BLACK HISTORY MONTH!!! ✊🏼✊🏾✊🏿

Hello everyone!

I am starting a new series for February, Black History Month!

For every day of February, I am going to talk about an important African American figure from history and maybe some extras every once and a while.

I know, I know, my track record on updating hasn't been the best, but I will try my best to do all 28 days of February and I hope you'll come along with me!

Note: I will be citing my sources! I recommend for you to read some of the sources I put at them at the bottom as well as my TL;DR post! Thanks!

Days:

February 1st: Martin Luther King Jr.

February 2nd: Muhammad Ali

February 3rd: Rosa Parks

February 4th: Sojourner Truth

February 5th: Harriet Tubman

February 6th: Maya Angelou

February 7th: Malcolm X

February 8th: Phillis Wheatley

February 9th: Afeni Shakur

February 10th: Frederick Douglass

February 11th: Zora Neale Hurston

February 12th: Thurgood Marshall

February 13th: James Baldwin

February 14th: Michelle Obama

February 15th: Ella Baker

February 16th: Shirley Chisholm

February 17th: Madam C.J. Walker

February 18th: W.E.B. Du Bois

February 19th: Jackie Robinson

February 20th: Langston Hughes

February 21st: John Hope Franklin

February 22nd: George Washington Carver

February 23rd: Arthur Ashe

February 24th: Ruby Bridges

February 25th: Mary McLeod Bethune

February 26th: Alexander Crummell

February 27th: Dorothy Height

February 28th: Charles Hamilton Houston + What is the NAACP?

By the way, if you guys have any suggestions, make sure to put them in the comments and I will make sure to look at them and maybe do them with another figure!

February 1st!

Happy beginning-of-Black-History-Month everyone!

We're starting off the month with Martin Luther King Junior!

Martin Luther King Jr., born Michael Luther King Jr., was born on January 15th, 1929, and died on April 4, 1968.

His grandfather and his father before him were pastors, and so he became a co-pastor alongside his dad until his untimely death.

Martin Luther attended segregated public schools in Georgia, graduating from high school at the age of fifteen; he received the B. A. degree in 1948 from Morehouse College, a distinguished Negro institution of Atlanta from which both his father and grandfather had graduated according to www.nobelprize.org.

After college, he studied at Crozer Theological Seminary where he was elected class president for a dominantly white class. After 3 years of studying there, he was awarded the B.D. in 1951. By that time, he was a member of the executive committee for the NAACP. He was also a part of the bus boycott described by Gunnar Jahn. During the boycott, King was arrested and his house was bombed. He was also subject to personal abuse.

In 1957 he was elected president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization formed to provide new leadership for the upcoming civil rights movement. Many of his techniques were taken from Gandhi and Christianity.

According to www.nobelprize.org, in the eleven-year period between 1957 and 1968, King traveled over six million miles and spoke over twenty-five hundred times, appearing wherever there was an injustice, protest, and action. He also wrote five books and numerous articles. He led a massive protest in Birmingham, Alabama, that caught the attention of the entire world, providing what he called a coalition of conscience. and inspiring his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”, a manifesto of the Negro revolution; he planned the drives in Alabama for the registration of Negroes as voters; he directed the peaceful march on Washington, D.C., of 250,000 people to whom he delivered his address, “I Have a Dream”, he conferred with President John F. Kennedy and campaigned for President Lyndon B. Johnson; he was arrested upwards of twenty times and assaulted at least four times; he was awarded five honorary degrees; was named Man of the Year by Time magazine in 1963, and became not only the symbolic leader of American blacks but also a world figure.

When he was 35, he became the youngest man to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. When told about his selection, he decided for the prize money to go to the civil rights movement.

On April 4, 1968, he was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, where he was to lead a protest march.

Rest in power.

February 2nd:

Hello! It's the second day of BHM! Also, happy groundhog day!

Today, we're going to be talking about Muhammad Ali!

Muhammad Ali was a boxer and social activist. He became an Olympic gold medalist in 1960 and the world heavyweight boxing champion in 1964. He is considered one of the greatest athletes of the 20th century.

Muhammad Ali was born on January 17, 1942. His birth name was Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. At the age of 12, he discovered boxing when his bike got stolen and he told an officer he "wanted to beat up the thief". It turned out that the officer had trained young boxers in addition to being a police officer and Clay soon got started.

According to www.biography.com, Clay went on to win the 1956 Golden Gloves tournament for novices in the light heavyweight class. Three years later, he won the National Golden Gloves Tournament of Champions, as well as the Amateur Athletic Union's national title for the light heavyweight division.

After his victory, he was heralded as an American hero.

He also converted to Islam, changing his name from Cassius to Cassius X and then Muhammad Ali.

He also refused to fight in the Vietnam War since it was against his religious beliefs, but the Department of Justice arrested him for this. He returned to the ring in 1970 and the Supreme Court overturned his conviction.

He died of a respiratory disease in 2016.

In 2005, Ali received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President George W. Bush.

Soon after Obama’s 2009 inauguration, Ali received the President's Award from the NAACP for his public service efforts.

February 3rd:

Hello! It's the third day of BHM!

Today's important figure is Rosa Parks!

Rosa Parks was an extremely influential part of the civil rights movement.

She is known for refusing to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery, Alabama bus, which sparked the bus boycott, led by Martin Luther King Jr. The boycott lasted about a year, in which Parks lost her job. In the 21st century, Rosa Parks has become a symbol of civil rights.

