Fannie Lou Hamer

 Fannie Lou Hamer was a voting rights activist and civil rights leader. She was instrumental  in organizing Mississippi Freedom Summer for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and later became the Vice-Chair of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. Hamer stood firm in her religious beliefs, often quoting them in her fight for civil rights. She ran for Congress in 1964 and 1965, and was then seated as a member of Mississippi’s legitimate delegation to the Democratic National Committee of 1968, where she was an outspoken critic of the Vietnam War. Hamer died of breast cancer in 1977 at the age of 59. Buried in her hometown of Ruleville, Miss., her tombstone reads ‘I am sick and tired of being sick and tired’.

Granville T. Woods

In 1888, Granville T. Woods developed a system for overhead electric conducting lines for railroads, which aided in the development of the overhead railroad system found in cities such as Chicago, St. Louis, and New York City. In his early thirties, he became interested in thermal power and steam-driven engines. In 1889, he filed his first patent for an improved steam-boiler furnace. In 1892, a complete Electric Railway System was operated at Coney Island, NY. In 1887, he patented the Synchronous Multiplex Railway Telegraph, which allowed communications between train stations from moving trains. Granville T. Woods' invention made it possible for trains to communicate with the station and with other trains so they knew exactly where they were at all times.

Dorothy Height

While the name Dorothy Height is recognizable, many of her accomplishments are not. Height, who died recently in 2010 at the age of 98, was a social rights activist, administrator, and educator. After earning her bachelor’s and master’s degrees at New York University, Height later became active in fighting for social injustices. She was the president of the National Council of Negro Women for 40 years, and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1994, and the Congressional Gold Medal in 2004. Also during the height of the Civil Rights Movement, Height organized “Wednesdays in Mississippi” which brought together black and white women from the North and South to engage in dialogue about relevant social issues. Dorothy Height is quoted as saying “I want to be remembered as someone who used herself and anything she could touch to work for justice and freedom…I want to be remembered as one who tried,”a motto she lived by until her death.

Frederick Douglass

A former slave, Douglass became a leading figurehead in the anti-slavery movement. One of the most prominent African American leaders of the Ninenteenth Century. His autobiography of life as a slave, and his speeches denouncing slavery - were influential in changing public opinion.

Septima Poinsette Clark

She is known as the “Grandmother of the American Civil Rights Movement,” Septima Poinsette Clark was an educator and civil rights activist who played a major role in the voting rights of African-Americans.
In 1920, while serving as an educator in Charleston, Clark worked with the NAACP to gather petitions allowing blacks to serve as principals in Charleston schools. Their signed petitions resulted in the first black principal in Charleston. Clark also worked tirelessly to teach literacy to black adults. In 1979, President Jimmy Carter awarded her a Living Legacy Award in 1979. Her second autobiography, Ready from Within: Septima Clark and the Civil Rights Movement, won the American Book Award.

Herb Carnegie

Herbert H. Carnegie (Herb as he became known) was born November 8, 1919 in Toronto, Ontario to Jamaican immigrants, Adina Janes (née Mitchell) and George Nathaniel Carnegie, a janitor. At age eight, Herb discovered his passion for hockey when he borrowed his older brother’s skates on an icy pond in his North York neighborhood Willowdale.  A naturally gifted skater, Herb soon devoted his free time to practicing hockey with his brother Ossie. Like many young Canadians during the 1920s, Herb grew up listening to radio broadcasts of National Hockey League (NHL) games and dreamed of playing in the NHL. Herb’s father George, however, stressed the importance of getting an education while pursuing sports professionally. Along with his brother, Herb joined the hockey team at public school; they were the only black boys on the ice and their father the only black man in the stands. During high school, Herb played for a year on the Earl Haig Collegiate team, but transferred to the Toronto Northern Vocational School team, which played at the Maple Leaf Gardens. On the ice, Herb was subjected to racial slurs and despite grabbing the attention of the Toronto Maple Leafs owner, Conn Smythe, when he was eighteen, he was blocked from warranted opportunities to play for the NHL because he was black. In watching Herb play from the stands,  Smythe stated that he would have considered recruiting Herb if only “he could be turned white.” This deeply affected Herb and solidified that the NHL colour barrier would more than likely keep him from his dream. However, Herb continued to play the game and practice diligently, making headlines by scoring five goals in a single game. Around this time, he met the woman he would later marry, Audrey Redmon, whose parent did not approve of the match at first but later relented.

