Black History Month is an annual celebration of achievements by African Americans and a time for recognizing the central role of blacks in U.S. history. These are the 29 people that I have selected to celebrate this February.
- Maya Angelou
Maya Angelou was a poet, author and civil rights activist. She was a role model and an activist who celebrated and recorded the experience of being black in the United States. Angelou grew up in one of America’s poorest regions, experiencing first hand the racial segregation and prejudice of the Deep South in Arkansas. At the age of seven on a trip to visit St.Louis she was raped by her mother’s boyfriend. Soon she had told her family what had happened, he was arrested, tried, released from prison and murdered shortly after. She became a volunteer mute, she stopped talking completely, she had a voice but refused to use it. She was ultimately persuaded to speak again by a friend of her grandmother who recognised her passion for poetry and told her that, to be experienced fully, it had to be spoken aloud. Angelou later recalled her saying: “You will never love poetry until you actually feel it come across your tongue, through your teeth, over your lips.” At 15 in San Francisco she became the city’s first female cable car conductor at a streetcar company. At 16 she gave birth to her one and only child, her son. Shortly after she had set out on an extraordinary career that included stints as a dancer, waitress, prostitute and pimp. She became an actress and singer, recorded an album of Calypso songs, appeared on Broadway, and travelled to Europe in a touring production of Porgy and Bess. In 1961 she worked for a time as northern co-ordinator for Martin Luther King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference, then followed a South African freedom fighter, Vusumzi Make, to Cairo, where she became a journalist. Later she took her son to Ghana, where she met the Black activist Malcolm X. She returned to the United States in 1965 to work with him, but he was killed shortly afterwards. A few years later Martin Luther King too was assassinated. It was around this time that her friend, the writer James Baldwin, helped persuade her to write her first volume of autobiography. It was a best seller, and six more volumes followed over the decades. In fact, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, made literary history as the first nonfiction bestseller by an African American woman. She began publishing poetry as well, wrote a feature film screenplay, wrote and presented a 10-part TV series about the Blues and Black Americans’ African heritage, and played Kunte Kinte’s African grandmother in the ground-breaking TV series Roots, about the Black experience of slavery. In the 1980s she added another string to her bow, becoming an academic and professor of American studies at Wake Forest University in North Carolina, a prestigious white university. By now she was perhaps the world’s best-known Black female writer and one of America’s best-known Black women. Bill Clinton acknowledged her status when he asked her to read a poem at his inauguration in 1993. Called On The Pulse of the Morning, it included the lines: “History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived/But if faced with courage need not be lived again.” In 2010, Barack Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Shortly afterwards she recalled that Martin Luther King, in the 1960s, had predicted that America would have a Black president in 40 years: she hadn’t believed it possible and had supported Hillary Clinton’s bid for the Democratic nomination (the two were long-standing friends). Throughout her life she was a superb phrase- maker, on the page and in the flesh. She had the knack of speaking – in the Southern accent she retained all her life and with a characteristic slow, deliberate delivery – in complete and grammatically perfect sentences. She was a commanding figure, standing six feet tall, and immensely striking. Of all her achievements, perhaps the most impressive was her own character. Life, she believed, was to be lived. “The excitement is not just to survive,” she once said, “but to thrive, and to thrive with some passion, some compassion, some humour and some style.”
- Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass was a leader in the abolitionist movement, an early champion of women’s rights and author of ‘Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. Abolitionist leader Frederick Douglass was born into slavery, sometime around 1818 in Talbot County, Maryland. Many of Douglass’s writings there are several autobiographies describing his experiences in slavery and his life after the Civil War, including the eminent work Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey was born around 1818 into slavery in Talbot County, Maryland. As was often the case with slaves, the exact year and date of Douglass’ birth are unknown, though later in life he chose to celebrate it on February 14. Douglass initially lived with his maternal grandmother, Betty Bailey. At a young age, Douglass was selected to live in the home of the plantation owners, one of whom may have been his father. His mother, who was an intermittent presence in his life, died when he was around 10. Defying a ban on teaching slaves to read and write, Baltimore slaveholder Hugh Auld’s wife Sophia taught Douglass the alphabet when he was around 12. When Auld forbade his wife to offer more lessons, Douglass continued to learn from white children and others in the neighborhood. It was through reading that Douglass’ ideological opposition to slavery began to take shape. He read newspapers avidly and sought out political writing and literature as much as possible. In later years, Douglass credited The Columbian Orator with clarifying and defining his views on human rights. Douglass shared his newfound knowledge with other enslaved people. Hired out to William Freeland, he taught other slaves on the plantation to read the New Testament at a weekly church service. Interest was so great that in any week, more than 40 slaves would attend lessons. Although Freeland did not interfere with the lessons, other local slave owners were less understanding. Armed with clubs and stones, they dispersed the congregation permanently. With Douglass moving between the Aulds, he was later made to work for Edward Covey, who had a reputation as a “slave-breaker.” Covey’s constant abuse nearly broke the 16-year-old Douglass psychologically. Eventually, however, Douglass fought back, in a scene rendered powerfully in his first autobiography. After losing a physical confrontation with Douglass, Covey never beat him again. Douglass tried to escape from slavery twice before he finally succeeded. Douglass married Anna Murray, a free black woman, on September 15, 1838. Douglass had fallen in love with Murray, who assisted him in his final attempt to escape slavery in Baltimore. On September 3, 1838, Douglass boarded a train to Havre de Grace, Maryland. Murray had provided him with some of her savings and a sailor’s uniform. He carried identification papers obtained from a free black seaman. Douglass made his way to the safe house of abolitionist David Ruggles in New York in less than 24 hours. Once he had arrived, Douglass sent for Murray to meet him in New York, where they married and adopted the name of Johnson to disguise Douglass’ identity. Anna and Frederick then settled in New Bedford, Massachusetts, which had a thriving free black community. There they adopted Douglass as their married name. Douglass and Anna had five children together: Rosetta, Lewis Henry, Frederick Jr., Charles Redmond and Annie, who died at the age of 10. After settling as a free man with his wife Anna in New Bedford in 1838, Douglass was eventually asked to tell his story at abolitionist meetings, and he became a regular anti-slavery lecturer. The founder of the weekly journal The Liberator, William Lloyd Garrison, was impressed with Douglass’ strength and rhetorical skill and wrote of him in his newspaper. Several days after the story ran, Douglass delivered his first speech at the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society’s annual convention in Nantucket. Crowds were not always hospitable to Douglass. While participating in an 1843 lecture tour through the Midwest, Douglass was chased and beaten by an angry mob before being rescued by a local Quaker family. Following the publication of his first autobiography in 1845, Douglass traveled overseas to evade recapture. He set sail for Liverpool on August 16, 1845, and eventually arrived in Ireland as the Potato Famine was beginning. He remained in Ireland and Britain for two years, speaking to large crowds on the evils of slavery. During this time, Douglass’ British supporters gathered funds to purchase his legal freedom. In 1847, the famed writer and orator returned to the United States a free man. Upon his return, Douglass produced some abolitionist newspapers: The North Star, Frederick Douglass Weekly, Frederick Douglass’ Paper, Douglass’ Monthly and New National Era. The motto of The North Star was “Right is of no Sex – Truth is of no Color – God is the Father of us all, and we are all brethren.”
- W.E.B. Du Bois
William Edward Burghardt Du Bois (February 23, 1868 – August 27, 1963) was an American civil rights activist, leader, Pan-Africanist, sociologist, educator, historian, writer, editor, poet, and scholar. He was born and raised in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. He had two children with his wife, Nina Gomer. He became a naturalized citizen of Ghana in 1963 at the age of 95 – the year of his death. Du Bois received his Master of Arts from Harvard in 1891, and, in 1895, he became the first African American to receive a doctorate from the university. His dissertation, “The Suppression of the African Slave Trade to the United States of America, 1638-1870,” was published as No. 1 in Harvard Historical Series. In 1905, Du Bois was a founder and general secretary of the Niagara Movement, an African American protest group of scholars and professionals. In 1909, Du Bois was among the founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and from 1910 to 1934 served it as director of publicity and research, a member of the board of directors, and founder and editor of The Crisis, its monthly magazine. In The Crisis, Du Bois directed a constant stream of agitation–often bitter and sarcastic–at white Americans while serving as a source of information and pride to African Americans. The magazine always published young African American writers. Racial protest during the decade following World War I focused on securing anti-lynching legislation. During this period the NAACP was the leading protest organization and Du Bois its leading figure. In 1934, Du Bois resigned from the NAACP board and from The Crisis because of his new advocacy of an African American nationalist strategy that ran in opposition to the NAACP’s commitment to integration. However, he returned to the NAACP as director of special research from 1944 to 1948. During this period, he was active in placing the grievances of African Americans before the United Nations, serving as a consultant to the UN founding convention (1945) and writing the famous “An Appeal to the World” (1947). From 1934 to 1944 Du Bois was chairman of the department of sociology at Atlanta University. In 1940 he founded Phylon, a social science quarterly. Black Reconstruction in America, 1860-1880 (1935), perhaps his most significant historical work, details the role of African Americans in American society, specifically during the Reconstruction period. The book was criticized for its use of Marxist concepts and for its attacks on the racist character of much of American historiography. However, it remains the best single source on its subject. Du Bois died in Ghana on Aug. 27, 1963, on the eve of the civil rights march in Washington, D.C. He was given a state funeral, at which Kwame Nkrumah remarked that he was “a phenomenon.”
- Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr was a social activist and Baptist minister who played a key role in the American civil rights movement from the mid-1950s until his assassination in 1968. King sought equality and human rights for African Americans, the economically disadvantaged and all victims of injustice through peaceful protest. King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 and is remembered each year on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, a U.S. federal holiday since 1986. The King family had been living in Montgomery for less than a year when the highly segregated city became the epicenter of the burgeoning struggle for civil rights in America, galvanized by the landmark Brown vs Board of Education decision of 1954. On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, secretary of the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), refused to give up her seat to a white passenger on a Montgomery bus and was arrested. Activists coordinated a bus boycott that would continue for 381 days. The Montgomery Bus Boycott placed a severe economic strain on the public transit system and downtown business owners. They chose Martin Luther King, Jr. as the protest’s leader and official spokesman. By the time the Supreme Court ruled segregated seating on public buses unconstitutional in November 1956, King—heavily influenced by Mahatma Gandhi and the activist Bayard Rustin—had entered the national spotlight as an inspirational proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance. King had also become a target for white supremacists, who firebombed his family home that January. On September 20, 1958, Izola Ware Curry walked into a Harlem department store where King was signing books and asked, “Are you Martin Luther King?” When he replied “yes,” she stabbed him in the chest with a knife. King survived, and the attempted assassination only reinforced his dedication to nonviolence: “The experience of these last few days has deepened my faith in the relevance of the spirit of nonviolence, if necessary social change is peacefully to take place.” Emboldened by the success of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, in 1957 he and other civil rights activists—most of them fellow ministers—founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), a group committed to achieving full equality for African Americans through nonviolent protest. The SCLC motto was “Not one hair of one head of one person should be harmed.” King would remain at the helm of this influential organization until his death. In his role as SCLC president, Martin Luther King, Jr. traveled across the country and around the world, giving lectures on nonviolent protest and civil rights as well as meeting with religious figures, activists and political leaders. In 1960 King and his family moved to Atlanta, his native city, where he joined his father as co-pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This new position did not stop King and his SCLC colleagues from becoming key players in many of the most significant civil rights battles of the 1960s. Their philosophy of nonviolence was put to a particularly severe test during the Birmingham campaign of 1963, in which activists used a boycott, sit-ins and marches to protest segregation, unfair hiring practices and other injustices in one of America’s most racially divided cities. Arrested for his involvement on April 12, King penned the civil rights manifesto known as the “Letter from Birmingham Jail” an eloquent defense of civil disobedience addressed to a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics. Later that year, Martin Luther King, Jr. worked with a number of civil rights and religious groups to organize the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful political rally designed to shed light on the injustices African Americans continued to face across the country. Held on August 28 and attended by some 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the event is widely regarded as a watershed moment in the history of the American civil rights movement and a factor in the passage of the Civil Rights Act if 1964. The March on Washington culminated in King’s most famous address, known as the “I Have a Dream” speech, a spirited call for peace and equality that many consider a masterpiece of rhetoric. Standing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument to the president who a century earlier had brought down the institution of slavery in the United States—he shared his vision of a future in which “this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.’” The speech and march cemented King’s reputation at home and abroad; later that year he was named “Man of the Year” by TIME Magazine and in 1964 became the youngest person ever awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. In the spring of 1965, King’s elevated profile drew international attention to the violence that erupted between white segregationists and peaceful demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where the SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee SNCC) had organized a voter registration campaign. Captured on television, the brutal scene outraged many Americans and inspired supporters from across the country to gather in Alabama and take part in the Selma to Montgomery march led by King and supported by President Lyndon B. Johnson, who sent in federal troops to keep the peace. That August, Congress passed the Voting Rights Act, which guaranteed the right to vote—first awarded by the 15th Amendment—to all African Americans. The events in Selma deepened a growing rift between Martin Luther King, Jr. and young radicals who repudiated his nonviolent methods and commitment to working within the established political framework. On the evening of April 4, 1968 Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing on the balcony of a motel in Memphis, where King had traveled to support a sanitation workers’ strike. In the wake of his death, a wave of riots swept major cities across the country, while President Johnson declared a national day of mourning. James Earl Ray, an escaped convict and known racist, pleaded guilty to the murder and was sentenced to 99 years in prison. He later recanted his confession and gained some unlikely advocates, including members of the King family, before his death in 1998. After years of campaigning by activists, members of Congress and Coretta Scott King, among others, in 1983 President Ronald Reagan signed a bill creating a U.S. federal holiday in honor of King. Observed on the third Monday of January, Martin Luther King Day was first celebrated in 1986.
- Malcolm X
Malcolm X was a strong voice for human rights activism and an African-American Muslim minister born in 1925 in Omaha, Nebraska. He laid the foundation for the Black Power movement of the 1960s and 70s. Unlike Martin Luther King Jr.’s nonviolent protests, the Black Power movement incited more violence and asked for immediate radical action. But Malcolm X’s early life wasn’t as outspoken. His father, a Baptist preacher, was killed when he was six and Malcolm was put in foster care. By the age of 20, he was in prison serving time for larceny and breaking and entering. It was after his release the he joined the Nation of Islam, an African-American political and religious movement, and became a powerful leader. This strong foothold in the civil rights movement came at a cost: Malcolm X became a target. He survived multiple assassination attempts, forcing him to travel with a team of bodyguards. In 1965, his family’s home was firebombed (fortunately, with no injuries). Just a week later, he was assassinated in the Manhattan Audubon Ballroom. An astounding fifteen hundred people came to his Harlem funeral. The Autobiography of Malcolm X was published in 1965, the result of a collaboration between himself and journalist Alex Haley. Eliot Fremont-Smith, reviewing The Autobiography of Malcolm X for The New York Times that same year, describes it as “extraordinary” and says it is a “brilliant, painful, important book.” The words Malcolm X left behind still resonate today, especially with the Black Lives Matter movement: “You can’t separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom.”
- Jesse Owens
Jesse Owens was born in Oakville, Alabama in 1913. In the 1920s, his family relocated to Cleveland, Ohio as part of the Great Migration. After a very successful track career in high school (where he helped his team win a national title and set world records), Owens was heavily recruited by many colleges due to his athletic prowess. Jesse Owens decided to run track at The Ohio State University, where, although he was the track star, campus segregation barred him and other African American athletes from living on campus and traveling on the same bus to track meets. In spite of these and other hardships, Jesse Owens earned the title of “fastest man on Earth” at a Big Ten meet in which he broke three world records (long jump, 220 yard sprint, and 220 hurdles) and tied the world record for the 100 yard dash. Next came the 1936 Olympics, taking place in Berlin, Germany. These Olympic games were met with controversy in the United States. Many athletes and supporters were concerned that participation would send the message that the US supported Hitler’s regime; and on the other side, many wanted to go to prove the idea of Aryan supremacy wrong. With four gold medals won in the 100 meter, 200 meter, long jump, and the 4×100 relay – Jesse Owens overwhelmingly showed the world the error in the thought of Aryan superiority. Owens excellent showing and winning four gold medals was not matched until Carl Lewis won gold in the same events at the 1984 Olympics. Jesse Owens Olympic glory was celebrated around the world, his dominance at the games making him arguably the most famous Olympian. When Owens returned home, he was met with the mixed bag of treatment and courtesy afforded to an African American living in the US. From the series Franklin D. Roosevelt President’s Official Files, 1933-1945 there are numerous letters and telegrams expressing enthusiasm and glee for how the “fastest human” will be welcomed and celebrated when he gets home. One telegram, from New York City, announces that “Jesse Owens has been officially selected to March at the head of the American Olympic in the welcome home parade up Broadway,” and the Good Neighbor League “would be honored to carry on by presenting your greetings to these great athletes.” Other letters came in calling directly for President Roosevelt to invite Jesse Owens to the White House and shake his hand. The pastor of Roosevelt’s valet, Ernest Hall of Cleveland, wrote: “I am writing today to ask that you make provision for the successful contestants of the Olympic games in Germany to be officially received by yourself upon their return home without regard to race or color. I am certain that you are not aware of the electric effect such an action on your part will have upon the twelve million Negroes in America.” Jesse Owens nor any of the other persons of color that won medals for the United States during the 1936 Olympics were invited to the White House to be received by President Roosevelt. A myth grew out of the games stating that a humiliated Adolf Hitler refused to shake hands with Owens. Owens himself addressed the “snub” myth: “I wasn’t invited to shake hands with Hitler, but I wasn’t invited to the White House to shake hands with the president, either.” Owens remained a celebrated figure to the American public, however, and in 1976, he received the highest civilian honor – the Presidential Medal of Freedom, given at the White House by President Gerald Ford.
