Louisiana

Ford Foundation President

b. August 28, 1959

“We have to significantly change our practices so that we can create an inclusive capitalism that works for everyone.”

Darren Walker is the president of the Ford Foundation, the second largest American philanthropic organization, with assets of $13 billion. Walker has dedicated most of his life to promoting social justice through eradication of economic and racial inequities.

Walker was born in a charity hospital in Lafayette, Louisiana. Raised in rural Texas by his single mother, he “felt both gratitude and rage” growing up poor, Black and gay in the South. He credits his grandmother with illuminating his world and pushing him to greater aspirations.

Walker was part of the first generation who benefited from the Head Start Program for public schools. He went on to attend the University of Texas (UT) at Austin on a Pell Grant and graduated in 1982 with a B.A. in government and a B.S. in communication. Four years later, he earned his J.D. from the UT School of Law. Throughout his education, Walker felt “his country was cheering [him] on.”

Walker spent the next seven years in Switzerland, working first as a lawyer and then in the capital markets. He left investment banking to battle systemic injustice. He moved to Harlem, where he worked at a community development organization and volunteered at a local school.

In 2002 Walker joined the Rockefeller Foundation. By 2006 he had advanced to vice president for international initiatives. At the Rockefeller Foundation, he launched recovery programs for the Southern states devastated by Hurricane Katrina.

In 2010 Walker joined the Ford Foundation as the vice president of education, creativity and free expression. When he became president in 2013, he doubled down on social justice, the principle he calls “fundamental to the DNA of a successful America.” Walker believes that, between the best private philanthropy in the world and a robust nonprofit sector, America can reduce the inequality he experienced as a child.

Walker has received 16 honorary degrees and university distinctions, including UT Austin’s Distinguished Alumnus Award and Harvard University’s W.E.B. Du Bois Medal. He serves on numerous boards, including PepsiCo, Ralph Lauren and the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture. In 2016 TIME magazine named him one of the “100 Most Influential People in the World.”

Walker is openly gay. His partner of 26 years died in 2019.

Author & Activist

b. July 19, 1875
d. September 18, 1935

“Unwittingly, you’ve made me dream
Of violets, and my soul’s forgotten gleam”

Alice Dunbar-Nelson was a racially-mixed bisexual poet and author whose career spanned multiple literary genres and culminated during the Harlem Renaissance. She was also a lifelong educator and activist who fought for women’s suffrage and equality for Black Americans.

Dunbar-Nelson (née Alice Ruth Moore) was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, 10 years after her enslaved mother gained freedom. Her father, who was rumored to have been a white merchant, left when she was young.

An exceptional student, Dunbar-Nelson graduated from high school at age 14. She attended Straight College (now Dillard University) and received her teaching certificate in 1892. She later attended Cornell University and the University of Pennsylvania.

Initially, Dunbar-Nelson taught in the Louisiana public school system and worked on her writing. In 1895 she published her first book, a collection of stories and poems titled “Violets and Other Tales.” Soon after, she moved to Boston to pursue a literary career. Her work for the Boston Monthly Review captured the heart of a fellow writer, Paul Laurence Dunbar, and they began a two-year correspondence.

During this period, Dunbar-Nelson relocated to Harlem where she cofounded and taught at the White Rose Mission, a “home for Black girls and women.” In 1898 she married Paul Dunbar in New York, and they settled in Washington, D.C.

In 1899 her second book, “The Goodness of St. Rocque and Others,” about Creole life, launched Dunbar-Nelson’s career-long exploration and critique of American culture and racial oppression. She wrote novels, stories, essays, poems, and reviews and kept a diary.

Dunbar-Nelson’s husband physically and emotional abused her. She divorced him in 1902 and moved to Wilmington, Delaware, where she taught at various high schools and colleges. She created the Wilmington Advocate, a newspaper promoting racial uplift. She quietly married and divorced a second time and explored relationships with women, including Edwina Kruse, a high school principal, and Fay Jackson Robinson, a journalist and activist.

In 1916 Dunbar-Nelson married the journalist Robert J. Nelson. His activism further ignited her own. Among other pursuits, she served on the Delaware Republican Committee and championed civil rights and women’s suffrage.

During the Harlem Renaissance — the golden age of African-American art and expression in 1920s and ’30s — Dunbar-Nelson lectured and wrote prolifically. Her work inspired influential writers of the era.