Rosa Parks was born on February 4, 1913, in Tuskegee, Alabama. Rosa moved to Montgomery, Alabama at age 11. According to www.biography.com, "She left at 16, early in 11th grade, because she needed to care for her dying grandmother and, shortly thereafter, her chronically ill mother."At 19, she married Raymond Parks, a self-educated man 10 years older than her. He was also a member of the NAACP. In 1943, Rosa also joined the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. The bus incident happened in December of 1955, when she was coming home from a long day of work. According to www.biography.com, "“People always say that I didn’t give up my seat because I was tired,” wrote Parks in her autobiography, “but that isn’t true. I was not tired physically… No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in.”". She ended up getting put in custody. Later, E.D. Nixon bailed her out, looking for a brave African American.

On December 5, Parks was found guilty of violating segregation laws, given a suspended sentence, and fined $10 plus $4 in court costs. Meanwhile, Black participation in the boycott was much larger than even optimists in the community had anticipated. Nixon and some ministers decided to take advantage of the momentum, forming the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) to manage the boycott, and they elected Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.–new to Montgomery and just 26 years old—as the MIA’s president.

After the bus incident, she worked as an aide in the Detroit office of Congressman John Conyers Jr. until she retired in 1988. She also traveled to support civil rights events and wrote an autobiography. She was also awarded the Congressional Gold Medal before her death in 2005.

February 4th:

Happy fourth day of BHM!

Today's important figure is Sojourner Truth!

Sojourner Truth was a women's rights activist and American abolitionist.

She was a former slave who became an advocate for civil rights. Her work earned her an invitation to meet former president Abraham Lincoln.

She was born Isabella Bomfree as a slave in the Dutch-speaking Ulster County, New York in 1797. She was bought and sold 4 times, each as abusive as the next. She also met another slave with whom she has 5 children. In 1827, a year before New York passed the law freeing all slaves, Sojourner Truth ran away to an abolitionist family. The family bought her freedom for 20 dollars. She also sued to get her son back as he was illegally sold into slavery. Then she moved and worked for a local minister. In 1843, she changed her name to Sojourner Truth. She became an itinerant preacher and met many abolitionists. She gave her famous speech 'Ain't I a Woman?' on a lecture tour for women's rights.

After that, she went to live in Michigan with her 3 daughters. She continued to speak nationally and helped slaves escape to freedom. She also urged young black men to fight in the Civil War. After the war, she got invited to the White House and became involved with Freedman's Bureau, helping slaves find jobs.

In Washington D.C., she lobbied against segregation in the mid-1960s when a streetcar conductor tried to violently block her from riding. She ensured his arrest and won her subsequent case.

Nearly blind and deaf towards the end of her life, Truth spent her final years in Michigan.

February 5th:

Today is the 5th day of BHM! According to Ashrita, she...doesn't know whether she likes happy __th day of BHM sooo HAPPY 5TH DAY OF BHM!!!!!!

Today's important figure is Harriet Tubman!

Harriet Tubman escaped slavery to become a leading abolitionist. She led hundreds of enslaved people to freedom along the route of the Underground Railroad.

Her date of birth is unknown, although it is speculated to be around 1820-1825. She was one of 9 children. Her early life was rough, as 3 of her sisters were sold to plantations far away. She was also a victim of physical abuse. She was lashed many times.

Her father was freed at 45 by the will of the owner. He still worked as a timber estimator even after freedom.

In 1844, Harriet married a free Black man named John Tubman. Little is known about him or their marriage. He ended up declining to go on the voyage through Underground Railroad and stayed in Maryland.

In 1869, Tubman married a Civil War veteran named Nelson Davis. In 1874, the couple adopted a baby girl named Gertie.

According to www.biography.com, "Between 1850 and 1860, Tubman made 19 trips from the South to the North following the network known as the Underground Railroad. She guided more than 300 people, including her parents and several siblings, from slavery to freedom, earning the nickname “Moses” for her leadership."

She first encountered the Railroad when she used it to escape slavery herself in 1849. Then she saw her 2 brothers through the Railroad as well.

According to www.biography.com, "Making use of the Underground Railroad, Tubman traveled nearly 90 miles to Philadelphia. She crossed into the free state of Pennsylvania with a feeling of relief and awe, and recalled later: “When I found I had crossed that line, I looked at my hands to see if I was the same person. There was such a glory over everything; the sun came like gold through the trees, and over the fields, and I felt like I was in Heaven.”

When the Fugitive Slave Law was passed keeping slaves from escaping, Tubman redirected the Underground Railroad toward Canada.

Currently, the $20 dollar bill is being redesigned to have Harriet Tubman on it instead of former president Andrew Jackson!

February 6th:

Hi everyone! Happy 6th day of BHM! Unknown said writing 'Happy _ _ the day of BHM!' is a fantastic idea and I should keep doing it, so I'm rolling with it!

Anyway, today's important figure is Maya Angelou!

Maya Angelou was a civil rights activist, poet, and author most well-known for her memoir 'I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings'. She also wrote many poetry and essay collections.

As an African American women in Arkansas, she experienced much racial prejudice and discrimination.

TW: RAPE(skip to next paragraph if you are sensitive about this topic)

She suffered at the hands of her mother's boyfriend at age 7. While visiting her mother, she was raped by her mother's boyfriend. Due to this, Maya Angelou's uncles killed the boyfriend.