- Jackie Robinsom
Jack Roosevelt Robinson was born on January 31, 1919, in Cairo, Georgia. The youngest of five children, Robinson was raised in relative poverty by a single mother. Jack Roosevelt Robinson was born on January 31, 1919, in Cairo, Georgia. The youngest of five children, Robinson was raised in relative poverty by a single mother. He attended John Muir High School in Pasadena, California, and Pasadena Junior College, where he was an excellent athlete and played four sports: football, basketball, track and baseball. He was named the region’s Most Valuable Player in baseball in 1938. Robinson’s older brother, Matthew, inspired Robinson to pursue his talent and love of athletics. Matthew won a silver medal in the 200-meter dash — just behind Jesse Owens — at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin. Robinson continued his education at UCLA where he became the university’s first student to win varsity letters in four sports. In 1941, despite his athletic success, Robinson was forced to leave UCLA just shy of graduation due to financial hardship. He moved to Honolulu, Hawaii, where he played football for the semi-professional Honolulu Bears. His season with the Bears was cut short when the United States entered into World War II. From 1942 to 1944, Robinson served as a second lieutenant in the United States Army. However, he never saw combat. During boot camp at Fort Hood, Texas, Robinson was arrested and court-martialed in 1944 for refusing to give up his seat and move to the back of a segregated bus. Robinson’s excellent reputation, combined with the efforts of friends, the NAACP and various black newspapers, shed public light on the injustice. Ultimately he was acquitted of the charges and received an honorable discharge. His courage and moral objection to racial segregation were precursors to the impact Robinson would have in Major League Baseball. After his discharge from the Army in 1944, Robinson began to play baseball professionally. At the time, the sport was segregated, and African Americans and whites played in separate leagues. Robinson began playing in the Negro Leagues, but he was soon chosen by Branch Rickey, president of the Brooklyn Dodgers, to help integrate Major League Baseball. He joined the all-white Montreal Royals, a farm team for the Brooklyn Dodgers, in 1946. Robinson later moved to Florida to begin spring training with the Royals. Rickey knew there would be difficult times ahead for the young athlete, and so made Robinson promise to not fight back when confronted with racism. Rickey also personally tested Robinson’s reactions to the racial slurs and insults he knew the player would endure. Robinson became the first black athlete to play Major League Baseball in the 20th century when he took the field for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. Throughout his decade-long career, Robinson distinguished himself as one of the game’s most talented and exciting players, recording an impressive .311 career batting average. He was also a vocal civil rights activist.
- Sojourner Truth
Truth was born Isabella Bomfree, a slave in Dutch-speaking Ulster County, New York in 1797. She was bought and sold four times, and subjected to harsh physical labor and violent punishments. Truth moved to New York City in 1828, where she worked for a local minister. By the early 1830s, she participated in the religious revivals that were sweeping the state and became a charismatic speaker. In 1843, she declared that the Spirit called on her to preach the truth, renaming herself Sojourner Truth. As an itinerant preacher, Truth met abolitionists William Lloyd Garrison and Frederick Douglass. Garrison’s anti-slavery organization encouraged Truth to give speeches about the evils of slavery. She never learned to read or write. In 1850, she dictated what would become her autobiography—The Narrative of Sojourner Truth—to Olive Gilbert, who assisted in its publication. Truth survived on sales of the book, which also brought her national recognition. She met women’s rights activists, including Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, as well as temperance advocates—both causes she quickly championed. In 1851, Truth began a lecture tour that included a women’s rights conference in Akron, Ohio, where she delivered her famous “Ain’t I a Woman?” speech. During the 1850’s, Truth settled in Battle Creek, Michigan, where three of her daughters lived. She continued speaking nationally and helped slaves escape to freedom. When the Civil War started, Truth urged young men to join the Union cause and organized supplies for black troops. After the war, she was honored with an invitation to the White House and became involved with the Freedmen’s Bureau, helping freed slaves find jobs and build new lives. While in Washington, DC, she lobbied against segregation, and in the mid 1860s, when a streetcar conductor tried to violently block her from riding, she ensured his arrest and won her subsequent case. In the late 1860s, she collected thousands of signatures on a petition to provide former slaves with land, though Congress never took action.
- Harriet Tubman
Harriet was born a slave and raised on Maryland’s Eastern Shore where the lines between slavery and freedom were often blurred. It was not unusual for families in this area to include both free and enslaved members. Harriet’s own husband, John Tubman was a free black man. Her status, however, remained unchanged until she fled to Pennsylvania – a free state – in 1849. Her husband did not make the journey and ultimately re-married after Harriet’s departure. Harriet would return to Maryland many times over the next decade to rescue both family and non-famly members from the bondages of slavery. Harriet earned the nickname “Moses” after the prophet Moses in the Bible who led his people to freedom. In all of her journeys she “never lost a single passenger.” Tubman’s work was a constant threat to her own freedom and safety. Slave holders placed a bounty for her capture and the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 was an ever-present danger, imposing severe punishments on any person who assisted the escape of a slave. Harriet wore many hats: She was an active proponent of women’s suffrage and worked alongside women such as side Susan B. Anthony. During the civil war, Harriet also worked for the Union Army as a cook, a nurse and even a spy. Harriet was acquainted with leading abolitionists of the day, including John Brown who conferred with “General Tubman ” about his plans to raid Harpers Ferry. Harriet had one daughter, Gertie, whom she and her second husband (Nelson Davis) adopted after the Civil war. Harriet suffered life-long headaches, seizures and had vivid dreams as a result of a traumatic head injury she suffered as a teenager while trying to stand up for a fellow field hand. These same symptoms gave her powerful visions that she ascribed to God and helped guide her on many trips to the North while leading others to freedom. Just before Harriet’s death in 1913 she told friends and family, “I go to prepare a place for you.” She was buried with military honors in Fort Hill Cemetery in New York.
- Booker T. Washington
Booker Taliaferro was born a slave in Franklin County on April 5, 1856. His father was an unknown white man and his mother, the slave of James Burroughs, a small farmer in Virginia. Later, his mother married the slave, Washington Ferguson. When Booker entered school he took the name of his stepfather and became known as Booker T. Washington. After the Civil War the family moved to West Virginia. His step-father, Walter Ferguson worked in the salt mines and at the age of nine Booker found employment as a salt-packer. A year later he became a coal miner before going to work as a houseboy for the wife of Lewis Ruffner, the owner of the mines. She encouraged Booker to continue his education and in 1872 he entered the Hampton Agricultural Institute. Booker T. Washington attended Hampton Institute and later Wayland Seminary. While he was a student at Wayland, he became convinced that black students who opted for a classical education forgot their roots and became estranged from the experience of black poverty. Washington argued that no race will ever be marginalized if they can contribute to the economy of the world. In 1895 he gave his famous “Atlanta Compromise” speech in which he further argued against “artificial forcing” of rights and emphasized that white society needed African Americans and that any attempt to stifle the growth of blacks by white society would be counterproductive. His compromise was for there to be a symbiotic relationship between the two races. In 1900, Booker T. Washington founded the National Negro Business League. He strongly believed in self-help and hard work as the keys to success. One of the biggest critics of Washington’s approach was W. E. B. Du Bois whose ideas were influential in the shaping of modern day black liberalism. His major complaints against Washington were that Washington believed in a subordinate position for African Americans, that Washington denigrated higher education for blacks, and that he was too willing toward the South. In 1901, President Theodore Roosevelt invited Booker T. Washington to visit him in the White House. To southern whites this was going too far. Washington now spent most of his time on the lecture circuit, and many African Americans became critical of his views. They often objected to the way Washington spoke that it was the role of blacks to serve whites, and that those black leaders who demanded social equality were political extremists. He went on to receive honorary degrees from Harvard University and Dartmouth College. Booker T. Washington was falling seriously ill in 1915. Fearing he did not have long to live, he decided to travel to Tuskegee where he died on 14th November 14, 1915.
