California, Los Angeles has grown to become a world-renowned research institution. Famous alumni include Jackie Robinson, Arthur Ashe and Jackie Joyner-Kersee. Today, the University serves more than 36,500 students.
University of Chicago
Perhaps the more prestigious academic institution in the Midwest, the University of Chicago was founded in 1892 by John D. Rockefeller in the Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's south side. Today the University boasts hundreds of well-known alums, including Jewel Lafontant MANkarious, Katherine Dunham, Saul Bellow and Phillip Glass. It is home to numerous cultural archives, museums and collections.
Urban Bush Women
A Brooklyn, New York based dance company and performance ensemble whose founding artistic director is Jawole Willa Jo Zollar. The company celebrated its twentieth anniversary in 2004-2005. The company produces performances based on women's experiences and African American history and culture. The ensemble's mission is to bring the untold and under-told histories and stories of disenfranchised people to light through dance.
Urban School Improvement Act
Illinois state legislation sponsored by Carol Moseley-Braun in 1985. The bill empowered parents' councils in every school in the state of Illinois.
Uruguay
Bordered by Brazil and Argentina on the South Atlantic Ocean, Uruguay witnessed violent revolution in the late 1960s and early 1970s, with military control established in 1973. Civilian authority over the government was reestablished in 1985, and today political conditions are some of the freest in South America. The capital, Montevideo, is the largest city.
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Vee-Jay Records
Record company founded in 1953 by Vivian Carter and James C Bracken. Over its forty year career the record label has seen numerous peaks and valleys. In the early 1960s it was one of the most successful record labels in the nation, and the first U.S. label to distribute the Beatles. After two years of success it went out of business. It wouldn't be the first time. During the next thirty years the label went out of business and was revived twice more. Prior to Motown, Vee-Jay was the most successful African American-owned record label in the country.
Vermont
The fourteenth state to ratify the Constitution, Vermont is also the first addition to the original thirteen colonies. A progressive state, Vermont is the first state to abolish slavery, the first African American to earn a college degree in the United States does so in Vermont in 1823 and Martin Henry Freeman becomes the first black college president in 1856.
Vietnam Peace Treaty
A treaty signed by the U.S. and North Vietnam in Paris, 1973 ending the Vietnam War. U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and North Vietnamese negotiator Le Duc Tho were awarded the 1973 Noble Peace Prize for their effort to bring the war to a close.
Vietnam War
Armed conflict in the Southeast Asian nation of Vietnam that embroiled the U.S. from the beginning of the 1950s through the next two and half decades. The U.S.'s stated military objective in Vietnam was to ‘contain' the spread of Communism by protecting non-Communist South Vietnam from Communist North Vietnam. As U.S. military commitment in the area increased, so, too, did protests and tensions at home. These war protests were the lynchpin of the infamous 1960s ‘counter culture', and catalyzed dissent and protest in other political and social realms. After 25 years and over 50,000 American casualties (as well as millions of Vietnamese casualties), President Nixon, under pressure from the overwhelming majority of the electorate, ordered U.S. troops to withdraw. After the American withdrawal, North and South Vietnam were united under a socialist regime.
Virginia
Virginia was the tenth state to ratify the U.S. Constitution, Virginia seceded from the Union on May 23, 1861. After decades of racism, including resistance to the Brown v. Board of Education decision when first announced, Virginia became the first state to elect a black Governor in 1989 with the election of L. Douglas Wilder.
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Washington D.C.
Since 1800, the capital of the United States, and home to the White House, Congress and Supreme Court. Located on the Virginia/Maryland border on the banks of the Potomac River, the District of Columbia is a municipality under the direct administrative authority of the federal government, not a state. As of the 2000 Census the city's population was 572,059.
Washington, Booker T.
Famed black educator, author and spokesperson, Washington was born into a slave family in rural Virginia. After emancipation he received a secondary education in West Virginia, where he worked in the coalmines. In 1881, he founded the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute in Alabama. The school became a model for the industrial education of African Americans. Washington's accommodationist approach made him popular with white philanthropists and the Tuskegee school became a cause celebre among many of the nation's Northern white elite. Washington's autobiography "Up From Slavery" (1901), was widely read, and Washington served as an advisor to Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft. His approach to African American progress, which focused on economic empowerment over social inclusion, was criticized by many civil rights activists of the time. Recently, however, his focus on economic self-sufficiency has been revived as an important model for black progress.
Washington, Harold
Late mayor Harold Washington was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1922. A natural leader, Washington was a decorated Army veteran of the 1887th Engineer Aviation Battalion in World War II and later served as a member of the Illinois State Legislature (1966-1976), the Illinois State Senate (1978-1980), and the US House of Representatives (1981-1983). In 1984, he achieved his greatest victory as the first African American to be elected as Mayor of the City of Chicago. Washington is noted for building a progressive, interracial coalition and his administration introduced many measures that advocated the social and economic rights of minorities. He was reelected in 1987, but died before he beginning his second term.
Watts
South Central Los Angeles neighborhood notorious for its civil unrest and rioting in 1965. The economically disadvantaged community has witnessed high unemployment figures and gang violence for the past several decades.
West Indies
Region that includes all of the islands which extend through the Caribbean Sea from the tip of the Florida Peninsula to the northern coast of South America. They include 23 political entities, some of them quite small and relatively unknown to the outside world. The West Indies derives its coherence and distinctiveness from a combination of four factors, one geographic, the other three historical. The geographic feature is insularity, and the three historical themes are colonialism, the sugar plantation, and slavery. Most of the islands are smaller than Barbados
West Virginia
The thirty-fifth state to join the Union, West Virginia became a state on June 20, 1863, at the height of the Civil War. John Brown's famous 1859 raid on Harper's Ferry took place in land that would soon become part of this state.