END OF TW

She was also an actor, landing spots in a touring production of Torgy and Bess and the Off-Broadway production of Calypso Heat Wave. She also released her first album, Miss Calypso, around this time. In addition, she organized and starred in the SCLC's musical revue Cabaret for Freedom. She also got an Emmy nomination for her role in the television series Roots.

She also spent time in Africa as an editor and freelance writer. She joined a group called "Revolution Returnees" in which she explored Pan-Africanism.

She also produced the screenplay Georgia, Georgia, making her the 1st African American to have a movie produced.

Some of Angelou's accolades include the Chicago International Film Festival's 1988 Audience Choice Award, a nod from the Acapulco Black Film Festival in 1999 for Down in the Delta, 2 NAACP Image Awards in the outstanding literary works(nonfiction).

According to www.biography.com, "Martin Luther King Jr., a close friend of Angelou's, was assassinated on her birthday (April 4) in 1968. Angelou stopped celebrating her birthday for years afterward, and sent flowers to King's widow, Coretta Scott King, for more than 30 years, until Coretta's death in 2006."

After experiencing health issues for a number of years, Angelou died on May 28, 2014, at her home in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

February 7th + 8th:

Happy 8th day of BHM!

OMG, everyone! I am soo sorry that I did not post yesterday in between the Super Bowl and some of my other commitments. Because of this, I am going to be doing both yesterday's and today's important figures!

We'll start with yesterday's figure. For February 7th, we're going to focus on Malcolm X.

Malcolm X, born Malcolm Little, was an African American leader and figure in Islam. He articulated the concept of race pride and Black Nationalism which was a social movement. He also wrote The Autobiography of Malcolm X.

When Malcolm was six years old, his father, the Rev. Earl Little, a Baptist minister and former supporter of the early Black nationalist leader Marcus Garvey, died after being hit by a streetcar. Many speculate this was a white murder, but we do not know for sure. Because they became poor after his father's death and his mother was sent to an insane, Malcolm started committing petty crimes and was sent to detention and juvenile homes.

While in prison for robbery from 1946 to 1952, he underwent a conversion that eventually led him to join the Nation of Islam, an African American movement that combined elements of Islam with Black nationalism. His decision was influenced by his brother who became a member in Detroit.

Malcolm quit smoking and gambling and refused to eat pork in keeping with the Nation’s dietary restrictions. In order to educate himself, he spent long hours reading books in the prison library. This was when he changed his last name to "X' instead of "Little" as "Little" may have originated from people who enslaved African Americans.

After his release from prison Malcolm helped to lead the Nation of Islam during the period of its greatest growth and influence. An articulate public speaker, a charismatic personality, and an indefatigable organizer, Malcolm X expressed the pent-up anger, frustration, and bitterness of African Americans during the major phase of the civil rights movement from 1955 to 1965.

The growing hostility between Malcolm and the Nation led to death threats and open violence against him. On February 21, 1965, Malcolm was assassinated while delivering a lecture at the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem.

Next, we're going to talk about Phillis Wheatley.

Phillis Wheatley Peters was one of the most well-known poets of her time, pre 19th century. She was enslaved by John Wheatley, a commercialist. PRe published many of her poems in New England and England. Many of her poems illustrative testimony that said African Americans can be artistic and intellectual.

Wheatley was seized from Senegal/Gambia, West Africa at the age of 7. In August 1761, “in want of a domestic,” Susanna Wheatley, wife of prominent Boston tailor John Wheatley, purchased “a slender, frail female child ... for a trifle” because the captain of the slave ship believed that the waif was terminally ill, and he wanted to gain at least a small profit before she died. The Wheatley's taught her to read and write, although they did not treat her better than another slave.

According to www.poetryfoundation.org, "Although scholars had generally believed that An Elegiac Poem, on the Death of that Celebrated Divine, and Eminent Servant of Jesus Christ, the Reverend and Learned George Whitefield ... (1770) was Wheatley’s first published poem, Carl Bridenbaugh revealed in 1969 that 13-year-old Wheatley—after hearing a miraculous saga of survival at sea—wrote “On Messrs. Hussey and Coffin,” a poem which was published on 21 December 1767 in the Newport, Rhode Island, Mercury. But it was the Whitefield elegy that brought Wheatley national renown. Published as a broadside and a pamphlet in Boston, Newport, and Philadelphia, the poem was published with Ebenezer Pemberton’s funeral sermon for Whitefield in London in 1771, bringing her international acclaim."

In the past decade, Wheatley scholars have uncovered poems, letters, and more facts about her life and her association with 18th-century Black abolitionists. They have also charted her notable use of classicism and have explicated the sociological intent of her biblical allusions.

Here is a list of some of her poems!

On Being Brought from Africa to America
On Virtue
A Farewell to America
On Imagination
To S. M., a Young African Painter, on Seeing His Works
To the University of Cambridge, in New England
On the Death of a Young Lady of Five Years of Age
To a LADY and her Children, on the Death of her Son and their Brother
An Hymn to the Morning
An Hymn to the Evening

Again, soo sorry for not posting yesterday! Have a great day!

February 9th!

Happy 9th day of BHM! Thanks for 21 followers as well!

Today's important figure is Afeni Shakur. Let's get into it!

Afeni Shakur was a Black Panther, political activist, and the mother of the rap legend, Tupac Shakur.