Diane Nash

A leader and strategist of the student wing of the Civil Rights Movement, Diane Nash was a member of the infamous Freedom Riders. She also helped found the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the Selma Voting Rights Committee campaign, which helped blacks in the South get to vote and have political power. Raised in Chicago, Nash initially wanted to become a nun as a result of her Catholic upbringing.  Also known for her beauty, she would later become runner-up for Miss Illinois, but Nash’s path changed direction when she attended Fisk University after transferring from Howard University. It was there that she would witness segregation first hand, since coming from a desegregated northern city. Her experiences in the South resulted in her ambition to fight against segregation.

Willie O'Ree

       Willie O'Ree was born October 15, 1935 in Fredericton, New Brunswick. A graduate of the New Brunswick Amateur Hockey Association, O'Ree who was known for his speed and checking abilities throughout his career was a threat every time he touched the ice. Following his stint in the NBAHA, O'Ree joined the York County Hockey League's Fredericton Merchants a team with whom he played only six games with before joining the New Brunswick Junior Hockey League's Fredericton Jr. Capitals. The Fredericton, New Brunswick native spent parts of two seasons with the Jr. Capitals in 1951-52 and 1952-53 before joining the Fredericton Capitals of the New Brunswick Senior Hockey League for parts of two seasons in 1952-53 and 1953-54. As a member of the Capitals, O'Ree led his team to the 1954 Allan Cup tournament before joining the Quebec Junior Hockey League's Quebec Frontenacs in 1954-55 and leading them to the 1955 Memorial Cup tournament.  After only one season in Quebec, O'Ree joined the Ontario Hockey Association Junior 'A' Hockey League's Kitchener Canucks in 1955-56 and set a career high in goals with 30 before joining the Quebec Hockey League's Quebec Aces in 1956-57. As a member of the Aces O'Ree and his teammates battled for the Edinburgh Trophy, which was a Challenge Series between, the Western Hockey League and the Quebec Hockey League form 1953 to 1956.

          In 1957-58 O'Ree spent the majority of the seasons with the Aces while playing a handful of games with the American Hockey League's Springfield Indians before he made his NHL debut with the Boston Bruins later that season.

O'Ree's first NHL game was marked with historic content as he became the first black person to play in the NHL before returning to the Aces in 1958-59. After a stop in Kingston of the Eastern Professional Hockey League, O'Ree rejoined the Bruins in 1960-61 where he played in 43 games, scoring his first NHL goal against the Montreal Canadiens. Even though he spent the majority of the season with Boston, O'Ree also spent some time with the EPHL's Hull-Ottawa Canadians before the Bruins traded him to the Montreal Canadiens during the off-season.

           Having never played a game for Montreal, O'Ree was dealt to the Western Hockey League's Los Angeles Blades after having begun the season in the EPHL. O'Ree went on to play six seasons with Los Angeles establishing a career high in goals with 38 during the 1964-65 season before he was traded to the WHL's San Diego Gulls in the summer of 1967. O'Ree spent seven seasons in San Diego establishing a career high in points with 79 in 1968-69 and earning WHL Second Team All-Star honors before he was selected by the Los Angeles Sharks in the 1972 WHA General Player Draft. While in San Diego O'Ree played the better part of the 1972-73 season with the AHL's New Haven Nighthawks. Following his 13 years in the Western Hockey League, O'Ree joined the Southern California Senior Hockey League's San Diego Charms, a team with whom he spent the next two seasons with before retiring from the game for two years in 1976-77 and 1977-78. O'Ree returned to the ice in 1978-79 as a member of the Pacific Hockey League's San Diego Hawks before calling it a career at the end of the season.