- Ida B. Wells
Born a slave in Mississippi, on July 16, 1862, Wells was the oldest daughter of James and Lizzie Wells. The Wells family, as well as the rest of the slaves of the Confederate states, were decreed free by the Union thanks to the Emancipation Proclamation about six months after Ida’s birth. Living in Mississippi as African Americans, they faced racial prejudices and were restricted by discriminatory rules and practices. Wells’ parents were active in the Republican Party during Reconstruction. Her father, James, was involved with the Freedman’s Aid Society and helped start Shaw University, a school for the newly freed slaves, and served on the first board of trustees. It was at Shaw University that Wells received her early schooling. However, at the age of 16, she had to drop out when tragedy struck her family. Both of her parents and one of her siblings died in a yellow fever outbreak, leaving Wells to care for her other siblings. She convinced a nearby country school administrator that she was 18, and landed a job as a teacher to support her and her siblings. In 1882, Wells moved with her sisters to Memphis, Tennessee, to live with an aunt. Her brothers found work as carpenter apprentices. For a time, Wells continued her education at Fisk University in Nashville. Wells wrote about issues of race and politics in the South. A number of her articles were published in black newspapers and periodicals under the moniker “Iola.” Wells eventually became an owner of the Memphis Free Speech and Headlight, and, later, of the Free Speech. On one fateful train ride from Memphis to Nashville, in May 1884, Wells reached a personal turning point that resulted in her activism. After having bought a first-class train ticket, she was outraged when the train crew ordered her to move to the car for African Americans. She refused on principle. As Wells was forcibly removed from the train, she bit one of the men on the hand. She sued the railroad, winning a $500 settlement in a circuit court case. The decision was later overturned by the Tennessee Supreme Court. This injustice led Wells to pick up a pen and write. While working as a journalist and publisher, Wells also held a position as a teacher in a segregated public school in Memphis. She became a vocal critic of the condition of blacks only schools in the city. In 1891, she was fired from her job for these attacks. She championed another cause after the murder of a friend and his two business associates. Wells established several civil rights organizations. In 1896, she formed the National Association of Colored Women. Wells is also considered a founding member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Wells died of kidney disease on March 25, 1931, at the age of 68, in Chicago, Illinois.
- Serena Willams
Serena Williams came into the tennis world and took it by storm. Serena began training in the early 90’s by her father, who also got her sisters into the sport. He wanted them to be phenomenal tennis players and live a normal teenage life. In 1999, Serena became the second African-American woman to win a Grand Slam. She has more trophies than one can count from the U.S. Open, French Open, Wimbledon, Australian Open as well as several gold medals in the Olympics. Besides being an all star athlete she’s also an accomplished entrepreneur in the fashion industry. She has also appeared in advertisements for Nike, Gatorade and many others. Aside from ads you also are able to see her on the front page of magazines like Sports Illustrated, GQ, and Vogue. In 2017 at eight weeks pregnant Serena won the Australian Open and gave birth to her baby girl months later. Serena in 2018 topped the Forbes’ list as one of the highest-paid female athletes and is known for being the G.O.A.T!
- Rosa Parks
Rosa Parks was a legendary civil rights leader and a key player in the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which led to the desegregation of public buses in Montgomery in 1965. The bus was a special symbol of inequality for Rosa. When she was a child, she had watched white children riding a bus to their school while she and her classmates had to walk to school. When Rosa refused to give up her seat, it wasn’t the first time she’d faced down driver James Blake. 12 years before, she had left his bus rather than getting off and entering again through the back door after she’d paid at the front, another rule of bus segregation. Rosa wasn’t the first African American to refuse to give up her seat during the Jim Crow era. High school student Claudette Colvin was arrested nine months before Rosa’s stand. With the legal support of the NAACP, she and four other women sued the bus system in federal court. While working for the NAACP, Rosa was very much involved in the case. “The only tired I was, was tired of giving in.”~ Rosa Parks
- Phillis Wheatley
A pioneering African American poet, Wheatley was born in Senegal/Gambia around 1753. At the age of eight, she was kidnapped and brought to Boston on a slave ship. Upon her arrival, John Wheatley purchased the young girl, who was in fragile health, as a servant for his wife, Susanna. Under the family’s direction, Wheatley (who, as was the custom at the time, adopted her master’s last name) was taken under Susanna’s wing. Her quick intelligence was hard to miss, and as a result, Susanna and her two children taught Wheatley to read and was actively encouraged in her literary pursuits by the household. Wheatley received lessons in theology, English, Latin and Greek. Ancient history was soon folded into the teachings, as were lessons in mythology and literature. At a time when African Americans were discouraged and intimidated from learning how to read and write. Wheatley wrote her first published poem at around age 13. In 1773, Wheatley gained considerable stature when her first and only book of verse, Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral, was published, with the writer having received patronage from Selina Hastings, the Countess of Huntingdon, in England. As proof of her authorship, the volume included a preface in which 17 Boston men, including John Hancock, asserted that she had indeed written the poems in it. Poems on Various Subjects is a landmark achievement in U.S. history. In publishing it, Wheatley became the first African American and first U.S. slave to publish a book of poems, as well as the third American woman to do so. A strong supporter of America’s fight for independence, Wheatley penned several poems in honor of the Continental Army’s commander, George Washington. Wheatley sent one of said works, written in 1775, to the future president, eventually inspiring an invitation to visit him at his headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Wheatley accepted the offer and visited Washington in March of 1776. Wheatley did continue to write, but the growing tensions with the British and, ultimately, the Revolutionary War, weakened enthusiasm for her poems. Phillis Wheatley died in her early 30s in Boston, Massachusetts, on December 5, 1784.
- Muhammad Ali
Muhammed Ali was ‘more than just a Boxer’. He was a Black, Muslim man in Pre-Civil Rights Era America and he would go on to be an activist for the remainder of his life. When asked why he would not join the US Army draft to fight in Vietnam, Ali said; “My enemy is white people, not Viet Cong, Chinese or Japanese. You are my opposer when I want freedom, you (are) my opposer when I want Justice, you (are) my opposer when I want equality. You won’t even stand up for me in America for my Religious beliefs, and you want me to go somewhere and fight, but you won’t even stand up for me here in America.” Muhammed Ali was called a terrorist for his affiliation with the Nation of Islam, Radical for his close relationship with Malcom X and was deemed ‘un-American’ for his name change (from Cassius Clay), despite his Gold medal at the 1960 Olympics for the USA. Muhammed Ali did not ‘transcend race’. Ali was the Blackest version of himself, and was proud to be. Ali’s pride is what made him a champion not just in the ring and realm of Boxing, but as an Activist and as a campaigner of Civil Rights movement in both America, and across the world. Ali may have become a three time world heavyweight champion, he may have become a Muslim, a Civil Rights Campaigner, a world megastar, a sports personality of the century, a husband and father, an Olympic Gold medalist, a ‘draft evader’, a conscientious objector, a counter-culturalist, a suffer of Parkinson’s disease, a suicide preventer. But who he was, was a man that believed he was the greatest at what he did and that belief is what made him become who he is; an inspiration for generations that have been and are to come.
- Ella Baker
Born in Norfolk, Virginia, on December 13, 1903, Baker grew up in rural North Carolina. She was close to her grandmother, a former slave, who told Baker many stories about her life, including a whipping she had received at the hands of her owner. A bright student, Baker attended Shaw University and was the graduating class valedictorian in 1927. After moving to New York City in the late 1920s, Baker joined the Young Negroes Cooperative League (YNCL), which allowed its members to pool their funds to get better deals on goods and services. Before long, she was serving as its national director.
Around 1940, Baker became a field secretary for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), a role that required extensive travel as she raised funds and recruited new members to the organization. Baker became the NAACP’s national director of branches in 1943. She became director of the New York chapter of the NAACP in 1952. In 1957, Baker helped launch the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), under the presidency King. She also clashed with King and other male leaders of the SCLC, who allegedly were not used to receiving pushback from such a strong-willed woman, before exiting the organization in 1960. Baker continued to fight for social justice and equality into her later years, providing counsel to such organizations as the Third World Women’s Coordinating Committee and the Puerto Rican Solidarity Committee. Baker died on her 83rd birthday, on December 13, 1986, in New York City.
