Black History Month

February is designated as Black History Month. Persoanlly, I think Black History should be taught in school all year around instead of just in February.

I recall in high school a test of various groups to name 20 Famous African-Americans who are not performers (actors, singers, musicians) nor athletes, at the top of their head. In the papers then, they said no class they gave this test to could do that. My high school economics class almost made it, but a few names short.

I shall try that test again on my blog: though I warn you I took a Black Literature class in college so it may be easier for me.

OK, 20 Famous Afircan-Americans who are not performers nor athletes. () are things I had to look up in a black history book to refresh my memory and spell names correctly for this posting.

1. Phillis Wheatley: Ensalved poet taught by her mistress to read and write in Massachusetts, later set free and married. She once met George Washington during the Revolutionary War to read a poem she wrote about him.

2. Sojourner Truth: Abolitionist who also spoke out on women's suffage. Gave famous speech "Ain't I A Woman" without notecards because she could not read.

3. Harriet Tubman: Abolitionist who lead slaves to freedon on the Underground Railroad.

4. Frederick Douglass: Abolitionist who dictated his autobiography and finally hid in Europe because he feared his fomrer master reading about his speeches. (his freedom was bought while in England)

5. Nat Turner: Led a group a slaves into protesting slavery by killing white owners. Hung after he was caught. (Virginia)

6. Denmark Vesey: leader of slave revolt and was hung. (Charleston, SC)

7. George Washington Carver: Scientist born into slavery by raised by white owners after his mother was killed in the Civil War to read and write. Attended college in Iowa to move to Tuskegee, AL to help farmers change from growing cotton to peanuts after loss of cotton crops by insect larvae by inventing 300 uses for peanuts.

8. Booker T. Washington: Head (Founder)of Tuskegee College where #7 worked and outspoken critic of race relations. (first black to be on a postage stamp)

9. W.E.B. Du Bois author of Souls of Black Folk who also was outspoken on race realtions. (founder of NAACP, editor of magazine The Crisis)

10. James Baldwin: author.

11. Alex Haley: Author of famous book and miniseries based on his book tracing his family tree all the way back to Africa, Roots. (first black to win Pulitzer Prize)

12. Maya Angelou: author of her biography split into several books. The first of the series is I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.

13. Oprah Winfrey: journalist turned talk show host who became the first black female billionaire. Founder of charity Angel Network.

14: Alice Walker: author of The Purple Color and another book speaking against female circumscion in Africa. (first black woman to win a Pulitzer Prize)

15. Toni Morrison: author of Beloved and Their Eyes are Watching God. First black woman to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature.

16. Gwendolyn Brooks: author. (poet)

17. Rosa Parks: infamous refusing to give up her bus seat to a white man sparking a new civil rights movement.

18. Martin Luther King Jr.: civil rights activist who won the Nobel Peace Prize. Slain during a speech causing riots in cities across America for days.

19. Coretta Scott King: widow of #18 and became a civil rights activist picking up where her husband left off.

20. Malcolm X: leader in the Muslim Movement in America.

21: Elijah Muhammad: Leader in establising Muslim temples in America.

22. Louis Farrakhan: leader of American Muslims. (formed Nation of Islam)

23. Buffalo Soldiers: Black soldiers in the Wild West.

24. Tuskegee Airmen: Pilots who held the record of losing zero pilots in battles.

25. Quincy Jones: music producer.

26. Spike Lee: director of films.

27. Jesse Jackson: civil rights activist and ran for president once (1987). Negotitated the release of hostages in war torn former Yugoslavia in the 1990's.

28. Colin Powell: Secretary of State of current President Bush. (first black chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff and first black National Security Advisor)

29. Condolezza Rice: Secretary of State of current President Bush and once same presiendent's Natioanl Securty Advisor.

30. Thurgood Marshall: judge on the Supreme Court. (appointed by Prsident Johnson)

31. Grandma Moses: painter who supported charities for single mothers.

32. John Crocken: lawyer of OJ Simpson among other celebrities.

33. (couldn't think of the name of the first black female astronaut, but it's Mae Jemison)

34. couldn't think of the name of the first black woman to graduate West Point at the top of her class a few years ago, my book is too old for that name.

35. couldn't think of the author of Invisible Man, but it's Ralph Waldo Ellison.

36. Claude McKay: poet who wrote If We Should Die.
Post later. Bye!