BLACK HISTORY MONTH

February 1

Known as the "Father of Black History," in 1915 Dr. Carter G. Woodson co-founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, today known as the Association for the Study of African American Life and History.  In 1916, he founded the Journal of Negro History, and in February 1926, through his work with the ASNLH, he announced the establishment of national Negro History Week, which would evolve into what we call Black History Month today. 

Learn More About Dr. Woodson here or here or here!   

February 2

Oprah Winfrey recently celebrated her 67th birthday.  And for about fifty of those sixty-seven years, Oprah has been an influential woman in media, from her start as a radio host in high school to the world-wide media mogul she is today.  Oprah is known not only for her media presence, but also for her career in philanthropy, contributing millions to various social causes worldwide.  Her philanthropic and humanitarian efforts, along with her influence on the American cultural landscape earned her the Presidential Medal of Freedom--our nation's highest civilian honor--in 2013. 

Learn More About Oprah's story here.

February 3

Bayard Rustin was a civil rights organizer behind many of the famous civil rights campaigns of the 1950s and 60s. An advisor and speechwriter for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Rustin mentored Dr. King on the principles of Mahatma Gandhi's nonviolent resistance in South Africa and India before Dr. King became the face of the civil rights movement in the 50s and 60s.  Rustin was one of the founding members of the SCLC and organized and participated in numerous civil rights demonstrations, including the Freedom Rides and the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.  In the 60s and 70s, Rustin led the A. Philip Randolph Institute and organized for economic justice.  In the 1980s, Rustin's public advocacy and activism continued in the area of LGBT rights until his death in 1987. 

Learn More About Rustin's story here or here.

February 4

A co-founding member of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, Diane Nash was a young woman on the front lines of some of the most successful civil rights campaigns of the 1950s and 60s, including the Nashville Campaign to integrate lunch counters, the Freedom Rides, and the Selma Voting Rights Campaign.  And now at 82 year old, Nash continues to advocate for civil rights, social change, and world peace from her home state of Illinois.

Learn More About Nash here or here or here! 

February 5

How are you at navigational directions?  Not so good?  If not, you can thank Dr. Gladys West, the mother of GPS.  Dr. West began her career as a mathematician in the United States military in the 1950s, as one of a small group of women hired to conduct computer programming.  Her work expanded throughout the 1980s and included the programming of an IBM computer to perform calculations on an Earth model with pinpoint accuracy.  Her contributions led to the development of what we use to find our way around today: GPS technology. 

Learn More About Dr. West here or here.

February 6

Elizabeth Eckford is a member of the Little Rock Nine, the first group of African American teens to enroll and enter Central High School in the fall of 1957.  The photos of a 15 year-old stoic Eckford being bullied by a mob of students and adults outside of the school on her first day brought national and international attention to desegregation in the United States and inspired millions of others in the desegregation movement.  

Watch and listen to Eckford describe her experience on that first day at Central High School here, 

February 7

Jane Bolin was a barrier shattering woman.  She was the first black woman to graduate from Yale Law School and the first black woman to join the New York Bar Association.  She became New York City legal's first black female counsel, and is probably most well known as the nation's first black female to be sworn in as a judge.  Bolin was a fierce advocate for racial equality and a champion for children's rights. 

Check out this feature on Jane Bolin.  

February 8

Poitier is a Hollywood icon with a successful acting career spanning decades.  In 1964, be became the first African American to win an Academy Award for best actor for his role in Lilies of the Field.  Dr. King said of Poitier, "He is a man of great depth, a man of great social concern, a man who is dedicated to human rights and freedom." 

Learn more about Sidney Poitier's career here, here, or here. 

February 9

Coretta Scott King dedicated her life to the pursuit of equal rights and social justice, first rising to national level influence as the wife of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.   Of course, Mrs. King traveled the country and the world with Dr. King during their marriage to support the movement, and yet she was a civil rights champion in her own right.  In fact, according to King biographer Clayborne Carson, Mrs. King “was more politically active at the time they met than Martin was.”

Learn more about Mrs. King's life's work here or here.  

February 10

"No one has a bigger megaphone than Jay-Z," American news commentator Van Jones said of Sean Carter in 2018.  And Mr. Jones is not wrong--with over 50 million albums and 75 million singles globally, Jay's reach is wide.  And Jones was not only talking about reach, he was speaking to Jay's ability to influence people--to bring the big issues to public consciousness.  Beyond his voice, Jay-Z has invested his time, energy, and wealth in a variety of areas, including prison reform efforts, creating opportunities for at-risk youth, and raising awareness of police brutality. 

Learn more about Jay-Z here or here or here. 

February 11

Septima Poinsette Clark was an American educator for over 40 years, much of which was spent focusing on adult literacy and citizenship education.  Her model for Citizenship Schools became a part of the SCLC's activities in the South and were the foundation for SNCC's Freedom Schools in Mississippi in the 1960s.  

Learn more about Clark here or here.

February 12

Gwendolyn Brooks was a kind and humble poet, who also happened to be the first African American to earn a Pulitzer Prize for her book of poetry titled, Annie Allen.  She was once the poetry consultant for the Library of Congress, a post which transformed into what we know today as the poet laureate of the United States.  Over her lifetime, she was encouraged and supported by notable poets and authors like Langston Hughes, Richard Wright, and James Baldwin. 

