Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

423 results found

Hooks, Benjamin Lawson

(Encyclopedia)Hooks, Benjamin Lawson, 1925–2010, African-American civil-rights leader, b. Memphis, Tenn. In 1972 President Nixon named Hooks, a lawyer, Baptist minister, and former Tennessee county criminal court...

hooks, bell

(Encyclopedia)hooks, bell, 1952–2021, American author, poet, social critic, and Black feminist, b. Hopkinsville, Ky., as Gloria Jean Watkins, Stanford Univ. (B.A., ...

Lawson, Ernest

(Encyclopedia)Lawson, Ernest, 1873–1939, American landscape painter, b. San Francisco. He studied art in Kansas City, in New York City under Twachtman and J. Alden Weir, and in Paris. On returning to New York he ...

Lawson, John

(Encyclopedia)Lawson, John, d. 1711, English explorer of North Carolina. He came to the Carolinas in 1700 and within the next few years traveled approximately 1,000 mi (1,600 km) through its unexplored parts. His d...

Benjamin

(Encyclopedia)Benjamin [Heb.,=son of fortune], younger son of Jacob and Rachel, eponymous ancestor of one of the 12 tribes of Israel. His mother, dying, named him Benoni bĕnōˈnī [key] [Heb.,=son of my sorrow]. ...

White, Hugh Lawson

(Encyclopedia)White, Hugh Lawson, 1773–1840, American political leader, b. Iredell co., N.C. He moved (1787) to what is now E Tennessee and served in the wars against the Creek and Cherokee. He was (1793) secreta...

Shaw, Robert Lawson

(Encyclopedia)Shaw, Robert Lawson, 1916–99, American conductor, b. Red Bluff, Calif. Moving to New York City after college, he founded and led the Fred Waring Glee Club (1938–45) and the Collegiate Chorale (194...

Shearer, Hugh Lawson

(Encyclopedia)Shearer, Hugh Lawson, 1923–2004, Jamaican trade unionist and political leader, prime minister (1967–1972). At 17 he started at the Jamaican Worker newspaper, which was associated with the Bustamen...

Day, Benjamin

(Encyclopedia)Day, Benjamin, 1838–1916, American printer; son of Benjamin Henry Day. While working in New York City, Day invented a process, utilizing celluloid sheets, for shading plates in the color printing of...

Constant, Benjamin

(Encyclopedia)Constant, Benjamin (Henri Benjamin Constant de Rebecque) äNrēˈ bäNzhämăNˈ kôNstäNˈ də rəbĕkˈ [key], 1767–1830, French-Swiss political writer and novelist, b. Lausanne. His affair (1794...

Browse by Subject