Westside Preparatory School
Renowned educator Marva Collins established the Westside Preparatory School in 1975. An alternative educational institution for African American children located on Chicago's Westside, the school stresses basics such as phonics, memorization, critical thinking and discipline. Materials ranging from the classics to modern thought are an integral part of the curriculum.
WGES Radio
Prominent Chicago AM radio station of 1940s and 1950s. It was one of the first radio stations to prominently feature black DJ's, including pioneer Al Benson and Herb Kent.
WGN Radio
Radio station owned by the Chicago Tribune newspaper, its letters stand for "World's Greatest Newspaper", the slogan of the Chicago daily. Since its founding in 1924, WGN has become one of the most storied radio stations in the nation, broadcasting the beloved Cubs to millions of loyal listeners throughout the Midwest.
White, Barry
Known as "The Love Man," Barry White created numerous hit soul and disco songs. Born in Texas but moving to the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles, White joined a gang, but later discovered his own singing talents. His hits included "I'm Gonna Love You Just a Little More Baby" (1973), "Never, Never Gonna Give You Up" (1973), "Can't Get Enough of Your Love, Babe" (1974). His songs continue to be aired, and are often used in television and radio ads. Barry White passed away in 2003.
White, Charles
Black muralist and painter of the 1930s, 40s and 50s. He taught at The Chicago Community Arts Center in the 1930s before receiving a scholarship to the School of the Art Institute. He went on to become a muralist for the W.P.A., and in 1949, after moving to New York, founded the Committee for the Negro in Arts in New York.
Whitney Museum of American Art
Internationally recognized museum of modern American art, located in New York City. The museum was founded in 1931, with 70 objects from the private collection of Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney. Since its inception, the museum has focused on the acquisition of work by living American artists. Today, it boasts a collection of over 12,000 works.
Williams, Chancellor
Born December 22, 1898 in Bennetsville, South Carolina, Dr. Chancellor Williams was a gifted scholar who traveled throughout Africa documenting ancient history. He offered an interpretation of African history that contested European American knowledge claims about the "Cradle of Civilization." Throughout his career, Dr. Chancellor published numerous essays and books, including "The Raven," "The Rebirth of African Civilization" and "The Destruction of Black Civilization" - a comprehensive history of the African Diaspora. He died in 1992.
Williams, Daniel Hale
Surgeon at Chicago's Provident Hospital who performed the first successful open heart surgery on a patient in 1893. Williams' patient, John Cornish, lived for another twenty years. Williams established Provident Hospital in 1891 as a means of training African American doctors and nurses. Provident was one of a handful of interracial hospitals of the time, and the patient recovery rate, at eighty-seven percent, was remarkable for the time. Williams later helped found the National Medical Association after being denied admittance to the American Medical Association. He passed away in 1931.
Wilson, Nancy
Jazz singer and performer. In the last half-century she has released over fifty recordings, performed with nearly every jazz great, and currently hosts a jazz radio show on National Public Radio. Her best-known song is "Guess Who I Saw Today."
Wisconsin
Famous for its cheese, Wisconsin was admitted to the Union in 1848 as the 30th state. Though the capital is Madison, the largest city is Milwaukee, on the shores of Lake Michigan.
WKRS-FM (KISS-FM)
Broadcasting from New York City, KISS-FM is one of the nation's largest and most successful urban radio stations. Radio executive Barry Mayo served as both Vice President and General Manager of the station in the late 1980s.
Woodson, Carter G.
One of the founders of black studies within the classroom, Woodson was born in Virginia in 1875. He would go on to work in coal mines before graduating high school at the age of twenty-two. In 1915 he founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, and in 1926 established Negro History Week, which would evolve into Black History Month. Woodson went on to teach and serve in administrative roles at a number of universities as well as write extensively. He passed away in 1950.
World War II
Also called the "Second World War", a global armed conflict that ensnared countries on every inhabited continent. Prompted by the aggressive conquests of Nazi German dictator Adolf Hitler in Europe, and a surprise attack on an American naval ship in Pearl Harbor by Japanese fighter planes, the war pitted the Allies—U.S., U.S.SR and England—against the Axis Powers—Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy and Imperial Japan. From 1939 to 1945 the war resulted in 40-50 million casualties, making it the bloodiest conflict in history. Six million of these deaths were Jewish civilians ruthlessly exterminated in the Holocaust by Hitler's Nazi regime. In 1945, American President 0">Harry Truman ordered the atom bomb to be dropped on the Japanese islands of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This would represent the only wartime deployment of nuclear weapons in history. The bombings resulted in the death of nearly 200,000 civilians and Japan's unconditional surrender in 1945. After a long and bitter struggle, the Allies emerged victorious.
Wright, Richard
One of America's greatest black writers, Richard Wright was also among the first African American writers to achieve literary fame and fortune. He was born and spent the first years of his life on a plantation, not far from the affluent city of Natchez on the Mississippi River, but his life as the son of an illiterate sharecropper was far from affluent. Though he spent only a few years of his life in Mississippi, those years would play a key role in his two most important works: Native Son, a novel, and his autobiography, Black Boy. Wright was a figure of controversy, being a member of the Communist party for many years, eventually moving to Paris to join the Existentialist movement blossiming there with such writers as Albert Camus and Jean-Paul Sartre. He passed away in 1960.
WVON
For 35 years, WVON radio (Voice of the Nation) has been an institution in Chicago's African American community. Today, it is Chicago's only black-owned talk radio station. Over the years, the station has featured such Chicago personalities as Herb Kent and Wesley South.
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