Learn more about Brooks and read her poetry here. 

February 13

If you don't already know him, you'll want to thank him, especially this year with all of the online learning we are doing.  Dean is one of the original inventors of the IBM personal computer and is behind many of the technologies we take for granted today (e.g. plug-and-play devices like keyboards, printers, etc.).  Gigahertz?  Yeah, he led that engineering team, too.  Thank you, Mark Dean for high-speed computer processing!

Learn more about Mark Dean here or here. 

February 14

El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz or Malcolm X, was an activist for human rights and racial justice.  El-Shabazz widely influenced African American political, cultural, and social life, arguably due to his ability to "make it plain"-- to speak about political issues in a direct and articulate way.  Perhaps one of Malcolm's most lasting legacies, as Ta-Nehisi Coates has argued, was his contribution to raising black consciousness and cultural rebirth--both during his life and after his death.

Learn more about Malcolm X here, and read Ta-Nehisi Coates' opinion on the legacy of Malcolm X here. 

February 15

On April 23, 1951, Barbara Johns, then 16 years old, led a student march to protest conditions at her segretated school in Prince Edward County, Virginia.  Her persistent activism resulted in support from the NAACP, which eventually led to a lawsuit against the school district.  The case eventually made its way to the Supreme Court as one of five cases incorporated in the famous Brown v. Board of Education decision that deemed segregation as unconstitutional. 

Learn more about Barbara Johns here or here.

February 16

Dubois was many things:  scholar, educator, sociologist, author, editor, and civil rights advocate.  He also happened to be the first African American to graduate from Harvard University with a PhD, and was a founding member of the NAACP.  DuBois was the editor of the NAACP's magazine, the Crisis, during the first half of the 20th century, from which he was able to highlight the inequalities between black and white America and mobilize NAACP supporters to action. 

February 17

Spike Lee has had a successful career as a film and screen writer, director and producer since the 1980s.  Lee's work has been described as "provacative," often featuring social and political issues like race relations.  His earned his first Academy Award in 2019 for BlacKkKlansman and several of his films have been selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress for being culturally relevant. 

February 18

Harvard graduate and Howard University professor Charles Hamilton Houston was a legal strategist who played a role in nearly every civil rights case before the Supreme Court from the 30s to the famous Brown v. Board of Education case in 1954.  While teaching at Howard U, he mentored Thurgood Marshall, who would eventually argue the Brown case and be appointed to the US Supreme Court.  For his efforts in dismantling segregation, Houston was sometimes referred to as the "Man Who Killed Jim Crow."  

February 19

General Davis, Jr. entered the military in 1932 through West Point in a segregated class under the tutelage of his father, Davis, Sr.  Davis Jr. was denied entrance to the Army Air Corp in the mid-1930s but at the onset of WWII would become one of the first five graduates of the Tuskegee Institue's Air Academy.  By 1942, Davis, Jr. was in command of the 99th Pursuit Squadron--the Army Air Forces' first all-black aviation unit, and in 1947 President Truman asked for Davis, Jr.'s support on crafting a desegregation plan.  The United States Air Force would become the first of the servies to desegregate in 1949. Before his retirement in 1970, General Davis, Jr. would rise to the rank of general officer, only the second African American to do so, after his father, General Benjamin Oliver Davis, Sr, who was the first.  

Learn more about General Davis here or here or here. 

February 20

Shonda Rhimes is an award-winning screenwriter, producer, and director.  Her hit shows include many you're likely familiar with, like How to Get Away with Murder and Scandal.  And, she was the first African American female to write and produce a top ten television series, Grey's Anatomy.   In 2017, Rhimes signed a contract with Netflix to produce new content as well--including the currently trending title, Bridgerton. 

Learn more about Shonda Rhimes here. 

February 21

Shonda Rhimes is an award-winning screenwriter, producer, and director.  Her hit shows include many you're likely familiar with, like How to Get Away with Murder and Scandal.  And, she was the first African American female to write and produce a top ten television series, Grey's Anatomy.   In 2017, Rhimes signed a contract with Netflix to produce new content as well--including the currently trending title, Bridgerton. 

Learn more about Justice Marshall here.

February 22

Barack and Michelle Obama served as the first African American President and First Lady for the United States. They both continue to make an impact on their community through advocacy and appearances; the Obama Foundation; and producing media for podcasts, TV, and film. 

Learn more about the Obamas here or here. 

February 23

A. Philip Randolph was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom as one of the most influencial civil rights activists and American labor unionists of the 20th century. He led the first predominantly African-American labor Union, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters in 1925. The March on Washington in 1941 and 1963, where King delivered his "I have a Dream" speech, were both organized in part by Randolph. In 1966, he created the “Freedom Budget” in collaboration with Bayard Rustin and Martin Luther King Jr. This document provided an economic proposal for justice rectifying problems plaguing the Black community. 

Learn more about Randolph here. 

February 24

The recipient of the Walt Whitman Citation of Merit, Audre Lorde was designated as New York State’s Poet Laureate. Lorde’s activism and artistry bravely fought against sexism, sexual prejudice, and racial injustice. As a poet, essayist, and memoirist, this cancer warrior received an American Book Award for her brave story. The Black feminist, lesbian, mother and leader published works that spoke to the need for liberation from oppression for all those marginalized for race, gender, sexual orientation, age, ability and class. 

Learn more about Audre Lorde here.