Nannie Helen Burroughs was born in 1878 in Orange, Virginia. Her father was a freeman Baptist preacher and her mother was born into slavery. When she was five, the Burroughs family moved to Washington, DC so that she could receive a better education. After high school, she went to work as a bookkeeper and editorial secretary for the National Baptist Convention (NBC).

In 1900, she attended the NBC Convention in Virginia. She gave a speech called, “How the Sisters Are Hindered from Helping.” Her speech was so moving and inspirational that it gave Burroughs national recognition. He speech and her actions after the convention helps in the creation of the largest Black women’s organizations in the United States, the Women’s Convention, an auxiliary of the NBC. By 1907, the Women’s Convention had 1.5 million members.

In 1909, Burroughs founded the National Training School for Women and Girls in Washington, DC. The school’s mission was to help prepare students for employment in by offering courses in domestic science and secretarial skills. It offered other avenues for women such as farming, gardening, shoe repair, barbering, and other areas of skilled labor. She believed that industrial and classical education were compatible. She was a very strict principal of her school, demanding proper grammar and speech.

Burroughs became very active in the National Association of Colored Women, the National Association of Wage Earners, and the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History. She began speaking around the country about the civil rights of African-Americans and women. She became actively involved in the Republican Party. She appeared with Dr. Carter Woodson and Alain Locke on the importance of Negro history.

Late in her life, she became a supporter of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Her entire life was devoted to her faith, education, and the civil rights of women and African-Americans. He hard work and influence on African-Americans throughout the country made her a great American.

Imes was born in Memphis, Tennessee. Both of his parents were college educated. He attended Fisk University in Nashville and graduated with a degree in science in 1903. In 1918, he became only the second African-American to earn a Ph.D. in Physics at the University of Michigan. In 1919, he married renowned writer Nella Larsen of the Harlem Renaissance. They both lived in Harlem and were a part of the intellectual society of the area.

In 1919, Imes published "Measurements on the Near-Infrared Absorption of Some Diatomic Gases.". His further research in spectrum analysis of several diatomic molecules led him to becoming one the great American physicists of the early 20th Century. He procured patents on four instruments used to measure magnetic and electrical properties in molecules. He eventually became the chair of the physics department at Fisk University in 1939 until his death in 1941.

Imes was a great American who overcame the prejudices of the time to become one of the great thinkers of the 20th Century as well as an instrumental part of the Harlem Renaissance. His studies in infrared spectroscopy made him internationally recognized as a leading researcher in the area of physics.