- Langston Hughes
James Mercer Langston Hughes was born on February 1, 1902, in Joplin, Missouri. While Hughes’ mother moved around during his youth, Hughes was raised primarily by his maternal grandmother, Mary, until she died in his early teens. From that point, he went to live with his mother, and they moved to several cities before eventually settling in Cleveland, Ohio. It was during this time that Hughes first began to write poetry, and one of his teachers introduced him to the poetry of Carl Sandburg and Walt Whitman, both of whom Hughes would later cite as primary influences. Hughes was also a regular contributor to his school’s literary magazine and frequently submitted to other poetry magazines, although they would ultimately reject his work. Hughes graduated from high school in 1920 and spent the following year in Mexico with his father. Around this time, Hughes’ poem “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” was published in The Crisis magazine and was highly praised. In 1921 Hughes returned to the United States and enrolled at Columbia University where he studied briefly, and during which time he quickly became a part of Harlem’s burgeoning cultural movement, what is commonly known as the Harlem Renaissance. But Hughes dropped out of Columbia in 1922 and worked various odd jobs around New York for the following year, before signing on as a steward on a freighter that took him to Africa and Spain. He left the ship in 1924 and lived for a brief time in Paris, where he continued to develop and publish his poetry. In 1937, he served as a war correspondent for several American newspapers during the Spanish Civil War. On May 22, 1967, Hughes died from complications of prostate cancer.
- Lewis Latimer
Latimer was born on September 4, 1848 in Chelsea, Massachusetts. His parents were George and Rebecca Latimer, both runaway slaves who migrated to Massachusetts in 1842 from Virginia. George Latimer was captured by his slave owner, who was determined to take him back to Virginia. His situation gained great notoriety, even reaching the Massachusetts Supreme Court. Eventually George was purchased by abolition supporters who set him free. Lewis served in the United States Navy for the Union during the Civil War, assigned to the U.S.S. Massasoit gunboat and received an honorable discharge on July 3, 1865. After his discharge he sought employment throughout Boston, Massachusetts and eventually gained a position as an office boy with a patent law firm, Crosby and Gould earning $3.00 each week. After observing Latimer’s ability to sketch patent drawings, he was eventually promoted to the position of head draftsman earning $20.00 a week. In addition to his newfound success, Latimer found additional happiness when he married Mary Wilson in November of 1873. In 1874, along with W.C. Brown, Latimer co-invented an improved of a train water closet, a bathroom compartment for railroad trains. Two years later, Latimer would play a part in one of the world’s most important inventions.
In 1876, Latimer was sought out as a draftsman by a teacher for deaf children. The teacher had created a device and wanted Lewis to draft the drawing necessary for a patent application. The teacher was Alexander Graham Bell and the device was the telephone. Working late into the night, Latimer worked hard to finish the patent application, which was submitted on February 14, 1876, just hours before another application was submitted by Elisha Gray for a similar device. In 1880, after moving to Bridgeport, Connecticut, Latimer was hired as the assistant manager and draftsman for U.S. Electric Lighting Company owned by Hiram Maxim. Maxim was the chief rival to Thomas Edison, the man who invented the electric light bulb. The light was composed of a glass bulb which surrounded a carbon wire filament, generally made of bamboo, paper or thread. When the filament was burned inside of the bulb (which contained almost no air), it became so hot that it actually glowed. Thus by passing electricity into the bulb, Edison had been able to cause the glowing bright light to emanate within a room. Before this time most lighting was delivered either through candles or through gas lamps or kerosene lanterns. Maxim greatly desired to improve on Edison’s light bulb and focused on the main weakness of Edison’s bulb – their short life span (generally only a few days.) Latimer set out to make a longer lasting bulb. Latimer devised a way of encasing the filament within an cardboard envelope which prevented the carbon from breaking and thereby provided a much longer life to the bulb and hence made the bulbs less expensive and more efficient. This enabled electric lighting to be installed within homes and throughout streets. Latimer’s abilities in electric lighting became well known and soon he was sought after to continue to improve on incandescent lighting as well as arc lighting. Eventually, as more major cities began wiring their streets for electric lighting, Latimer was dispatched to lead the planning team. He helped to install the first electric plants in Philadelphia, New York City and Montreal and oversaw the installation of lighting in railroad stations, government building and major thoroughfares in Canada, New England and London. In 1890, Latimer, having been hired by Thomas Edison, began working in the legal department of Edison Electric Light Company, serving as the chief draftsman and patent expert. Later that year wrote the worlds most thorough book on electric lighting, “Incandescent Electric Lighting: A Practical Description of the Edison System.” Lewis was named one of the charter members of the Edison pioneer, a distinguished group of people deemed responsible for creating the electrical industry. The Edison Electric Lighting would eventually evolve into what is now known as the General Electric Company. Latimer continued to display his creative talents over then next several years. In 1894 he created a safety elevator, a vast improvement on existing elevators. He next received a patent for Locking Racks for Hats, Coats, and Umbrellas. The device was used in restaurants, hotels and office buildings, holding items securely and allowing owners of items to keep the from getting misplaced or accidentally taken by others. He next created a improved version of a Book Supporter, used to keep books neatly arranged on shelves. Latimer next devised a method of making rooms more sanitary and climate controlled. He termed his device an Apparatus for Cooling and Disinfecting. The device worked wonders in hospitals, preventing dust and particles from circulating within patient rooms and public areas. Throughout the rest of his life, Latimer continued to try to devise ways of improving everyday living for the public, eventually working in efforts to improve the civil rights of Black citizens within the United States. He also painted portraits and wrote poetry and music for friends and family. Lewis Latimer died on December 11, 1928 and left behind a legacy of achievement and leadership that much of the world owes thanks.
- The Soledad Brothers
January 13, 1970, 14 Blacks and 2 white prisoners from the maximum-security wing were released into a new recreation yard for the first time in several months. One guard, overlooking the yard, was armed with a rifle. According to prison authorities, a fist fight broke out. The guard immediately fired four shots, killing three Black prisoners and wounding one white. Following the incident, thirteen Black prisoners began a hunger strike in the hopes of securing an investigation. On January 16, 1970, a Monterey County grand jury convened, and called the murder of Nolen, Edwards, and Miller, “justifiable homicide”. No Blacks were permitted to testify, including those who had been in the recreation yard during the shooting. Within thirty minutes after the grand jury’s ruling was broadcast on the prison radio, a white prison guard was found dying in another maximum-security wing of the prison, having been beaten and thrown from a third-floor tier to the television room below. The Deputy Superintendent of the prison labeled the killing an act of revenge for the earlier murders. All the prisoners of Y wing who had been out of their cells, were immediately locked in isolation. With promises of early parole and threats of long confinement in the foreground, the district attorney and prison officials interrogated the inmates. After eight days of pressure, they claimed to have found the guilty men, George L Jackson, Fleeta Drumgo, and John Wesley Clutchette were indicted by the Monterey County grand jury for first-degree murder, and held in solitary confinement. Within the Black Panther Party and other civil rights societies, the indication of the Soledad Brothers was a means of getting rid of the three men who were not afraid to voice out problems of white privileges in the prisons, especially George Jackson who was a known activist. Civil rights activists worked hard to see to it that justice prevailed and the Soledad Brothers were freed. Funds were raised to ensure that they had the best lawyers and that their case was not left to die with time like many others in the previous year. In August 1970, 17-year-old Jonathan Jackson and brother of George Jackson was killed after taking Judge Harold Haley, Gary Thomas and three other jurors hostage demanding the release of the Soledad Brothers. The act of bravery made the case of the Soledad brothers stir up a fight for justice in the African American community. After years of protests from the Black Panther party and other activists, on March 27, 1972, the San Francisco jury dropped all charges against the Soledad Brothers because the state had failed to prove the case. The charges were dropped a few months after a guard killed George Jackson in an open fire shooting after claims that he had started a riot that was to lead to an escape. The case of the Soledad Brothers remains one of the most talked about cases in civil rights history.
