Monday, February 6, 2012

February Black History Month

Jackie Joyner-Kersee
  •  Was born on March 3, 1962 in East St. Louis, Illinois.
  • She was a track and basketball star in high school.
  • Jackie got an athletic scholarship to UCLA where she earned a B.A. in history.
  • She won a silver medal in the heptathlon in the 1884 Olympics. 
  • In the 1988 and 1992 games, she won gold medals. 
Sojourner Truth
  • She was born into slavery in Ulster County, New York. 
  • She spoke out against racial oppression that she had endured throughout her childhood.
  • In 1850 she published "The Narrative of Sojourner Truth".
  • She became a itinerant preacher and traveled around New England.
  • By 1851 she was active in the suffrage movement.
Mae Jemison
  • Mae C. Jemison was an astronaut and physician who was born on October 17, 1956.
  • She was the first African American woman ever admitted into the astronaut training program.
  • On September 12, 1992 she flew into space with six other astronauts on the Endeavour.
  • She conducted experiments on weightlessness and motion sickness.
  • Mae spent slightly over 190 hours in space.
Clarence Thomas
  • Clarence Thomas was born on June 23, 1948 in Pin Point, Georgia.
  • For the first few years of his life he lived in a one room shack with dirt floors.
  • He was a U.S. Supreme Court justice.
  • In 1979, he moved to Washington D.C. and became a legislative assistant.
  • In 1982 he became the chairman of the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Langston Hughes
  • He was a famous writer.
  • His parents soon separated after he was born on February 1, 1902.
  • One of his famous poems were "Shakespeare in Harlem".
  • He graduated from high school in Cleveland, Ohio in 1920.
  • In his senior year of high school he was chosen as class poet and yearbook editor.
Benjamin Banneker
  • He was the son of two freed slaves.
  • He was called the "first African American inventor".
  • After his parents died, he taught astronomy through borrowed books.
  • Benjamin grew up on a tobacco farm.
  • Benjamin grew up in Maryland.
Marcus Garvey
  • He was the first to forcefully articulate the concept of African nationalism.
  • Marcus was born in Jamaica on August 17, 1887.
  • At the age of 14 he became an apprentice in the printing trade.
  • In 1903 he went to Kingston to work as a printer.
  • He published a periodical called the Watchman.
George Washington Carter
  • He started his life as a slave and ended it as a respected and world-reowned agricultural chemist.
  • George Washington Carver became the kidnap victim of night riders.
  • He had responsibility for his own education.
  • He wished to become an artist.
  • He attended Simpson College.
Colin Powell
  • Colin Luther Powell served as a national security adviser to Ronald Reagan.
  • In 2001 he was confirmed as the Secretary of State.
  • He was born in Harlem, New York City.
  • In 1962 he met and marrie Alma Vivian Johnson.
  • In 1987 he replaced Carlucci as national security adviser.
Michael Jordan
  • He played for the University of North Carolina from 1982 - 1984.
  • In 1991, 1992, and 1993, he led the Bulls to NBA championships and was the league's most valuable player in 1991 and 1992.
  • He was born on February 17, 1963 in Brooklyn, New York.
  • He played for the 1984 U.S. Olympic team.
  • In 1998, he led the Bulls to their sixth NBA title of the decade.
Dred Scott
  • He waged one of the most important legal battles in the history of the United States.
  • Dred Scott was born a slave in Southampton County, Virginia in 1795.
  • He was employed as a farmhand, stevedore, craftsman, and general handyman.
  • In 1832 he was sold for $500 to a surgeon in the U.S. Army.
  • Later the surgeon returned with Scott to Missouri.
William Edward Burghardt
  • He was the founder and secretary of the Niagra movement.
  • Burghardt was part of CRISIS.
  • His funeral marked a phenomenon
  • William had two children.
  • On August 27, 1963 he died.
Muhammad Ali
  • He was born on January 17, 1942
  • He won 100 out of 108 matches.
  • Muhammad Ali was the father of nine children.
  • He had parkinsons syndrome.
  • When he was 12 he began boxing.
Duke Ellington
  • At the age of seven he began piano lessons.
  • He was a famous pianist.
  • On July 2, 1918 he was married.
  • In 1930 he was separated from his wife.
  • At one point in his life he had a band with 18 members.
Marshall Thurgood
  • He was born on July 2, 1908.
  • He was a lawyer, jurist, and associate justice.
  • He went to Howard University.
  • In his life he won 29 out of 32 civil cases.
  • He practiced in Baltimore until 1938.
Whoopi Goldberg
  • She was in the movie the The Color Purple.
  • She won the Bay Area Threatre Award for her portrayal of comedienne Moms Mabley in a one-woman show.
  • She was an actress and comedienne.
  • She married her drug counselor and had a son.
  • She has hosted the academy awards three different times.
Ida Bell Wells-Barnett
  • Many of her friends that were businessmen were killed and their businesses were destroyed by whites.
  • She was an African American journalist.
  • Many of her brothers and sisters died of yellow fever.
  • She was forcably thrown out of a first class car by a conductor while traveling to school.
  • She joined a literary society in Memphis.



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