After years of being barred from a segregated military, she became the first Black nurse in the regular U.S. armed forces. She was later an Air Force officer.

A street preacher from Hollywood, he set out on a walk to New York City in 1969 with a 110-pound cross on his back. Then he kept going.

A rising star among New Age motivational speakers, he was brought down by a disaster during one of his retreats in Arizona, where three people died in a sweat lodge.

He began performing at 4 alongside his father, the celebrated singer and guitarist Josh White, and later carved out his own career.

He laid the foundation for sociolinguistics, and he showed that structures like class and race shaped speech as much as where someone lives.