Did you know that you can honor Black History Month by watching movies? Supporting Black directors, playwrights, and actors as well as the stories they tell is a good way to spend your free time this month (and every month).

Some notable figures include:

• Tyler Perry: the first African American to own a major film and TV studio

• Viola Davis: the first African American to achieve the "Triple Crown" of acting and the first Black woman to win the Best Actress Emmy

• Octavia Spencer: received an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a BAFTA Award for her performance in The Help

• Denzel Washington: one of the greatest actors of our lifetime

• Ryan Coogler: director of Black Panther

• Spike Lee: paved the way for African Americans in the film industry

Some notable figures include:

• Bianca Smith: first Black woman to coach Major League Baseball

• Debi Thomas: an American former figure skater and physician. She is the 1986 World Champion, the 1988 Olympic bronze medalist, and a two-time U.S. National Champion

• Vonetta Flowers: first person of African descent from any country to win a Gold Medal in the Winter Olympics

• Coco Gauff: the younger player (16) ranked in the top 100 by the Women's Tennis Association

• Gabby Douglas: the first woman of color and the first Black gymnast in Olympic history to be the Individual All-Around Champion

• Serena and Venus Williams: Venus Williams, a seven-time Grand Slam title winner, and Serena Williams, 23-time Grand Slam title winner

"Perhaps the mission of an artist is to interpret beauty to people--the beauty within themselves."

--Langston Hughes

Some notable figures include:

• Jean-Michel Basquiat

• Kehinde Wiley

• Brionya James

• Amanda Gorman

• Kimberly Douglass

• Kara Walker

• Edmonia Lewis

"I felt an awesome responsibility, and I took the responsibility very seriously, of being a role model and opening another door to black Americans, but the important thing is not that I am black, but that I did a good job as a scientist and an astronaut. There will be black astronauts flying in later missions . . . and they, too, will be people who excel, not simply who are black . . . who can ably represent their people, their communities, their country."

-- Dr. Guion S. Bluford Jr.

Some notable figures include:

• Bernard Harris Jr.: 26 years ago, he became the first ever African American to perform a spacewalk. After leaving NASA in 1996, Harris led several companies with scientific and educational missions. In 1998, he founded the Harris Foundation, a non-profit organization that supports math and science education as well as crime prevention for America's youth. He is currently CEO of Vesalius Ventures, a venture capital firm.

• Katherine Johnson: Her calculations of orbital mechanics as a NASA employee were critical to the success of the first and subsequent U.S. crewed spaceflights (the first time the U.S. sent humans into space). She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015 for her work at NASA. She is one of the most celebrated Black women in space science.

• Dorothy Vaughan: mathematician and human computer who worked for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics and NASA. She was NASA's first Black supervisor and one of the few female supervisors.

• Mary Jackson: NASA's first African American female engineer. She worked at Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia for most of her career alongside Vaughan. NASA's headquarters building in Washington D.C. is named after her.

After 27 years in prison, Nelson Mandela was released on February 11, 1990. Nelson Mandela was the leader of the movement to end South African apartheid.

Apartheid was a system of institutionalized racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa from 1948 until the early 1990s. After the massacre of peaceful Black demonstrators at Sharpeville in 1960, Nelson helped organize a paramilitary branch of the ANC (African National Congress) to engage in guerrilla warfare against the white minority government. In 1961, he was arrested for treason, and even though he was acquitted, he was arrested again in 1962 for illegally leaving the country. Convicted and sentenced to five years at Robben Island Prison, he was put on trial again in 1964 on changes of sabotage. In June 1964, he was convicted along with several other ANC leaders and sentenced to life in prison.

In 1989, F.W. de Klerk became South African president and set about dismantling apartheid. De Klerk lifted the ban on the ANC, suspended executions, and in February 1990 ordered the release of Nelson Mandela. Mandela subsequently led the ANC in its negotiations with the minority government for an end to apartheid and the establishment of a multiracial government.

In 1993, Mandela and de Klerk were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. One year later, the ANC won an electoral majority in the country's first free elections, and Mandela was elected South Africa's president. (history.com)

Marsha P. Johnson was an American gay liberation activist and self-identified drag queen. Known as an outspoken advocate for gay rights, Johnson was one of the prominent figures in the Stonewall uprising of 1969.

The Stonewall Riots were a series of spontaneous demonstrations by member of the gay community in response to a police raid that began in the early morning hours of June 28, 1969, at the Stonewall Inn in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City.

The 1960s and preceding decades were not welcoming times for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) Americans. For instance, solicitation of same-sex relations was illegal in NYC, as well as "cross dressing" and "engaging in gay behavior in public" (kissing, hugging, hand-holding, etc.). The NYPD would raid bars and clubs like the Stonewall Inn and arrest patrons as well as employees. Female officers would even take patrons into the restrooms to check their sex before arresting them for cross dressing.

If it weren't for the brave actions of Marsha P. Johnson and hundreds of other individuals, perhaps even today we would still be fighting for our most basic human rights. (marshap.org, history.org)

In August 1920, the 19th Amendment to the Constitution gave women the right to vote. However, Black women remained disenfranchised. The amendment stated that "the right to vote would not be denied on the account of sex," but the amendment did not eliminate the state laws that operated to keep Black Americans from the polls via poll taxes and literacy tests, nor did the amendment address violence or lynching. It wasn't until the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that Black women were able to safely make their way to the polls on Election Day and have a voice in democracy.

Since then, there have been no Black women Supreme Court Justices, and before the 2020 election, no Black woman had ever served as the President or Vice President.

However, Shirley Chisholm ran for United States President in 1972, and since 1965, there have been 50 Black women who have served in Congress.

We also want to honor figures like Stacey Abrams, who worked tirelessly to register thousands of Georgia voters, and Lori Lightfoot, the mayor of Chicago.