She was born Alice Williams, a member of the Black Panthers along with her husband Billy Garland, and became a respectable figure; it has been shown that she bailed many jailed Black Panthers. According to www.rollingstone.com, "In 1969, Shakur and 20 other members of the party were jailed while facing trial on bombing charges in New York; Shakur was pregnant with Tupac at the time. She and the other members of the Panther 21 group were eventually acquitted after an eight-month trial and released from prison in May 1971. The following month, she gave birth to Tupac in Harlem, New York on June 16th, 1971."

Many of the rapper, Tupac's, songs talk about Afeni Shakur overcoming being a 'poor single mother'.A year after “Dear Mama” was released, Tupac Shakur was gunned down in Las Vegas on September 7th, 1996; a week later, he died of his wounds at a hospital with Afeni at his side.

A year after his death, she created the Tupac Amaru Shakur Foundation which provides art programs to students.

She died on a Monday at a hospital near her home in Sausalito, California. She was 69.

February 10th!

Hello! Happy 10th day of BHM!

Today's important figure is Frederick Douglass!

Before I start writing my own post, in the beginning of BHM, we had to watch a video about him, so if you'd like to learn extra about Frederick Douglass click the link!

Anyway, let's get into it!

Frederick Douglass was an escaped slave, activist, author, and public speaker.

He was born into slavery around 1818 in Talbot Country, Maryland. He himself was never sure of his exact birthdate. At 6, he moved to work on the Wye House plantation in Maryland. There, he taught himself to read and write. When he was hired to work for William Freeland, he was teaching other enslaved people to read with the Bible.

After several failed attempts at escape, Douglass finally left Covey’s farm in 1838, first boarding a train to Havre de Grace, Maryland. From there he traveled through Delaware, another slave state, before arriving in New York and the safe house of abolitionist David Ruggles.

Once settled in New York, he sent for Anna Murray, a free Black woman from Baltimore he met while in captivity with the Aulds. She joined him, and the two were married in September 1838. They would have five children together. After they got married, they moved to New Bedford, Massachusetts where they met a married couple who were born “free persons of color.”

According to www.history.com, "In New Bedford, Douglass began attending meetings of the abolitionist movement. During these meetings, he was exposed to the writings of abolitionist and journalist William Lloyd Garrison. The two men eventually met when both were asked to speak at an abolitionist meeting, during which Douglass shared his story of slavery and escape. It was Garrison who encouraged Douglass to become a speaker and leader in the abolitionist movement. By 1843, Douglass had become part of the American Anti-Slavery Society’s “Hundred Conventions” project, a six-month tour through the United States. Douglass was physically assaulted several times during the tour by those opposed to the abolitionist movement. In one particularly brutal attack, in Pendleton, Indiana, Douglass’ hand was broken. The injuries never fully healed, and he never regained full use of his hand."

2 years later, he wrote Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, one of his most well-known books. Later that year, he traveled to Ireland and Great Britain during the early Great Hunger.

When he returned to the U.S., he published his abolitionist paper, the North Star.

He kept fighting for African American's right to vote. He also fell into disagreement with former president Abraham Lincoln because he did not use the Proclamation to allow African American's to vote. It is said that they later reconciled. Douglass was asked to speak at the dedication of the Emancipation Memorial in Washington, D.C.’s Lincoln Park in 1876.

In the 1868 presidential election, he supported the candidacy of former Union general Ulysses S. Grant, who promised to take a hard line against white supremacist-led insurgencies in the post-war South. Grant notably also oversaw the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1871, which was designed to suppress the growing Ku Klux Klan movement.

Douglass remained an active speaker, writer, and activist until his death in 1895. He died after suffering a heart attack on his way home from a meeting of the National Council of Women, a women’s rights group still in its infancy at the time, in Washington, D.C.

hahahahahahhahah I'm early today y'all can be proud of me

February 11th:

Hi! Happy 11th day of BHM! 17 more days!

Today's important figure is Zora Neale Hurston!

While researching, I found her website, so if you'd like to check it out, click the link!

Zora Neale Hurston was an American folklorist and writer commonly associated with the Harlem Renaissance( a period where African American culture and art blossomed) who celebrated African American culture.

Hurston claimed to be born in 1901 in Eatonville, Florida, but she was actually 10 years older and moved with her family to Eatonville only as a small child. At 16, a while after her mother's death, she joined a traveling theatrical company and ended up in New York. There she attended Howard University and won a scholarship to Barnard College, where she studied anthropology. She graduated from Barnard in 1928.

In 1930, she collaborated with Langston Hughes on a play that was never finished called Mule Bone: A Comedy of Negro Life in Three Acts. A few years later she published her novel Jonah's Gourd Vine which was critically acclaimed.

She was also on the faculty of North Carolina College for Negroes in Durham for a number of years.

Her last book, Seraph on the Suwanee, a novel, appeared in 1948. Despite her fame, her death went unnoticed until the late 20th century.

I found this site with a bunch of her books on it. Maybe don't buy any from here because the website looks just a tad bit sketchy, but you can search up some of the titles if you'd like to learn more! Zora Neale Hurston Books

February 12th:

Happy 12th day of BHM! Also, happy lunar year!

Today's important figure is Thurgood Marshall!

Thurgood Marshall, born Thoroughgood Marshall, was a lawyer, civil rights activist, and justice in the Supreme Court. He was also an attorney and argued before the Brown vs. Board of Education case. If you don't know what that is, let me know in the comments and I might go over it someday!

After attending Howard University and graduating first in his class, he practiced law privately in Baltimore. One of his first legal victories was Murray v. Pearson, a suit accusing the University of Maryland of violating the Fourteenth Amendment’s guarantee of equal protection of the laws by denying an African American applicant admission to its law school solely on the basis of race. Later, he became a staff lawyer in Houston for the NAACP and went on to become the lead chair in the legal office.

