Black American Trailblazers

Allison Blakely

Richard Theodore Greener

Allison Blakely

Pioneering Howard University professor in European history and Black diaspora studies. Author of the award-winning book "Russia and the Negro: Blacks in Russian History and Thought" .

Oliver Golden

Richard Theodore Greener

Allison Blakely

WWI veteran and anti-racism activist. He lead a team of Black expert agronomists to Uzbekistan, helping to revolutionize cotton production in the Soviet Union. Remained in the USSR and became a Soviet citizen.

Richard Theodore Greener

First Black student to graduate from Harvard University. Appointed as the United States Commercial Agent in Vladivostok, Russia.

Andrea Lee

Lloyd Patterson

Richard Theodore Greener

Staff writer for the New Yorker. Made her journalistic debut with "Russian Journal", a chronicle of her year spent in the Soviet Union as the wife of a PhD student.

Gary Lee

Lloyd Patterson

Award-winning travel journalist and Washington Post staff writer. The fluent Russian-speaker was promoted to Moscow Bureau Chief and received a Pulitzer Prize nomination for articles about Gorbechev's Russia.

Lloyd Patterson

Interior designer who moved to Moscow after being denied work opportunities in the States. Gained recognition decorating at the famous Hotel Metropol and the Kremlin, with his work being exhibited in the House of the Red Army and the Theater of Young Workers.

Condoleezza Rice

Frederick Bruce Thomas

Condoleezza Rice

Russian-speaking political scientist and civil servant. Served as a presidential national security advisor on the Soviet Union & Eastern Europe, then as the first Black female U.S. Secretary of State.

Wayland Rudd

Frederick Bruce Thomas

Condoleezza Rice

Escaping racism in the American entertainment industry, Wayland Rudd moved to the USSR, becoming a Soviet theater and film star.

Frederick Bruce Thomas

The remarkable son of Mississippi slaves who became a millionaire impresario in Tsarist Moscow.