Henry Hampton
Henry Hampton grew up in Richmond Heights. His father, a doctor, was the medical director at the Homer G. Phillips Hospital. Hampton attended St. Louis University High School in a wheel chair after contracting polio. He walked most of his life with a cane. Hampton was executive producer of the epic 6-part, 14-hour series, “Eyes on the Prize,” a civil rights movement documentary garnering four Emmy Awards and a Peabody Award for excellence in broadcast journalism.
Jerrica V. Ampadu
Jerrica V. Ampadu was born and raised in East St. Louis. She graduated from Lincoln High School in 1993. Ampadu has been on the faculty of the SIUE School of Nursing for 19 years. She is a registered nurse with a PhD. Her doctoral dissertation explored ways to improve the lives of diabetics in East St. Louis. In 2019, Dr. Ampadu became director of the school’s We Care Clinic in East St. Louis. In 2020, she received the March of Dimes Nurse of the Year Award.
Gloria J. Gibson
Gloria J. Gibson attended East St. Louis Senior High School. Nobody in her family graduated college. Gibson got her undergraduate and master’s degrees from SIUE, and her PhD at Indiana University. Dr. Gibson served as a Dean of Humanities at Arkansas State before becoming Executive Vice President at the University of Northern Iowa. At Morgan State University in Baltimore, she was Senior Vice President and Provost. Today, Dr. Gibson, a first generation college student, is President of Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago.
Nicole E. Williams
Nicole E. Williams is a native of East St. Louis who, as a little girl, to her mother’s chagrin, cut open her stuffed animals to see what was inside of them. She is now a board-certified Obstetrician and Gynecologist. Dr.
Williams opened The Gynecology Institute of Chicago in July 2013 and expanded it to 3 locations. Dr. Williams has appeared in Redbook, Prevention Magazine, Cosmopolitan, Chicago Sun-Times, ABC, NPR, WGN, and CBS as a noted speaker and author on women's health.
Jimmy Williams, Jr.
Jimmy Williams Jr. grew up in East St. Louis and his father was the city’s first African-American mayor. As a teen, the younger Williams worked at McDonalds. After college, he spent nine years as a pilot and logged 2000 flight hours with the United States Navy. In 1998, Williams opened his first McDonalds franchise in Granite City. Today, he operates 23 of them. Williams has launched the James E. Williams Sr. Mentoring Program which teaches essential work skills, including punctuality.
Veva Zimmerman
Psychiatrist Veva Zimmerman, who grew up in Richmond Heights, was the first Black woman to hold a deanship at the New York University Grossman School of Medicine when she was appointed Associate Dean for Student Affairs in 1981. She co-founded summer programs for minorities and helped
create the Salk School of Science, a unique Manhattan middle school aimed at encouraging students—especially minority and female students—to pursue medical careers.
Dennis D. Stallings
Dennis D. Stallings was born and raised in East St. Louis and played football at the University of Illinois after attending East St. Louis Senior High School. He excelled on the football field and was the Illini’s only NFL draftee in 1997. Stallings was on two Super Bowl teams: the Titans in 1999 and the Ravens in 2000. He co-founded Game Day Youth Experience which gives NFL tickets to young people in the Champaign-Urbana area.
Jenifer Lewis
Jenifer Lewis was born in Kinloch and attended the old Kinloch High School. She landed her first Broadway role 11 days after her graduation from Webster University. Lewis has appeared in over 50 films, such as “Beaches,” “What’s Love Got to Do with It,” the three “Cars” movies and over 60 television shows. Because she has played the role of a mother in so many productions, she is known at “The Mother of Black Hollywood,” which is also the title of her autobiography.
Roscoe Robinson Jr.
Roscoe Robinson Jr. was president of his class at Sumner High School. He attended St. Louis University for one year before transferring to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Robinson commanded the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg and the U.S. Army in Japan. In 1982, he became the Army’s first Black 4-Star General. General Robinson received the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Bronze Star, the Silver Star, The Distinguished Service Medal and the Combat Infantryman’s Badge.
Mark Russell
Mark Russell was born and raised in north St. Louis and studied journalism at the University of Missouri. In addition to leading The Cleveland Plain Dealer's business and metro staffs for nearly a decade, Russell was the first African American executive editor of both of The Orlando Sentinel and The Commercial Appeal of Memphis, making him the first African American executive editor of a major city newsroom in the Deep South. Last year he led a team of 30 journalists who won the grand prize for the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights journalism awards.