President Lyndon B. Johnson named Marshall U.S. solicitor general in July 1965 and nominated him to the Supreme Court on June 13, 1967; Marshall’s nomination was confirmed (69–11) by the U.S. Senate on August 30, 1967. Throughout the 1940s and ’50s, Marshall distinguished himself as one of the country’s top lawyers, winning 29 of the 32 cases that he argued before the Supreme Court.

By the time he retired in 1991, he was known as “the Great Dissenter,” one of the last remaining liberal members of a Supreme Court dominated by a conservative majority.

February 13th:

Happy 13th day of BHM!

Today's important figure is James Baldwin! Let's get into it!

James Baldwin was an American essayist, novelist, and playwright. His eloquence made him an extremely influential voice on racism in the 1950s-1960s in America and Western Europe.

He was the eldest of nine children, living in the ghetto of Harlem in NYC. From ages 14-16, he was a preacher in a small church. He also wrote his first novel Go Tell It on the Mountain, his play about a woman evangelist, The Amen Corner.

After graduating from high school, he worked many jobs, began self-studying, and a literacy apprenticeship. In 1948, he left for Paris, where he lived for the next eight years.

According to www.brittanica.com, "In 1957 he returned to the United States and became an active participant in the civil rights struggle that swept the nation. His book of essays, Nobody Knows My Name (1961), explores Black-white relations in the United States. This theme also was central to his novel Another Country (1962), which examines sexual as well as racial issues."

He continued writing until his death on December 1st, 1987.

I found a bunch of his books on this site, so if you'd like to check them out, you can!

Sorry for the shorter-than-average post!

February 16th:

Happy 16th day of BHM! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH Y'ALL! I HAVEN'T UPDATED IN 2 DAYS!

I am SO sorry! I didn't have the internet at all yesterday because of the power outage so I was unable to post and I was quite busy on Valentine's day. SO sorry! I hope y'all had an AMAZING Valentine's day and are enjoying the snow! We haven't had this much snow in decades here in Texas!

Anyway, back to the topic on hand. Because I have to get through 3 important figures today, each person will get a paragraph...sorry I can't write as much as I normally do!

For February 14th, we have Michelle Obama! Michelle Obama, former First Lady, and wife of Barack Obama, is a lawyer and writer. Some of her accomplishments/accolades include being the first African American First Lady, a role model for women, and an advocate for healthy families, service members and their families, higher education, and international adolescent girls education.

For February 15th, we have Ella Baker! Ella Baker was a political activist who furthered the civil rights movement of the mid-20th century. She was a part of the NAACP but later resigned to integrate local schools in New York. Then, she founded the SCLC( Southern Christian Leadership Conference) and the SNCC( Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee) and became one of the leaders of advocating for human rights.

For today, February 16th, we have Shirley Chisholm! Shirley Chisholm was the first African American woman in Congress and the first woman and African American to seek the nomination for president of the United States from one of the two major political parties. She taught at Mount Holyoke College and co-founded the National Political Congress of Black Women. She also declined the nomination to become U.S. Ambassador in Jamaica due to health issues.

Again, I am SO sorry for not updating and for the short post. Thanks for reading!

February 17th:

Happy 17th day of BHM! Today's important figure is Madam C.J. Walker!

Madam C.J. Walker was the first Black woman to become a millionaire in America by selling a line of hair products for Black women.

Her early life was hard as she was an orphan at age 6 and married at 14. She became a widow at 20.

Walker and her 2-year-old child moved to St. Louis, where she worked as a laundress and attended night school. She also became active in the National Association of Colored Women. According to www.history.com, "Walker was inspired to create haircare products for Black women after a scalp disorder caused her to lose much of her own hair. She came up with a treatment that would completely change the Black hair care industry." Her products started to gain a following, bringing her out of poverty. Walker became one of the best-known African Americans and was embraced by the Black press. The success of her business enabled her to live in homes that were a far cry from the one she had grown up in.

Madam Walker died at her country home in Irvington-on-Hudson on May 25, 1919, at the age of fifty-one, of hypertension.

SO sorry for posting late...I have literally no excuse...here's a pic of me in the snow though!

February 18th:

William Edward Burghardt Du Bois was an American civil rights activist, leader, Pan-Africanist, sociologist, educator, historian, writer, editor, poet, and scholar.

Du Bois initially attended Fisk University, a school for Black students. His tuition was paid by several churches in Great Barrington. There, he became an editor for the Herald, the student magazine. After graduating, Du Bois attended Harvard University and eventually received advanced degrees in history. Later, he worked towards a Ph.D. at the University of Berlin until his funding ran out.

He has quite a few achievements/accolades/significant facts so I'm just going to list them!

Founder and secretary of the Niagra Movement(African American protest group of scholars and professionals) for which he founded and edited the Moon and the Horizon.
Among one the founders of the NAACP 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.
Resigned from the NAACP to join an opposing nationalist movement that ran in opposition to the NAACP’s commitment to integration which he advocated for.
Cochairman of the Council on African Affairs
Chairman of the Peace Information Center
Ran for the U.S. Senate on the American Labor party ticket in New York
Joined the Communist party of the United States in 1961
Was an advocate for Pan-Africanism

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.

There is SOO much more so if you'd like to read more, https://www.naacp.org/naacp-history-w-e-b-dubois/

Sorry for the short post!

