
Byron Johnson was born in Little Rock, Arkansas, on September 19, 1911. He played semi-pro baseball in 1932 for the Little Rock Stars. He earned a football scholarship and teaching degree from Wiley College in Texas. Byron majored in science and minored in math. He taught briefly in Little Rock's Dunbar High School and accepted a tryout offer from the Kansas City Monarchs Negro League Baseball team in 1937.
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John William Mosley, Jr. was born in Denver on June 21, 1921. His father came to Colorado attracted by the Cripple Creek silver rush but settled his family in Denver. Mosely attended Whittier Elementary School, Cole Junior High School and Manual Training High School in Denver, Colorado. At Manual he was an honor student, class valedictorian, Merit Scholarship winner and lettered in wrestling and football. He obtained his undergraduate education at Colorado State College in Fort Collins where he was the first African American to play football in the Big Seven Conference and to win a regional wrestling championship.
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Harold Jacobs was born in 1931 in Mississippi. He moved to St. Louis where he grew up. In 1948 he went to military and service in WWII. Jacobs used the GI Bill to get his college education and graduated from Jackson State College. After returning to Mississippi, he worked in politics and was effective in getting the state's most racist politician from being seated. He recruited the men that fought in the war with him to go to the state house and lobby against the state politician.
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