Robert Robinson Taylor (1868-1942) was the grandson of a white slave owner and the son of a formerly enslaved carpenter.  His mother came from a family of free blacks.

Taylor became the first African-American student at MIT graduating in 1892.  He is considered to be the first accredited trained black architect.

Taylor supervised and designed what is now called Tuskegee University.  He also served as an educator at the institution.  After his first wife with whom he had 4 children died, Taylor remarried and had another child.

In 2015, the US Postal Service unveiled a postage stamp in his honor.  His great-granddaughter Valerie Jarrett is a senior advisor to President Obama.-Heidi Durrow

Mixed Experience History Month is the annual blog post series created by The New York Times best-selling author Heidi Durrow celebrating the history of the Mixed experience. Established in 2007, Mixed Experience History Month is an effort to highlight the long history of folks and events involved in the Mixed experience.  Please look for archived profiles of people, places and events of the Mixed experience every weekday of May!  Thanks for reading.  And check out some of the previous year’s profiles: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012,  2013, 2014, 2015.

Well, that’s a wrap guys!  A month of profiles of folks who are part of the long history of the Mixed experience.  Were there any stories new to you?  Are there any stories you want to share for next year’s celebration?  Let’s keep the conversation going as we continue to claim our shared past, and our long complicated identities and the beauty of that!-Heidi Durrow

Mixed Experience History Month is the annual blog post series created by The New York Times best-selling author Heidi Durrow celebrating the history of the Mixed experience. Established in 2007, Mixed Experience History Month is an effort to highlight the long history of folks and events involved in the Mixed experience.  Please look for archived profiles of people, places and events of the Mixed experience every weekday of May at Lightskinned-ed Girl, the blog!  Thanks for reading.  And check out some of the previous year’s profiles: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012,  2013, 2014. Copyright 2015.

Jose Watanabe (1946-2007) was a Peruvian poet.

The son of a Japanese immigrant father and an Andean Peruvian mother, Watanabe was born on a sugar plantation in Peru.

He is recognized today as one of the all-time best Peruvian poets. In his poetry, he fused his cultural backgrounds.

He published several books of poetry during his lifetime. Learn more here.-Heidi Durrow

Mixed Experience History Month is the annual blog post series created by The New York Times best-selling author Heidi Durrow celebrating the history of the Mixed experience. Established in 2007, Mixed Experience History Month is an effort to highlight the long history of folks and events involved in the Mixed experience.  Please look for archived profiles of people, places and events of the Mixed experience every weekday of May at Lightskinned-ed Girl, the blog!  Thanks for reading.  And check out some of the previous year’s profiles: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012,  2013, 2014. Copyright 2015.

Born Goso Yoneda in Glendale, California in 1906, Yoneda was the son of Japanese immigrants.  When he was seven, his father relocated the family to a small town in Japan.

He started as an activist as a teenager when he organized the strike of a powerful newspaper of the paper’s delivery boys.

He returned to the United States in 1926.  He worked as a laborer for $5 per day and became active in the Communist Party as well as with Japanese workers who were organizing.

It was then that he changed his name to Karl after Karl Marx.  In 1931 he was severely beaten by police and arrested.  The woman who came to his aid was Elaine Black, known for her help of strikers, ended up becoming his wife in 1935.  They married in Seattle because it was illegal for a white woman to marry a man of Japanese ancestry in California at that time.

In 1942, his family was interred at Manzamar, a Japanese internment camp during World War II.

Yoneda and his wife continued their activism for the rest of their lives fighting on behalf of the rights of workers.  His wife died in 1988 and he died in 1999.-Heidi Durrow

Mixed Experience History Month is the annual blog post series created by The New York Times best-selling author Heidi Durrow celebrating the history of the Mixed experience. Established in 2007, Mixed Experience History Month is an effort to highlight the long history of folks and events involved in the Mixed experience.  Please look for archived profiles of people, places and events of the Mixed experience every weekday of May at Lightskinned-ed Girl, the blog!  Thanks for reading.  And check out some of the previous year’s profiles: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012,  2013, 2014. Copyright 2015