- Amelia Boynton Robinson
On August 26, 2015, Amelia Boynton Robinson passed at 104 years young. She was a Civil Rights activist, educator, political leader, and catalyst for the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Robinson received the Martin Luther King, Jr. Medal of Freedom and served as the Vice Chair for the Schiller Institute. In January 2015, Robinson attended the State of the Union Address as an invited guest of the President, and in March, she crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge along side President Barack Obama on the 50th Anniversary of Bloody Sunday. Amelia (Platts) Boynton was born on August 18, 1911, in Savannah, Georgia. She earned a degree from Tuskegee Institute [University] in home economics and further pursed her education at Tennessee State University, Virginia State University, and Temple University. Boynton married in 1936, and along side her first husband, worked on black voter registration in Alabama. Boynton continued working for civil rights during the 1940s and 1950s. In 1964, she was the first African-American woman to run for Congress from the state of Alabama. While living in Selma, Alabama, Boynton attempted to vote numerous times, and was rejected each time. She worked with the Dallas County Voters League, Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) to gain voter rights for southern African Americans. On Sunday, March 7, 1965, Boynton along with about 500 other people held a protest march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama demanding voting rights. The marchers were met at the Edmund Pettus Bridge by the police and local southern whites. They were violently attacked and Boynton was beaten unconscious. The images of her lifeless body, forced many Americans to acknowledge the need for the Voting Rights Act of 1965. “It’s important that young people know about the struggles we faced to get to the point we are today. Only then will they appreciate the hard-won freedom of blacks in this country.” ~ Amelia Boynton Robinson
- William Wells Brown
William Wells Brown was an African American antislavery lecturer, groundbreaking novelist, playwright and historian. He is widely considered to have been the first African American to publish works in several major literary genres. Brown was born to a white father and enslaved mother on a plantation outside of Lexington, Kentucky, most likely in 1814. He spent his childhood and much of his young adult life as a slave in St. Louis, Missouri working a variety of trades. Brown slipped away from his owner’s steamboat while it was docked in Cincinnati, Ohio and thereafter declared himself a free man on New Year’s Day 1834. Shortly thereafter he was taken in and helped to safety by Mr. and Mrs. Wells Brown, a white Quaker family. William would adopt their names in respect for the help they provided him. William Wells Brown settled briefly in Cleveland, Ohio where he married a free African American woman. They had two daughters. Later Brown moved his family to Buffalo, New York where he spent nine years working both as a steamboat worker on Lake Erie and a conductor for the Underground Railroad. By 1843 Brown was lecturing regularly on his experiences in slavery for the Western New York Anti-Slavery Society. By 1845, in the wake of the tremendous success of Frederick Douglass’s narrative autobiography, Brown published his own Narrative of William W. Brown, a Fugitive Slave, Written by Himself. The resounding success of his narrative led Brown to travel across Europe between 1849 and 1854 where he delivered more than a thousand speeches. He also wrote two additional books. Three Years in Europe, published in 1852, was the first travel book ever to be written by an African American while Clotel, which appeared a year later, is one of the earliest novels written by an African American and the first to be published by a British publishing house. In 1858 his play The Escape became the first play ever to be published by an African American. As slavery ended, Brown’s career as a traveling speaker slowed and he eventually settled in Boston where he lived until his death in 1884.
- Benjamin O. Davis Sr.
On Oct. 25, 1940, Benjamin O. Davis Sr. became the first African American to hold star rank in the U.S. Army and in the armed forces. He was promoted to brigadier general, temporary — a situation with which he was all too familiar, as his promotions to major, lieutenant colonel, and colonel had all originally been “temporary.” Such was the situation for black officers in Davis’s day — all two or three of them. Born in Washington in 1877, he first entered the military as a temporary first lieutenant on July 13, 1898, during the Spanish-American War. Mustered out in 1899, he enlisted as a private just six months later. Within two years, he had been commissioned a second lieutenant of cavalry in the regular Army. Davis’s service as an officer with the famed “Buffalo Soldiers” regiment in the Philippines and on the Mexican border was exemplary, yet his subsequent assignments as a college ROTC instructor and as a National Guard advisor were far from the front lines. All of his postings, including duty as the military attache to Liberia, were designed to avoid putting Davis in command of white troops or officers. Because these were not high profile jobs, Davis rose slowly through the ranks, earning his colonel’s eagle only in 1930. In 1938, he received his first independent command, the 369th National Guard Infantry Regiment. When Davis was promoted to brigadier, some saw it as a political action from President Franklin D. Roosevelt. However, as advisor on race relations in the European theater during World War II, Davis, as his Distinguished Service Medal citation relates, showed “initiative, intelligence and sympathetic understanding” while conducting investigations, bringing about “a fair and equitable solution to … problems which have since become the basis of far-reaching War Department policy.” Davis’s slow, steady, and determined rise in the Army paved the way for countless minority men and women — including his son Benjamin O. Davis Jr., a West Point graduate who in 1954 became only the second African-American general in the U.S. military and the first in the Air Force.
- Wilma Rudolph
Wilma Rudolph was born on June 23, 1940, in St. Bethlehem, Tennessee. At birth, she weighed only four-and-a-half pounds and had numerous health issues as a child. She suffered from double pneumonia twice and scarlet fever once before she was four years old. She had polio and suffered paralysis in her left leg. From ages five to nine, she wore a metal brace on her leg. During that time, she noticed the trips were always made on segregated buses that required African Americans sit in the back. Rudolph entered Cobb Elementary School in Clarksville, Tennessee in 1947, and it was there that she discovered her passion for sports. In eighth grade, she joined the track team, even though basketball was her first love, and competed in five different events in high school. By the age of 16, she was a bronze medalist in the 1956 Olympics. In September of 1958, she entered Tennessee State University majoring in elementary education and psychology. Wilma Rudolph entered the 1960 Olympics and became the first American woman to win three gold medals: the 100 meter dash, 200 meter dash and the 4 x 100 meter relay. She also set world records for all three events. On May 27, 1963, she graduated from Tennessee State University and was offered a job as an elementary teacher and girl’s track coach at her old school, Cobb Elementary School. Wilma Rudolph was named United Press Athlete of the Year in 1960 and the AP Woman Athlete of the Year in 1960 and 1961. She was inducted into the Women’s Sports Hall of Fame in 1994. She died in Clarksville in 1994 at the age of 54.
- Carter G. Woodson
On Feb. 7, 1926, Carter G. Woodson, initiated the first celebration of Negro History Week which led to Black History Month. Carter G. Woodson chose February for Negro History Week for reasons of tradition and reform. It is commonly said that Woodson selected February to encompass the birthdays of two great Americans who played a prominent role in shaping Black history, namely Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass, whose birthdays are the 12th and the 14th. Well aware of the pre-existing celebrations (the birthday celebrations of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass), Woodson built Negro History Week around traditional days of commemorating the Black past. Though he admired both men, Woodson had never been fond of the celebrations held in their honor. More importantly, Woodson believed that history was made by the people, not simply or primarily by great men. Rather than focusing on two men, the Black community, he believed, should focus on the countless Black men and women who had contributed to the advance of human civilization. Negro History Week appeared across the country in schools and before the public. The expanding Black middle class became participants in and consumers of Black literature and culture. Black history clubs sprang up, teachers demanded materials to instruct their pupils, and progressive whites stepped forward and endorsed the efforts. Negro History Week proved to be more dynamic than Woodson or ASALH could control. By the 1930s, Woodson complained about the intellectual charlatans, Black and white, popping up everywhere, seeking to take advantage of the public interest in Black history. Well before his death in 1950, Woodson believed that the weekly celebrations — not the study or celebration of Black history — would eventually come to an end. In fact, Woodson never viewed Black history as a one-week affair. He pressed for schools to use Negro History Week to demonstrate what students learned all year. In the 1940s, efforts began slowly within the Black community to expand the study of Black history in the schools and Black history celebrations before the public. The 1960s had a dramatic effect on the study and celebration of Black history. Before the decade was over, Negro History Week would be well on its way to becoming Black History Month. The shift to a month-long celebration began even before Woodson’s death. As early as 1940s, Blacks in West Virginia, Woodson’s home state where he often spoke, began to celebrate February as Negro History Month. Black History Month replaced Negro History Week at a quickening pace. Within ASALH, younger intellectuals, part of the awakening, prodded Woodson’s organization to change with the times. They succeeded. In 1976, fifty years after the first celebration, ASALH used its influence to institutionalize the shifts from a week to a month, and from Negro history to Black history. Since the mid-1970s, every U.S. president has issued proclamations endorsing the ASALH’s annual theme.
