BLACKHISTORY

CELEBRATING

Martin Luther King

Malcolm X

Harriet TubmanCIVIL RIGHTS AND POLITICS

Shirley ChisholmAbraham Lincoln

Tuskegee Airmen

Frederick Douglass

Sojourner Truth was born

at the end of the 1700s and was important

as both an abolitionist and

promoter of women rights

until the 1880s.

Frederick Douglas

was a former slave and an

important abolitionist who spoke against the

evils of slavery

during the mid 1800s.Harriet Tubman was

an abolitionist in the early/mid 1800s, and

a key leader in the Underground Railroad. After

gaining her own freedom, she

returned to the south 17 times to help over 300 slaves escape to

freedom.

Booker T. Washington lived

from the mid 1800s – 1915 and was famous as an educator, public speaker and advisor to presidents of the

United States. During his time, he was the “dominant leader of the African American

community.”

President Abraham

Lincoln ended slavery with the Emancipation Proclamation and the 13th

amendment to the Constitution.

The Tuskegee Airmen were a group of African American pilots who fought bravely abroad

during WWII, meanwhile their country discriminated against African Americans at home.

Brown vs. Board of Education was the Supreme Court decision that

declared segregation or the separation of races in schools and businesses to be unconstitutional. This was in 1954.

Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat to a white man, in 1955. This led to her arrest and to the boycott

and integration of the Montgomery Alabama bus system.

Malcolm X was a leader in the Nation of Islam. While he served

time in jail he realized the importance of education. He was

an important leader of his day.

Dr. Martin Luther King was a preacher during the 1950s –

1960s. He was best known for his non-violent advancement of

civil rights. Following several marches he led the

government passed the Voting Rights Act in 1965 which

banned literacy tests and poll taxes as a voting requirement.

Freedom Riders began as mostly white college students but became a group of young and old, black and white,

from the north and south, standing together and marching for equal rights, in the early 1960s.

President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Equal Rights

amendment which guaranteed everyone their rights, in 1965.

In 1967, Thurgood Marshall became

the first African American to be a

supreme court justice.

In 1969, Shirley Chisholm became the first female African American in Congress and later,

the first woman to seek a presidential nomination in 1972.

In 2008, Barack Obama was elected President of the United States. His journey was long and difficult. It was paved by countless other African Americans who preceded him and stood their ground with self respect and courage few of us can imagine.

Benjamin Banneker

SCIENCE

AND

TECHNOLOGYMadam C. J. Walker

Elijah McCoy

Garrett Morgan

Dr. Charles Drew

George Washington CarverLewis Latimer

Benjamin Banneker was a free black man in Baltimore in the mid 1700s. He is remembered as an author, scientist, mathematician, astronomer, publisher and urban planner. As an urban planner he

assisted Andrew Ellicott in surveying the Potomac River, for what would

become Washington DC.

Lewis Latimer was an African American inventor who greatly

helped improve the use of electric light along with many

important inventions.

Elijah McCoy’s work on lubrication for trains helped lead to safer trains and at the time led to the transcontinental

railroad. Transcontinental means “goes across the country.” His work was so reliable and successful that

customers would ask for the real McCoy!

Granville T. Woods was called the Black Edison and created many inventions which helped

with telephones, railway telegraphs, furnaces,

amusement parks, and other many other important

inventions.

During the early/mid-1900s,

Dr. Charles Drew was famous for his life saving lives for his work with blood

transfusions and setting up blood

banks.

Garrett Morgan was an African

American inventor famous for inventing the traffic light and

gas mask among his many inventions

George Washington Carver lived from the

1860s through the 1940s. He was famous as an

inventor, scientist, botanist (studies plants)

and educator.

Madam C. J. Walker was an entrepreneur and

philanthropist and a self-made millionaire as she built an empire with hair-care products at the turn

of the 20th century.

Where there is no vision, there is no hope.

George Washington Carver

ARTS

AND

SPORTSMuhammad Ali

Marian Anderson

Duke EllingtonJessie Owens

Oprah Winfrey

Paul Robeson

Marian Anderson was a celebrated opera singer in

the early/mid 1900s. In 1939, she was refused the right to sing in Constitution Hall by

the Daughters of the American Revolution.

President Roosevelt and his wife Eleanor intervened. On

Easter Sunday, Ms. Anderson gave a concert on

the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, before a crowd of

more than 75,000 people with millions more on the

radio.

Paul Robeson was a Rutgers football star in

the early 1900s. He later became well

known as both a singer and actor, but is

remembered more for standing his ground

against racial injustice.

Duke Ellington was famous for over 50 years in the 1900s as composer, musician and orchestra leader. His work and effort helped make jazz America’s classical music.

This singer and jazz musician was known as Pops or Satchmo. Louis

Armstrong was America’s goodwill

ambassador performing world leaders around the world for decades, in the mid 1900s through his

death in the early 1970s.

Jessie Owens competed in 1936 Olympics in Germany and helped prove Hitler’s

theories on superior races to be false, by winning a gold

medal in four Olympic events that year.

In 1916, it happened briefly for two games, but it is Jackie Robinson

who will be remembered for breaking baseball’s color barrier on a

continuous basis beginning in 1947.

Muhammad Ali, “an American…boxer, generally considered among the greatest heavyweights in the sport's history…Ali is today widely regarded for not only the skills he displayed in the ring but also the values he exemplified outside of it: religious freedom,

racial justice and the triumph of principle over expedience…”

As a young child Wilma Rudolph wore a brace on her left leg and foot, until she was nine, as a

result of infantile paralysis. Eventually she would be considered the

fastest woman in the world in the 1960s,

winning 3 gold medals at a single Olympic game.

Sidney Poitier is a famous actor and was the first African American to win an Oscar as a leading actor in 1963 for the movie Lilies of the Field. One of his more famous roles was for the ground breaking topic

of interracial marriage in “Guess Who’s Coming to

Dinner” in 1968.Bill Cosby is famous comedian

brought a realistic view of the black family and the non

stereotypical butler, maid, car-lot character into American homes

with his television shows.

Oprah Winfrey, a baby boomer who is remembered as a self made

entrepreneur, celebrity, talk-show host and philanthropist with

education being the most important concern. Her talk show of 25 years took on all topics with candor and

respect.