Black History Month Challenge

I once read in a newspaper where students were asked to name 20 Black Americans who are/were not athletes nor entertainers. Many could not. One high school class of mine did that challenge and I think we did make it to 20 people. Let's see how many I can name. Let the challenge begin.

1. Phyllis Wheatley: Poet who met with George Washington during the Revolutionary War.

2. Sojourner Truth: Abolitionist and Women's Suffragist who bared her breasts and gave a famous speech "Ain't I a Woman?"

3. Harriet Tubman: Conductor of the Underground Railroad and later scout, spy, and soldier in Civil War.

4. Frederick Douglass: Abolitionist who published his autobiography as a former slave.

5. Solomon Northup: Violinist who published his autobiography 12 Years a Slave.

6. 54th Massachusetts Infantry unit that inspired the film Glory.

7. Bass Reeves: Lawman out of Ft. Smith, AR who entered Indian Territory (Oklahoma) to capture fugitives and some say was the inspiration to the Lone Ranger.

8. George Washington Carver: Professor and inventor of peanut products who revolutionized they way southern farmers planted cash crops.

9. Buffalo Soldiers: Black Soldiers of the Wild West were given this name by the Indian tribes they encountered.

10. Ida Barnett-Wells: Journalist and a founder of NAACP.

11. Madam C. J. Walker: Built a beauty line empire similar to Avon/Mary Kay targeting black women's hair and skin care.

12. WEB DuBois: Author of Souls of Black Folk, professor, and a founder of NAACP.

13. Booker T. Washington: Professor who published his autobiography Up From Slavery and help build Tuskegee University.

14. Thurgood Marshall:1st black Supreme Court Justice.

15. Langston Hughes: Author of The Crisis and part of the Harlem Renaissance.

16. Wiley College Debate Team that inspired the film The Great Debaters.

17. Gwendolyn Brooks: Author of Annie Allen that won a Pulitzer Prize.

18. Zora Neale Hurston: Author of Their Eyes Were Watching God.

19. Maya Angelou: Author of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and read a poem at the inaugurations of Presidents Clinton and Obama.

20. James Baldwin: Author of Notes of a Native Son.

21. Alex Haley: Author of Roots and Autobiography of Malcolm X.

22. Toni Morrison: Author of Beloved that won a Pulitzer Prize and received Nobel Prize in Literature.

23. Alice Walker: Author of The Color Purple that won a Pulitzer Prize.

24. Tuskegee Airmen: Pilots in WWII.

25. Emmett Till: Teenager who supposedly whistled at a white woman and shortly after was murdered. His funeral and murder trial gained media attention to become a catalyst in the Civil Rights Movement.

26. Rosa Parks: The woman who refused to give up her seat to a white man that sparked the Civil Rights Movement after attending a rally in memory of Emmett Till.

27. Martin Luther King Jr.: Leader of the Civil Rights Movement and received Nobel Peace Prize.

28. Elijah Muhammad: Leader of Nation of Islam beginning in 1930's.

29. Malcolm X: Islamist preacher who published his Autobiography written by Alex Haley.

30. Jesse Jackson: Christian preacher and civil rights activist who ran for president and hostage negotiator.

31. Quincy Jones: Music producer, songwriter.

32. Spike Lee: Film director and producer.

33. Mae Jemison: 1st Black Woman in space as an astronaut.

34. Clarence Thomas: Supreme Court Justice.

35. Condoleezza Rice: 1st female black Secretary of State and National Security Advisor.

36. Colin Powell: General of US Army, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and 1st black Secretary of State.

37. Barak Obama: Senator, Author, and 1st Black President of the US.