Born 1866-1899

Sarah Breedlove, Madam C.J. Walker, born December 23, 1867

Sarah Breedlove was born on December 23, 1867 in Delta, Louisiana. Her parents and elder siblings were slaves on a Madison Parish plantation owned by Robert W. Burney. Born two years after the end of the Civil War, Sarah was the first child in her family born into freedom

Garrett Morgan, born March 4, 1877
Garrett Morgan was born in Paris, Kentucky, 12 years after the end of the Civil War to Sydney and Eliza Reed, former slaves.

Angelina Weld Grimké, born February 27, 1880

Angelina Weld Grimké was born in Boston, Massachusetts on February 27, 1880, 15 years after the end of the Civil War. Her father, Archibald Grimké was born a slave. He was the eldest of three sons of Nancy Weston, an enslaved woman of European and African descent, and her master Henry W. Grimké. They lived in a common-law relationship, and Grimké recognized his sons. Henry Grimké was a member of a prominent, large slaveholding family in Charleston. Archibald Grimké was a lawyer, the second African American to have graduated from Harvard Law School. Angelina's mother, Sarah Stanley, was European American from a Midwestern middle-class family.

Nella Larsen, born April 13, 1891

Nellallitea Walker was born in Chicago, Illinois, on April 13, 1891, the daughter of Marie Hanson, a Danish immigrant, and Peter Walker, a West Indian man of predominantly African descent from Saint Croix. She was born 26 years after the Civil War ended.