Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Paris, Paulin (Alexis Paulin Paris) pôlăNˈ pärēsˈ [key], 1800–1881, French scholar. He was noted for his research in medieval French literature and for initiating the systematic study of Roman...

(Encyclopedia) apartheid əpärtˈhīt [key] [Afrik.,=apartness], system of racial segregation peculiar to the Republic of South Africa, the legal basis of which was largely repealed in 1991–92. Despite public de...

(Encyclopedia) Patrick, Deval Laurdine, 1956–, African-American politician and government official, b. Chicago, grad. Harvard 1978, Harvard Law School 1982. A lawyer with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund from 1983 to ...

(Encyclopedia) Burlin, Natalie Curtis bûrˈlĭn, bərlĭnˈ [key], 1875–1921, American writer and musician, b. New York City, studied music in France and Germany. She was one of the leading transcribers of the in...

(Encyclopedia) Gibson, Althea ălthēˈə [key], 1927–2003, African-American tennis player, b. Silver, S.C. In 1948 she won the first of 10 straight national black women's singles championships. She was the first ...

(Encyclopedia) Gordon, Bruce S., 1946–, African-American business executive and civil-rights leader, b. Camden, N.J.; grad. Gettysburg College (B.A., 1968), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.S., 1988). Gord...

(Encyclopedia) Haley, Alex (Alexander Murray Palmer Haley), 1921–92, American writer, b. Ithaca, N.Y. Haley was for a time one of the most famous writers in the United States as the author of Roots: The Saga of an...

(Encyclopedia) Locke, Alain LeRoy, 1885–1954, American writer, educator, philosopher, and cultural critic, b. Philadelphia, grad. Harvard (A.B., 1907; Ph.D., 1918), first African-American Rhodes Scholar at Oxford ...

(Encyclopedia) Heidenstam, Verner von vĕrˈnər fən hāˈdənstäm [key], 1859–1940, Swedish lyric poet, novelist, and essayist. His first volume of poetry, Pilgrimage and Wanderyears (1888), challenged the cont...

(Encyclopedia) Purchas, Samuel pûrˈkəs, –chəs [key], 1577?–1626, English clergyman and compiler of travel literature, b. Essex. Chaplain to the archbishop of Canterbury, he later was rector of St. Martin's C...