Pioneering communications scholar, civil rights leader, Dean of Howard University School of Communications

Lionel C. Barrow Jr. graduated second in the 1948 Morehouse College class that included Martin Luther King Jr. He earned an MA in journalism and a Ph.D. in mass communications from the University of Wisconsin. After a decade in advertising — rising to Vice President at Foote, Cone and Belding — he became Dean of the Howard University School of Communications (1975–1985), where he launched WHMM-TV (now WHUT), the first public television station at an HBCU. In 1968, after King's assassination, he stood before 150 white male journalism educators and told them they had a moral responsibility to end the all-white, all-male composition of their faculties and the media they fed. That moment led to the founding of AEJMC's Minorities and Communication Division, which he created and led. He was also a Korean War veteran who served in the 24th Infantry Regiment. His unfinished book on Freedom's Journal — the first Black newspaper in America — represents decades of research. Two scholarships and a major diversity award bear his name. He was known as 'Lee' to colleagues.

American Red Cross volunteer in WWII Europe; member of the National Council of Negro Women

Wilhelmina Barrow served as an American Red Cross Girl in Europe during World War II and the post-war period. Her papers — including ARC training and recruitment documents, transport papers, publications for servicemen and women, reports from Red Cross Clubs, and souvenirs from Italy, France, and Belgium — are archived alongside her son Lionel's papers at Duke University. She was also a member of the National Council of Negro Women during the 1950s and 1960s.

First Prime Minister of Barbados. National Hero. Father of Independence.

Errol Barrow was born in the parish of Saint Lucy, Barbados, the fourth of five children of the Rev. Reginald Grant Barrow and Ruth Albertha O'Neal. He served in the RAF during WWII, flying 53 bombing missions. He studied law and economics at the London School of Economics under Harold Laski. After returning to Barbados, he co-founded the Democratic Labour Party, became Premier in 1961, and led the country to independence on November 30, 1966 — becoming its first Prime Minister. He introduced free education, national health insurance, social security, and spearheaded CARIFTA (later CARICOM). His likeness is on the Barbadian $50 note, his birthday is a national holiday, and he was posthumously named a National Hero in 1998. He was famously outspoken — calling Reagan 'a zombie' and 'that cowboy in the White House.' He died in office in 1987.

First female Governor General of Barbados. Internationally renowned nurse, diplomat, and women's rights leader.

Nita Barrow was the second of five children born to Rev. Reginald Grant Barrow and Ruth O'Neal — she was Errol's older sister. She trained as a nurse and midwife, rising to become the first West Indian Matron of the University College Hospital in Jamaica. She served as Nursing Advisor to the WHO and Pan American Health Organization, President of the World YWCA (1975–1983), President of the International Council of Adult Education, Convener of the 1985 UN Decade for Women Forum in Nairobi, and Ambassador of Barbados to the United Nations. She was the only woman on the Commonwealth Eminent Persons Group that visited South Africa during apartheid — where she disguised herself in African garb to enter the restricted Alexandra township. She was appointed Governor General of Barbados in 1990 and served until her death. She was known as 'the people's Governor General.'

Anglican priest, liberation theologian, AME Bishop. Father of Errol and Nita Barrow.

Reginald Grant Barrow was an Anglican priest whose sermons against racism and social stratification in St. Lucy parish brought him into conflict with both the church hierarchy and the colonial ruling class. He was made headmaster of the Alleyne School in St. Andrew — effectively exiled from the pulpit. He later moved to St. Croix in the US Virgin Islands, where he again clashed with authorities and was deported in 1922 as an 'undesirable.' He founded St. Luke AME, the first African Methodist Episcopal Church in the USVI. He eventually reached New York and became a Bishop in the AME Church. He never reunited with his wife Ruth, who raised their five children in Barbados with the help of extended family.

The man whose name changed from Baruch to Barrow. Bridge between the Ashkenazi, Sephardic, and Caribbean worlds.

Simon Barrow was born around 1709, the son of a man called Baruch (likely Baruch Lichtenstadt, of Ashkenazi origin, possibly from Prague). He married Bailah Montefiore, probably in Livorno, Italy — connecting the Barrow line to the Montefiore family. They arrived in Barbados sometime after 1740. On his wife's gravestone (she died 1773), he is identified as 'Shimon bar Baruch' — the Hebrew patronymic form. By the 1759 Barbados records, 'Simon son of Baruch' had become 'Simon Barrow.' He died in Barbados at approximately age 92. His will includes a bequest to the children of his brother Gedalia in Prague — a detail that establishes the family's Central European roots even as they lived in the Caribbean Sephardic world.