February 19th:

Hello! Happy 19th day of BHM!

Today's important figure is Jackie Robinson!

Jackie Robinson was the first African American to play baseball for the MLB. He started at 1st base for the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Jack Roosevelt Robinson was born in Cairo, Georgia in 1919 in a family of sharecroppers. He was raised by his single mother Mallie Robinson and she had 5 children.

He attended UCLA, where he became the first athlete to win varsity letters in four sports: baseball, basketball, football, and track. Later, due to a lack of financial support, he had to join the military to support his family.

According to www.jackierobinson.com, "In 1945, Jackie played one season in the Negro Baseball League, traveling all over the Midwest with the Kansas City Monarchs... In 1947, Brooklyn Dodgers president Branch Rickey approached Jackie about joining the Brooklyn Dodgers. The Major Leagues had not had an African-American player since 1889, when baseball became segregated."

He is known for breaking barriers in not only baseball, but in sports in general.

According to www.jackierobinson.com, here are some of his accolades:

Broke the color barrier in major league baseball in 1947 by becoming the first African-American player.
Named National League Rookie of the Year in 1947.
Led the National League in stolen bases in 1947 and 1949.
Led second basemen in double plays 1949, 1950, 1951 and 1952.
Selected as the National League MVP in 1949
Won the 1949 batting title with a .342.
National League All-Star Team, 1949-1954.
Had a career batting average of .311 with the Dodgers, .333 in All-Star games
Led the Dodgers to six World Series and one World Series Championship in a 10-year span.

February 20th:

Hello! Happy 20th day of BHM! Today's important figure is Langston Hughes!

Langston Hughes was poet influential for his work during the Harlem Renaissance. He mainly wrote jazz poetry.

James Mercer Langston Hughes was born February 1, 1902, in Joplin, Missouri. His parents divorced when he was young, so he was raised by his grandmother and later, his mother and her husband. He went to college at Columbia University and worked multiple jobs during this period.

In 1924, he moved to Washington, D. C. Hughes's first book of poetry, The Weary Blues, was published in 1926. He finished his college education at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania three years later. In 1930 his first novel, Not Without Laughter, won the Harmon gold medal for literature.

Some of his poetry includes:

The Panther and the Lash: Poems of Our Times (Alfred A. Knopf, 1967)

Ask Your Mama: 12 Moods for Jazz (Alfred A. Knopf, 1961)

Montage of a Dream Deferred (Holt, 1951)

One-Way Ticket (Alfred A. Knopf, 1949)

Fields of Wonder (Alfred A. Knopf, 1947)

Langston Hughes died of complications from prostate cancer on May 22, 1967, in New York City. In his memory, his residence at 20 East 127th Street in Harlem has been given landmark status by the New York City Preservation Commission, and East 127th Street has been renamed “Langston Hughes Place.”

February 21:

Hello! Happy 21st day of BHM!

Today's important figure is John Hope Franklin.

John Hope Franklin was a historian and educator. He also helped in writing a brief which made the Supreme Court pass the Brown vs. Board of Education case. He was also a part of the NAACP.

He was born in Rentiesville, Oklahoma, on January 2, 1915. Franklin attended Fisk University before going to Harvard and graduating with a Master's Degree and doctorate. He also taught at multiple universities upon graduating.

He is most famous for his publications. According to https://kids.britannica.com/, some of his publications include: "From Slavery to Freedom: A History of Negro Americans (1947), The Militant South, 1800–1860 (1956), Reconstruction: After the Civil War (1961), The Emancipation Proclamation (1963), Racial Equality in America (1976), Race and History: Selected Essays 1938–1988 (1990), and The Color Line: Legacy for the Twenty-First Century (1993)."

Some of his accomplishments include:

Presidential Medal of Freedom
Appointed to the Race Initiative Advisory Board
Gained international attention with the publication of From Slavery to Freedom
Being instrumental in the development of African-American Studies programs at colleges and universities
Historical consultant on Steven Spielberg’s Oscar-nominated film Amistad
Distinguished academic leader
President of the Southern Historical Society, the Organization of American Historians, and the American Historical Association
Appointed to the Fulbright Board of Foreign Scholars
Chairman of the Advisory Board to the President’s Initiative on Race
Received the Gold Medal in History
John W. Kluge Prize for Lifetime Achievement in the Study of Humanity by the United States Library of Congress

He died on March 25, 2009, in Durham.

February 22th:

Hello! Happy 22nd day of BHM! Today's important figure is George Washington Carver!

George Washington Carver was an agricultural scientist and inventor. He developed many products, his most famous being using peanuts to find out that soil can be restored which led to many peanut crops and peanut products.

He was born into slavery when his mother and father were stolen and worked Moses Carver, who taught him to read and write. At 11, he left the farm to attend an all-Black school nearby. He moved to Kansas 2 years later because the school was not good. He graduated from Minneapolis High School in 1880 and applied to Highland College. They rejected him after knowing he was Black and Carver ended up enrolling in Simpson College and then applied to Iowa State Agricultural School (now Iowa State University) to study botany.

In 1894, Carver became the first African American to earn a Bachelor of Science degree. He stayed after graduating to work with a famed mycologist. In 1896, Carver earned his Master of Agriculture degree. Afterward, he was allowed to establish an agricultural school in Tuskegee Institute, where he worked for the rest of his life.

Here are some of his accomplishments!