- Arthur Ashe
Arthur Robert Ashe Jr., legendary tennis player, human rights activist, and educator, was born on July 10, 1943, in Richmond, Virginia. At the age of four, he began playing tennis at Brook Field, a black-only park where his father worked as caretaker. Ashe developed into a prodigy in the early 1950s under his lifelong coach Dr. Walter Johnson, who also trained professional tennis player and golfer Althea Gibson. In 1953, at the age of 10, Ashe won the American Tennis Association’s National Championship for boys 12 years and under. Determined to play in the all-white Junior United States Tennis Association (USTA), Ashe broke its racial barrier in 1957 when he competed in Maryland boys’ championships. This led to his regular inclusion in local summer UTSA tournaments from 1957 to 1960. In 1960, 17-year-old Ashe first gained national recognition as a high school student-athlete in Sports Illustrated. The following year he entered the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) on a full scholarship. In Ashe’s sophomore year he made the 1963 US Davis Cup team, a feat he repeated from 1964 to 1970 and again in 1975, 1976 and 1978. In 1965 Ashe was named the top-ranked amateur player in men’s tennis and, as team captain, guided the UCLA tennis team to the NCAA team championship, winning the individual and doubles titles. From 1966 to 1968, Ashe attended the US Military Academy at West Point, New York and graduated with the rank of second lieutenant. In 1969 he first spoke out against South African apartheid which he saw as an extension of his fight against Jim Crow in the United States. From that date he became one of the most outspoken opponents of apartheid, constantly using his own success to challenge South Africa. Ashe became a professional tennis player in 1969. In that year he became the first African American to be ranked number one, a feat repeated in 1975 after he won Wimbledon. Ashe emerged as a leader among professional tennis players, co-founding the USTA National Junior Tennis League, which exposed inner-city youth to tennis, and the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). Ashe served as its president in 1974 following a 78-person boycott of Wimbledon. In 1977 Ashe married photographer Jeanne Moutoussamy. Nine years later they had their only child, a daughter named Camera. Heart complications stemming from a 1979 heart attack forced Ashe to retire from professional tennis in 1980, with a career record of 818 wins, 260 losses, and 51 titles. In 1985 he was unanimously elected into the International Tennis Hall of Fame. After his tennis career ended, Ashe became a noted journalist, humanitarian, and activist. In 1981 he became the first African American to be named national chairman of the American Heart Association. As a journalist he wrote for Tennis Magazine, Time Magazine and The Washington Post. Ashe was also a tennis commentator for ABC Sports and HBO Sports. He wrote eight books between 1967 and 1995 covering topics such as education, tennis, and African American achievement. In the early 1990s, Ashe became an ambassador for AIDS awareness. His concern about AIDS began with his HIV infection from a tainted blood transfusion during 1983 bypass surgery. By 1988 the infection had progressed from HIV into full-blown AIDS. The family publically disclosed his condition on April 8, 1992 at a press conference. Nearly a year later on February 6, 1993, Arthur Robert Ashe Jr. died in New York City. He was buried in the Governor’s Mansion in his native Richmond, an unprecedented honor for an African American, and the first person to lie in state at the mansion since Confederate general Stonewall Jackson in 1863. Ashe has been commemorated with many awards. Most notable are the Presidential Medal of Freedom (1993), a statute on Richmond’s Monument Avenue (1996), and, beginning in 1997, the US Open has been played in Arthur Ashe Stadium in Flushing Meadows Park, New York. Ashe was also honored with a US postage stamp in 2005.
- Matthew Henson
Matthew Alexander Henson was born on August 8, 1866 in Nanjemoy, Maryland. In 1870 the family moved to Washington, DC, but when his father died, Matthew was sent to live with his uncle. His experience in Washington was very positive as his uncle took a great deal of interest in his education, paying for it for several years. When his uncle died, however, Matthew had to support himself and got a job as a dishwasher. He was still young at only twelve years of age when he journeyed to Baltimore, Maryland and was hired on as a cabin boy on the merchant ship Katie Hines. Captain Childs was in charge of the ship and took an interest in Henson, teaching him about the ship as well as how to read and write. Matthew sailed around the world with the Captain for several years, gaining experience as a crewman on the ship and learning about countries all over the world. Visiting Europe, Asia, Africa and southern parts of Russia, Henson was exposed to the cultures and languages of the different regions, knowledge that would benefit him in years to come. Captain Childs also taught him the principles of basic navigation, setting the stage for Matthew to become an excellent seaman. After Captain Childs death in 1883, Henson returned to Washington, DC where he found work in a furrier clothing store. It was there that he happened to make the acquaintance of Commander Robert E. Peary. in 1884 Perry had been ordered by the United States Navy Corps of Engineers to do a survey for the proposed Nicaragua Canal. Peary was surprised to hear of Henson’s vast experience for someone only 18 years old. Having served on a ship for six years as a cabin boy, Henson had much of the skill-set that Peary needed and the Commander asked Matthew to join him as his personal valet. During their two years together in Central America, Peary told Henson of his desire to explore the Arctic circle, and it became a goal for Henson too as the two would explore together for the next 20 years. Henson traveled with Peary to explore parts of Greenland in 1891, but by the end of the journey all of the other members of the team had abandoned the venture, leaving Peary and Henson alone. They traveled again to Greenland in 1895 but this trip turned into a disaster as the team almost starved to death, surviving by eating all but one of the sled dogs. During their travels, Henson’s familiarity with different cultures and dealing with different languages allowed him to befriend the Inuit, the indigenous people inhabiting the Arctic regions (often referred to in the past as Eskimos). Henson eventually mastered the Inuit language and they treated him as a favored friend, calling him Mahri-Pahluk (meaning “Matthew the Kind One”). This was crucial to his and Perry’s expeditions because the Inuit were familiar with the territory and the terrain. They trained him to drive the dog sled and to train the sled dogs in the Inuit way and viewed him as the only non-Inuit who could do so. He also regarded himself as a craftsman and his capabilities came in handy, whether for repairing parts of their vessels or sleds or in building igloos as shelter in the harsh Arctic conditions. This came in handy as they journeyed out on in 1906 to the Farthest North point, a trip that covered thousands of mile on dog sleds. They began the journey on Peary’s new ship, the SS Roosevelt, breaking through the ice between Greenland and Ellesmere Island. Although Peary claimed to have made it as far as 87°06′ north latitude, he failed to reach the North Pole. From 1908-1909, Henson and Peary would once again take a run at making it to the North Pole, departing from New York on July 6, 1908. The North Pole (often referred to as the Geographic North Pole but not to be confused with the North Magnetic Pole ) is the northernmost point on the Earth. It refers to the point in the Northern Hemisphere where the surface of the Earth meets the planet’s axis of rotation and it defined as geodetic latitude 90° North. This expedition was meant to be the most serious run ever made and the expedition crew was very large. According to National Geographic, Henson and Perry left on the SS Roosevelt on August 18, 1908, along with “22 Inuit men, 17 Inuit women, 10 children, 246 dogs, 70 tons (64 metric tons) of whale meat from Labrador, the meat and blubber of 50 walruses, hunting equipment, and tons of coal. In February, Henson and Peary departed their anchored ship at Ellesmere Island’s Cape Sheridan, with the Inuit men and 130 dogs working to lay a trail and supplies along the route to the Pole.” To get to the North Pole the expedition crew broke up into teams, with some venturing forward and depositing caches of food and goods in igloos along the way. This team would then turn back and return to the Roosevelt. The next teams would venture further doing the same until Peary and Henson’s group made the last push to the pole. During the trip, the team fell into one hazard after another. Both Peary and Henson fell into leads, with Henson almost dying and another part of their team almost drifted away into the night when the ice upon which their igloo sat broke apart while they were sleeping. This was a grueling and perilous adventure through weather that dipped to 65 degrees below zero F and darkness that an Arctic winter provides. As Peary’s “First Man,” Henson ventured out and realized that he had overshot his target. When he returned back he saw that his footsteps were the first at the spot. Thus, on On April 6, 1909, Henson arrived at what would later be known as Camp Jesup, 89°47′, proudly planting an American flag into the ground to signify the moment and to make a claim of having been the first people to make it to the pole. Perry arrived 45 minutes later and planted an American flag atop his igloo. Peary was apparently angered by the fact that Henson had reached the pole and planted the flag before him. “From the time we knew we were at the Pole, Commander Peary scarcely spoke to me,” Henson later wrote. “It nearly broke my heart … that he would rise in the morning and slip away on the homeward trail without rapping on the ice for me, as was the established custom.” Henson described his journeys in a book entitled “A Negro Explorer at the North Pole’” which was published in 1912. In the book he modestly described himself as a “general assistant, skilled craftsperson, interpreter, and laborer” and described his relationship with Perry and the Inuit. Upon return to the United States, Perry was met with great fanfare. In those days, expeditions of this type into vast uncharted land were considered extremely dangerous. Perry was celebrated everywhere he went. Henson, on the other hand, was largely forgotten and ignored, despite his efforts that made the trip a success. He was however, acknowledged within the Black community, including a ceremony on October 19, 1909, where he was presented with a gold watch and chain by the Colored Citizens of New York. He quietly settled into a position on the staff of the United States Customs House in New York, where he stayed for 30 years. Twenty eight years after his famous journey, however, Henson was invited to become a member of the prestigious Explorers Club in New York City. In 1944, the United States Congressed awarded Henson and several others who accompanied the Peary expedition with a duplicate of the silver “Peary Polar Expedition Medal” that had been previously issued to the Admiral. Henson was formally honored by Presidents Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower for his exploits and he received honorary doctoral degrees from Howard University and Morgan State University. Matthew Henson passed away in the Bronx, New York on March 9, 1955 at the age of 88. In 1996, the United States Navy commissioned the USNS Henson, a Pathfinder class Oceanographic Survey Ship and in 2000, the National Geographic Society awarded him the Hubbard Medal posthumously. Finally, the state of Maryland has honored him by naming several schools and a state park after him.
