Walter Tull (1888-1918) was born in Kent, England to a father who was the son of slaves from Barbados and a Kent-born woman.  Both parents died by the time he was nine and he and his brother were sent to an orphanage.  While there, Tull started playing soccer and became a professional player by 1909.  He was only the second person of color to play soccer professionally.

In 1914 he volunteered for the Army.  He proved himself to be a wonderful soldier and was quickly promoted.  He became the first black combat officer in the British Army.  He was also the first black officer to lead white British troops into Battle.  In 2014, the British Royal Mint released commemorative coins celebrating his achievements as a combat officer and for the ultimate sacrifice of his life in the line of duty in 1918.

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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.

Photo credit Hreinn Gudlaugsson.

Ed Thigpen was an American jazz drummer born in 1930.

At 18, Thigpen became a professional musician.  In 1950, he joined Cootie Williams’ band at the Savoy Ballroom in New York City.  He was drafted in 1952 and served in the US Army in Korea and Japan.  After his military service, he joined Dina Washington’s trio.  Known as “Mr. Taste,” he went on to become a fixture in New York’s vibrant jazz scene.

In 1959, he realized a dream to play with the Oscar Peterson Trio.  From the mid-1960s until the mid-1970s, Thigpen accompanied Ella Fitzgerald’s trio and also played as a freelancer in Hollywood for legends such as Johnny Mathis.

Thigpen moved permanently to Denmark in 1974.  He worked with expatriate musicians such as Ernie Wilkins, and Danish jazz artists like Niels-henning Oersted Pedersen.

Thigpen died in 2010 and is buried in Vestre Kirkegaard in Copenhagen.  He is survived by his two kids from his second marriage to a Danish woman.

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.

Ellen Craft (c.1826-1897), the daughter of a slave and her white master, became a leading abolitionist after she escaped from slavery.  The very light-skinned Craft disguised herself as a white man and escaped with her husband who acted as her man-servant.  In 1860, the couple published a book-length account of their experience called Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom.

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.

Caroline Bond Day (1889-1948) was mixed-race and her calculation of her heritage was that she was 7/16 Negro, 1/16 Indian, and 8/16 white.  Day received bachelor’s degrees from both Atlanta University and Radcliffe College.

She worked as a teacher, social worker, and secretary.  In her spare time, she collected data about black-white ancestry.  In 1932, she published “A Study of Some Negro-White Families in the United States.” She is considered to be the first African-American anthropologist at Harvard to receive a master’s degree with an authored credit of her research first.  She died in 1948. – 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.

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.