Dunbar-Nelson died from a heart condition. Fifty years later, W.W. Norton & Co. published her journal, “Give Us Each Day.” It is one of only two African-American women’s journals published in the 20th century.

Journalist and Commentator

b. August 11, 1970

“One thing the gay rights movement taught the world is the importance of being visible.”

Charles Blow is an American journalist and a columnist for The New York Times. As the only African-American columnist on the paper’s opinion pages, Blow focuses twice weekly on issues of social justice, race relations and the pitfalls of politics. 

Before becoming a commentator, Blow was the youngest head of the graphics design department at The Times, a position he held for nine years. During his tenure, he helped the newspaper win several prestigious awards, including a Best of Show from the Society for News Design for coverage of the September 11 attacks. It was the first time the award had ever been given to a newspaper for outstanding graphic design. 

Blow has also worked at National Geographic and The Detroit News. He regularly appears on the BBC, CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and HBO to discuss timely topics related to his column and his own life. He came out publicly as a bisexual in 2014 in his memoir, “Fire Shut Up in My Bones.” The coming-of-age account has been named a New York Times Notable Book, a Lambda Literary Award Winner and a PEN Open Book Award nominee. In it he writes candidly about his sexuality:

“In addition to being attracted to women, I could also be attracted to men. There it was, all of it. That possibility of male attraction was such a simple little harmless idea, the fight against which I had allowed to consume and almost ruin my life. The attraction and my futile attempts to ‘fix it’ had cost me my dreams.”

The book not only chronicles Blow’s struggle with identity, but also provides insights into the sexual abuse he suffered as a child at the hands of an older male cousin. The author admits that he spent years trying to unravel the relationship between the abuse and his own sexuality. He has spoken candidly on the subject on several television shows, including “Real Time with Bill Maher,” “Piers Morgan Tonight” and “Anderson Cooper 360.” 

Blow is a single father of three. A native of Louisiana, he lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Stonewall Activist

b. December 24, 1920, New Orleans, Louisiana

d. May 24, 2014, Brooklyn, New York

“It was a rebellion, it was an uprising, it was a civil rights disobedience—it wasn’t no damn riot.”

Stormé DeLarverie was a Stonewall veteran and the sole female performer for the Jewel Box Review, a traveling drag show that toured the country from 1939 into the 1960s. At that time, cross-dressing was considered a criminal offense in most municipalities. The review included 24 drag queens and Stormé (pronounced “Stormy”), the only drag king.

When DeLarverie wasn’t traveling with the troupe, she lived at the Hotel Chelsea in Manhattan and worked security at Henrietta Hudson, a well-known lesbian bar in the West Village. Constantly vigilant, DeLarverie thought of the bar patrons as her “babies” and patrolled the streets as their defender.

At the Stonewall Riot on June 27, 1969, DeLarverie threw the first punch. As the story goes, the New York City police raided the Stonewall Inn, a bar in Greenwich Village frequented by gay men, lesbians, and drag kings and queens. The police raids were habitual. That night DeLarverie saw three officers ganging up on one young man and sprang to the victim’s defense. One of the policemen shouted, “Move, Faggot!” mistaking DeLarverie for a man. The officer shoved DeLarverie, who retaliated with a punch to the face. The officer dropped to the ground, bleeding; thus began the Stonewall Riot.

DeLarverie preferred the word “rebellion” when it came to describing the events at the Stonewall. She felt the term “riot” connoted chaos and criminality.

In 2003 filmmaker Sam Bassett produced a documentary about DeLarverie. When she died at the age of 93, hundreds of admirers attended her West Village funeral service.

News Anchor

b. March 1, 1966

“If I had seen more people like me who are out and proud, it wouldn’t have taken me 45 years to say it.”

Don Lemon is a primetime national news anchor. He received an Edward R. Murrow award, one of the most prestigious honors for broadcast journalists.

Lemon was raised in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, by a single mother. He attended Brooklyn College and earned a degree in broadcast journalism. While in college, he secured his first job as a news assistant at WNYW in New York City. After graduating, he worked as a reporter and weekend anchor at WCAU in Philadelphia. At KTVI in St. Louis, Lemon was an anchor and investigative reporter. He later anchored the news at WBRC in Birmingham, Alabama.

Lemon moved to network news as a correspondent for NBC’s “Today” and “NBC Nightly News.” He also was an anchor on weekend “Today” and on MSNBC. In 2003, he began co-anchoring the 5 p.m. newscast at WMAQ in Chicago. He received an Emmy Award for an investigative report on the Chicago real estate market.