- Edward William Brooke III
Edward William Brooke III is an American Republican politician. In 1966 he became the first African-American popularly elected to the United States Senate. Edward Brooke III served as an officer in the Army with the all-African American 366th Combat Infantry Regiment. He fought in Italy during World War II and won a Bronze Star for leading an attack on a German artillery battery. Brooke entered Boston University Law School and graduated in 1948. Although Brooke did not vote prior to the age of 30, his friends were able to persuade him to enter politics. Brooke ran in both Democratic and Republican primaries in 1950 for the Massachusetts legislature. He lost the Democratic nomination but won the Republican nod. He was defeated in general elections for the legislature in 1950 and in 1952. In 1960, he ran as the Republican candidate for Secretary of State, becoming the first African American in Massachusetts to be nominated for a statewide office. He received over one million votes but lost by fewer than 12,000 to Kevin White. In his fourth try for elective office, Brooke won the Attorney General’s race in 1962, becoming the first elected African American Attorney General of any state in American history. He won again in 1964. As Attorney General, Brooke gained a reputation as a vigorous prosecutor of organized crime and for his coordination of local police departments in the highly publicized Boston Strangler case between 1962 and 1964. In 1966 Brooke ran for the US Senate, defeating former Governor Endicott Peabody. He served two terms in the Senate from January 3, 1967, to January 3, 1979. While in the Senate, Brooke co-authored the 1968 Fair Housing Act. Brooke also supported anti-poverty legislation and called for strengthening Social Security, and increasing the minimum wage. In 1969, Brooke broke ranks with President Richard Nixon, a fellow Republican, because he believed the President’s Supreme Court nominee Clement Haynsworth was a segregationist. Brooke led a bipartisan coalition that defeated Haynsworth’s nomination. A few months later he again organized sufficient Republican support to defeat Nixon’s second Supreme Court nominee, Harold Carswell, who had also voiced support for racial segregation. On November 4, 1973, Brooke became the first Republican to call on President Nixon to resign because of the Watergate Scandal. In 2004, Edward William Brooke III was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George W. Bush and in 2009 he received the Congressional Gold Medal. Edward Brooke died in his Coral Gables, Florida, home on January 3, 2015. He was 95.
- John Arthur “Jack” Johnson
Jack Johnson, the first African American and first Texan to win the heavyweight boxing championship of the world, was born the second of six children to Henry and Tiny Johnson in Galveston on March 31, 1878. To help support his family, Jack Johnson left school in the fifth grade to work on the dock in his port city hometown. In the 1890s Johnson began boxing as a teenager in “battles royal” matches where white spectators watched black men fight and at the end of the contest tossed money at the winner. Johnson turned professional in 1897 but four years later he was arrested and jailed because boxing was at that time a criminal sport in Texas. After his release from jail he left Texas to pursue the title of “Negro” heavyweight boxing champion. Johnson for six years sought a title fight with the white heavyweight champion, James J. Jeffries. Jeffries denied Johnson and other African American boxers a shot at his title and he retired undefeated in 1904. Johnson’s reputation as a skilled ring tactician continued to grow as he defeated both black and white boxers. Finally, in 1908, Johnson fought a white champion Tommy Burns in Australia for $30,000, then the highest purse in boxing history. Johnson knocked out Burns in the 14th round to become the first African American heavyweight champion of the world. They eventually lured Jim Jeffries out of retirement to face Johnson. On July 4, 1910, in what would be billed as the “Battle of the Century,” Johnson finally fought and beat Jeffries in Reno, Nevada to retain his title. Newspapers warned Johnson and his supporters against gloating over the victory. Nonetheless, scores of African Americans and some whites died as a result of the race rioting that broke out in cities across the nation in response to Johnson’s victory. In fear of more race riots, the Texas legislature banned all films showing the black fighter’s wins over any of his white opponents. In 1913, Johnson fled the United States because federal officials charged him with violating the Mann Act, which prohibited the transportation of women across state lines for prostitution, debauchery, or immoral acts. While in exile in Cuba, Johnson lost his title in 1914 to little known white boxer Jess Willard. Failing to get other matches abroad, Johnson returned to the U.S. in 1920 to surrender to Federal authorities. He was tried and convicted for violation of the Mann Act and sentenced to a year and a day in the Federal penitentiary at Leavenworth, Kansas. Upon his release from prison in 1921, he returned to the ring, participating only in exhibition fights. Promoters never again gave Johnson another title shot. On October 6, 1946, after a North Carolina diner denied him service, he stormed out of the business and soon afterwards crashed his car. Johnson died from the impact. He was 68. The Boxing Hall of Fame posthumously inducted Johnson in 1954 and he received the same honor from the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1990.
- Asa Philip Randolph
Asa Philip Randolph, born on April 15, 1889 in Crescent City, Florida, was one of the most respected leaders of the American Civil Rights Movement in the twentieth century. Randolph was a labor activist; editor of the political journal The Messenger, organizer of the 1941 March on Washington which resulted in the establishment of the Fair Employment Practices Committee (FEPC), and architect of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. The family moved to Jacksonville two years after his birth. In 1907, Randolph graduated as the valedictorian of Cookman Institute in East Jacksonville, Florida, and worked a series of menial jobs while pursuing a career as an actor. He moved to New York in 1911, and after reading W. E. B. DuBois‘ The Souls of Black Folk decided to devote his life to fighting for African American equality. While taking classes at the City College of New York and New York University, Randolph met the black socialist Chandler Owen, who shared his commitment to progressive politics and black equality. By 1917, the two founded the socialist magazine The Messenger. Although The Messenger was not financially successful, its editorials against lynching and segregation, its opposition to African American participation in World War I, and its advocacy of radical unionism were widely influential in black communities. At the same time, Randolph began his career as a labor organizer working to create a union for elevator operators in New York. Randolph drew upon these experiences in 1925 to create the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. The Pullman Company was the largest single employer of the African Americans in the nation at the time. Randolph led the BSCP for ten years, ultimately receiving recognition from the Pullman Company in 1935 as well as nearly two million dollars in increased wages, a shorter work week, and overtime pay. He continued his struggles for economic equality during the 1930s by serving as president of the National Negro Congress, an organization created to pressure President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) to institute policies designed to treat African Americans fairly in the workplace and to protect their civil rights. Randolph resigned in 1939, concerned over the increasing presence and influence of Communists in the organization. As World War II loomed, Randolph’s concerns shifted to segregation in the military and the exclusion of black workers from defense industries and war production employment. After the collective lobbying efforts of Randolph, the National Association for the Advancement if Colored People (NAACP) and the Urban League failed to sway FDR to end segregation in the military and defense industries, Randolph initiated the March on Washington Movement. Arguing that, “There must be no dual standards of justice, no dual rights, privileges, duties or responsibilities of citizenship. No dual forms of freedom,” he called for thousands of blacks to assemble at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. on July 1, 1941 to demand FDR take action. When Randolph refused to call off the march, FDR issued Executive Order 8802 banning discrimination in defense industries and created the FEPC for the duration of World War II. By 1943 labor shortages and the FEPC led to a dramatic increase in African American employment. Randolph continued to campaign for the desegregation of the U.S. military. In 1946, he created the Committee Against Jim Crow in Military Service, later called the League for Non-Violent Civil Disobedience. In response to increasing black political power and protest, President Harry S. Truman desegregated the military with Executive Order 9981 on July 26, 1948. In 1950, Randolph co-founded the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights to coordinate the legislative activities of a number of organizations working against racial discrimination. While Randolph’s civil rights contributions were substantial, he is perhaps best known, along with Bayard Rustin, as the architect of the 1963 March on Washington. This march offered Martin Luther King, Jr. the forum for his famous “I Have A Dream” speech and is credited with creating the momentum that led to the Civil Rights Act of 1964. A. Philip Randolph died in New York City on May 16, 1979 at the age of 90.
I chose 29 people for each day this month In February. These 29 people have done great things in the past whether they were just sticking up for what’s right and what they believe in or whether they just were trying to push the boundaries to do what they love and what they’re good at. These 29 people are the ones I chose to celebrate and recognize this Black History Month 2020, and I’m glad that I can share their achievements and stories with you.
The E Word 