Pioneered Crop Rotation
Invented 300 uses for Peanuts
Inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame
Traveled the South to promote racial harmony
Traveled to India to discuss nutrition in developing nations with Mahatma Gandhi
Became known as “The Peanut Man.”
Invented the Jessup wagon

Carver died on January 5, 1943, at Tuskegee Institute after falling down the stairs of his home. He was 78 years old. Carver was buried next to Booker T. Washington on the Tuskegee Institute grounds.

February 23:

Hello! Happy 23rd day of BHM! Today's important figure is Arthur Ashe!

Arthur Ashe was an American tennis player and the first Black winner of a major men's singles championship!

He was born on July 10, 1943. Ever since he was a child, he learned tennis and it was apparent that he had a talent for it. After graduating from high school, he went to UCLA and was the first African American on the U.S. Davis Cup team. He also served in the army after graduating from UCLA.

I don't know much about tennis so I didn't really understand much of this section, but if you'd like, you can read this article: Life Story - Arthur Ashe Legacy

Here are some of his accolades:

He received posthumous degrees from all of these colleges: Amherst College, Barnard College, The College of William and Mary, Columbia University, Dartmouth College, Hartford College, Haverford College, Kalamazoo College, Le Moyne College, Le Moyne-Owen College, New York University, Northeastern University, Princeton University, Saint John’s University, Trinity University, University of Delaware, Virginia Union University, Virginia Commonwealth University, Wake Forest University, Yale University.
Inducted into the US Open Court of Champions by President Bill Clinton
#14 in USA Today’s list of 25 Most Inspiring People of the Last 25 Years
30th place in its list of 40 Greatest Players of the TENNIS era
Awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1993
Inducted into the Tennis Hall of Fame in 1985
Captain of the U.S. Davis Cup Team in 1981

On February 6, 1993, Arthur Ashe died of AIDS-related pneumonia in New York at the age of 49.

Sorry this post is a bit short!

February 24th:

Hello! Happy 24th day of BHM! Today's important figure is Ruby Bridges! Let's get into it!

Ruby Bridges is known for being to first African American child to integrate into a white school in the South. She did so at age 6. She is also an activist.

She was born in Tylertown, Mississippi, and moved to New Orleans 2 years later. At first, she attended a segregated school even though the Brown vs. Board of Education law had already been passed. Then, a federal order forced schools to integrate and to see if the African American children could compare to the white children, they took a test. Only Ruby and 5 other children passed.

According to www.womenshitory.org, "Ruby and her mother were escorted by four federal marshals to the school every day that year. She walked past crowds screaming vicious slurs at her. Undeterred, she later said she only became frightened when she saw a woman holding a black baby doll in a coffin. She spent her first day in the principal’s office due to the chaos created as angry white parents pulled their children from school. Ardent segregationists withdrew their children permanently. Barbara Henry, a white Boston native, was the only teacher willing to accept Ruby, and all year, she was a class of one. Ruby ate lunch alone and sometimes played with her teacher at recess, but she never missed a day of school that year."

After graduating from high school, she became a travel agent, and got married. She also had 4 sons. In 1999, she established The Ruby Bridges Foundation to promote tolerance and create change through education.

Here are some of her accomplishments:

First child to desegregate in the South
Wrote 2 books
Received the Carter G. Woodson Book Award
Established The Ruby Bridges Foundation
Made an honorary deputy marshal in a ceremony in Washington, D.C.

Thanks for reading!

February 25th:

Hello! Happy 25th day of BHM! Today's important figure is Mary McLeod Bethune!

Mary McLeod Bethune was an American educator, stateswoman, philanthropist, humanitarian, womanist, and civil rights activist.

She was born to a family of slaves and was one of the youngest of 17 children. She graduated from a boarding school in 1894 and sought to educate other African Americans after the war. Then, she attended Dwight Moody’s Institute for Home and Foreign Missions, but since no one would hire her as a missionary, she became an educator and married a fellow teacher.

She moved to Florida where her marriage ended and she opened a boarding school to support her son. Later, she also founded many organizations for racial and gender equality.

Here are some of her accomplishments:

Elected president of the National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs
Founding president of the National Council of Negro Women
Highest ranking African American woman in government
Director of Negro Affairs of the National Youth Administration
Leader of FDR’s unofficial “black cabinet.”
Organized a conference on the Problems of the Negro and Negro Youth
Vice president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored Persons
Member of the advisory board that in 1942 created the Women’s Army Corps
Only woman of color at the founding conference of the United Nations in 1945
Wrote for the leading African American newspapers, the Pittsburgh Courier and the Chicago Defender
Co-owned a Daytona, Florida resort
Co-founded the Central Life Insurance Company of Tampa

Her final residence was a National Historic Site.

February 26th:

Hello! Happy 26th day of BHM! Only 2 more days of the month left...I'm going to be sad, but I would love suggestions of what to do after BHM! Today's important figure is Alexander Crummell!

Alexander Crummell was one of the most important philosophers/thinkers of the 1800s. Unlike many people on this page, he was born free although his father was sold as a slave. He attended an integrated school run by abolitionists. Then, he went to England to study at Queen's College and received a degree.

Then, he went to Liberia as a missionary. He worked as a parish rector, professor at Liberia College, and public figure. He urged Africans to develop and Christianize Africa.

Here are some of his accomplishments:

founded and served as pastor of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church
led the Conference of Church Workers Among Colored People in 1883
taught at Howard University from 1895 to 1897
founded the American Negro Academy
He wrote books

He died on either September 10th or 12th of 1988.