In 2006, Lemon joined CNN. He anchors “CNN Newsroom” on primetime and serves as a correspondent for major news stories. He was honored with the Edward R. Murrow Award for his coverage of the capture of the D.C. snipers. In 2009, Ebony magazine named him one of the 150 most influential African-Americans.

Lemon came out in an interview in The New York Times. In his autobiography, “Transparent” (2011), he discusses his sexual orientation. One of few openly gay national newscasters, Lemon was apprehensive about revealing the personal details of his life. “I’m talking about something that people might shun me for, ostracize me for,” he said. After the book’s release, he told PBS, “Now I’m free. No one can hold it against me. I am in charge of my own story.”

Lemon lives in Atlanta and teaches new media journalism.

Author

b. September 30, 1924

d. August 25, 1984

“Failure is a condiment that gives success its flavor.”

Truman Capote is a critically acclaimed author of contemporary American literature. He is best known for the novels “In Cold Blood” and “Breakfast at Tiffany’s.”

Born Truman Persons in New Orleans, Capote’s parents divorced shortly after his birth. Neglected by his mother, he was sent to Alabama to live with his aunt. While in Alabama, Capote began a lifelong friendship with Harper Lee, author of “To Kill a Mockingbird.” In 1934, Capote’s mother married a successful businessman. She reclaimed her son and the family moved to Manhattan. Truman adopted his step-father Joe Capote’s last name.

At 17, Capote dropped out of high school and worked as a copyboy for The New Yorker. He began writing well-received articles and short stories. In 1948, Capote published his first novel, “Other Voices, Other Rooms.” The novel’s exploration of homosexual themes, coupled with its provocative cover photo of Capote, garnered him fame and controversy.

In 1958, Capote published “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” which was adapted into an iconic film starring Audrey Hepburn. In 1965, Capote secured his place among the American literary elite with “In Cold Blood.” He based the novel on the high- profile murder of a Kansas farming family. With “In Cold Blood,” Capote created a new literary genre, the nonfiction novel, which combines fact and fiction. Among Capote’s other popular works are “Local Color” (1950), “The Grass Harp” (1951), “The Muses are Heard” (1956), “The Dogs Bark” (1973) and “Music for Chameleons” (1980). He also wrote numerous plays and screenplays, most notably “The Innocents” (1961).

Capote was also famous for his extravagant lifestyle and flamboyant personality. He appeared frequently on television talk shows and was a prominent member of the social elite, often in the company of the Chaplins, the Kennedys and Marilyn Monroe. Capote was openly gay during a period when the subject was taboo. In 1966, he hosted the Black and White Ball, which is regarded as one of the most important social events of the decade. For 35 years, Capote was in a relationship with fellow author Jack Dunphy.

Playwright

b. July 16, 1956

"The world should be striving to make all its members secure."

Tony Kushner is an award-winning political playwright and activist. He is best known for his epic play, “Angels in America.”

Kushner was raised in Lake Charles, Louisiana. His parents were classical musicians who encouraged their children's interest in the arts; they paid one dollar for every poem the children memorized and recited.

Kushner earned a B.A. in medieval studies from Columbia University in 1978 and an M.F.A. from New York University's graduate acting program in 1984.

Kushner's longtime involvement with activist groups like the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) is reflected in his writing.  The characters in his plays often deal with oppression related to their being Jewish, black or gay.

In 2002, Kushner wrote the book and lyrics for the musical “Caroline or Change,” about racial turmoil at the end of segregation. The story is told through the relationship of a black maid and her Jewish employers.

“Angels in America” follows two couples that are linked to Roy Cohn, a lawyer involved in the McCarthy trials.  The play depicts the characters’ struggle with homosexuality and AIDS during the Reagan administration. HBO later adapted the stage version into a miniseries starring Meryl Streep, Emma Thompson and Al Pacino.

Kushner's long list of commendations includes two Tony Awards, an Emmy Award, a Pulitzer Prize for Drama, an Oscar nomination, an Arts Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a Spirit of Justice Award from the Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders, and an honorary doctorate from Brandeis University.

In 2003, Kushner exchanged vows with his partner, Mark Harris, editor at large of Entertainment Weekly, in a commitment ceremony. They were the first gay couple to be featured in The New York Times "Vows" column.