Sorry, this post is kinda short I couldn't find much information about what exactly he did...ALSO I'M EARLY TAKE THAT AANYA

February 27th:

Hello! Happy 27th day of BHM! Only one more day left! 😭😭😭😭 Seriously though, I need suggestions on what to post next month so PLEASE tell me! I really need to keep posting!

Anyway, today's important figure is Dorothy Height!

Dorothy Height is mostly known for her importance to the Civil Rights movement and being an influential part of the March on Washington.

In high school, she began her activism by participating in anti-lynching campaigns. She attended both New York University and Columbia University after high school. After university, she became a social worker and an activist for civil and women’s rights. She worked for both the Harlem YWCA, where she met Mary McLeod Bethune and Eleanor Roosevelt. and the National YWCA.

Here are some of her accomplishments/fun facts about her:

National President of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc
President of the National Council of Negro Women
Organized Wednesdays in Mississippi
Helped organization and execution of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom
A television show called A Different World included “Dorothy Height Hall,” a residence hall named in her honor
Presidential Medal of Freedom
Gave advice on political issues
Citizens Medal Award
Congressional Gold Medal
Inducted into the Democracy Hall of Fame International
24 honorary degrees

She died on April 20, 2010, but she will forever be an important piece of Civil Rights history.

SERIOUSLY EVERYONE GIVE ME IDEAS I NEED THEM

February 28th:

Heylo everyone! Happy 28th day of BHM! Sadly, this is the last day you will be hearing that phrase for this year. 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 I am sad to end this series, but the end of the series does not mean an end to my blog so everyone PLEASE TELL ME WHAT I SHOULD WRITE ABOUT NEXT MONTH OR ELSE I WILL HAVE WRITER'S BLOCK PLEASE I BEG YOU.

Yup, so that didn't happen....anyway.....today's important figure is Charles Hamilton Houston. We will also be covering what the NAACP is, which you have probably heard about not only throughout my posts this month, but also anytime you hear about Black history! Let's get into it!

Charles Hamilton Houston is best known for being a lawyer who helped demolish the Jim Crow laws(yes..those laws...) and for training Thurgood Marshall, who I covered on the 12th ^^^. He has been given the nickname "The Man Who Killed Jim Crow" for his astounding plan to destroy the Crow Laws. (Am I biased? Yes. Am I wrong? Only a racist would think so. OoO controversy)

He was born in Washington D.C. and went to Dunbar College until he transferred to Amherst. After graduating, he taught English at Howard University. He also served in the United States Infantry as a First Lieutenant for 2 years. After that, he attended Harvard and earned his Bachelor's Degree and his Doctor of Laws degree After studying at the University of Madrid in 1924, Houston was admitted to the District of Columbia bar that same year and started practicing law with his father.

Here are some of his accomplishments/fun facts!

Served as the first special counsel to the NAACP
Part of Howard University's faculty
Mentor to Thurgood Marshall
Member of Alpha Phi Alpha, the first intercollegiate Greek-letter fraternity established for African Americans
Posthumously awarded the NAACP’s Spingarn Medal
The main building of the Howard University School of Law is dedicated to him as Charles Hamilton Houston Hall.
Namesake of the Charles Houston Bar Association and the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice at Harvard Law School

He died on April 22, 1950.

Next up! What is the NAACP?

It was founded in 1909 by W.E.B Du Bois(see February 18th!), Ida B. Wells, Mary White Ovington, Henry Moskowitz, Archibald Grimké, William English Walling, Lillian Wald, and Osward Garrison Villard. It was founded in response to the hate crimes and violence toward the African American community. It is also considered by many to be the largest and most eminent civil rights organization of America.

Some of the things I put next are copied and pasted from: https://www.naacp.org/about-us/

The NAACP's Vision Statement!

The vision of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is to ensure a society in which all individuals have equal rights without discrimination based on race. (heyyyy that's what I'm tryna do with my blog!)

The NAACP's Objectives!

To ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of all citizens

To achieve equality of rights and eliminate race prejudice among the citizens of the United States

To remove all barriers of racial discrimination through democratic processes

To seek enactment and enforcement of federal, state, and local laws securing civil rights

To inform the public of the adverse effects of racial discrimination and to seek its elimination

To educate persons as to their constitutional rights and to take all lawful action to secure the exercise thereof, and to take any other lawful action in furtherance of these objectives, consistent with the NAACP’s Articles of Incorporation and this Constitution.

(uhmmm pretty much same except I'm not as uptight as this)

Okay, that's it for the copy & pasting section...and for the month! 😭😭😭😭😭 I hop everyone enjoyed my very long and pretty biased post for today AND this entire series! I know I enjoyed educating you all about Black History! What would you like me to talk about next month! I am definitely taking suggestions! Leave them in the comments! Until next time!

ANNOUNCEMENT: Claire(who has 3 amazing blogs, one of which is Claire's Random Blog) and Em Noor(who has written countless beautiful stories on Wattpad, one of which is Everything and Nothing) gave me the amazing suggestion to do the same thing for Women's History Month in March, so it won't be long until my next post! Look out for that!

Credits:

20 Important Black Leaders to Know

Black History

10 Influential African Americans

Martin Luther King Junior Biography

Muhammad Ali Biography

Rosa Parks Biography

Sojourner Truth

Harriet Tubman Biography

Maya Angelou Biography

Malcolm X Biography

Phillis Wheatley - Poetry Foundation