Ella Baker

 Ella Baker is on an active civil rights leader in the 1930's and fought for civil rights for five decades, working alongside W.E.B Dubois, Thurgood Marshall, and Martin Luther King, Jr. She was a tireless fighter for social equality for African-Americans in the United States. She even mentored well-known civil rights activist, Rosa Parks. Baker's work--supporting local branches of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), working behind the scenes to establish the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and mentoring college students through the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)--helped move the Civil Rights Movement forward. Ella Baker is quoted as saying, “You didn’t see me on television; you didn’t see news stories about me. The kind of role that I tried to play was to pick up pieces or put together pieces out of which I hoped organization might come. My theory is, strong people don’t need strong leaders.”

John Lee Love

John Lee Love's invention was a very simple and portable pencil sharpener. The same kind of pencil sharpener that many artists use or that can be found in an office or school room. John Lee Love's pencil sharpener was patented on November 23, 1897 (U.S. Patent # 594,114).

Harriet Tubman

Harriet Tubman was born into slavery and found a means of escape with the help of her abolitionist neighbors. In 1849, she fled her slave life in Maryland and found respite in Philadelphia. There she formulated a plan to liberate the rest of her family by way of the Underground Railroad, a system that involved moving slaves from one safe house to another under rigid secrecy. She was able to free her family and numerous other slaves throughout the years, taking them as far as Canada and helping them find safe jobs. Later, she worked as a nurse during the Civil War and was a proponent of both women’s suffrage and the abolitionist movement.

The Tuskegee Airmen

By the beginning of World War II, African Americans were putting increased pressure on the government to make conditions more equal for blacks in the armed forces. Still reluctant to integrate the military, the government took a step forward in 1941 by creating the first all-black military aviation program, at theTuskegee Institute in Alabama. The action received a great deal of criticism from black Americans who were outraged by their continued segregation.
In May 1943, the first group of Tuskegee-trained pilots was sent to North Africa to join the Allied forces. They were headed by Capt. Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., who would later become the first African-American Air Force general. The accomplishments made by the 99th Fighter Squadron, especially in it's collaboration with the all-white 79th Fighter Group in October 1943, helped pave the way for integration in the Air Force.

Althea Gibson

Althea Gibson became the first black person to play in and win Wimbledon and the United States national tennis championship. She won both tournaments twice, in 1957 and 1958. In all, Gibson won 56 tournaments, including five Grand Slam singles events. She won the French women's singles championship in 1956 and the U.S. and British championships in both 1957 and 1958. She retired from competition in 1958. In 1971 she was named to the National Lawn Tennis Hall of Fame.

Thurgood Marshall

Thurgood Marshall (July 2, 1908 - Jan. 24, 1993) was the first African-American justice of the US Supreme Court. Marshall was on the team of lawyers in the historic Supreme Court trial concerning school desegregation, Brown v. Board of Education (1954). As a result of this trial, the "separate but equal" doctrine in public education was overthrown. After a successful career as a lawyer and judge fighting for civil rights and women's rights, Marshall was appointed to the high court in 1967 (by President Lyndon Baines Johnson). On the high court, Marshall continued his fight for human rights until he retired on June 27, 1991.

Maya Angelou

Before she was celebrated for her poems and autobiographical texts like I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya was a nightclub singer and dancer who toured Europe. She settled in New York and became part of the burgeoning black writing scene in Harlem. After moving to Ghana to teach at the University of Ghana’s School of Music and Drama, she met Malcolm X and collaborated with him on bringing equality and unity to America. She returned to the U.S. and was involved with the Civil Rights Movement, working closely with Martin Luther King Jr. She continues to inspire others and promote change through her writing and public speaking.

Jackie Robinson

Jackie Robinson made history in 1947 when he broke baseball's color barrier to play for the Brooklyn Dodgers. A talented player, Robinson won the National League Rookie of the Year award his first season, and helped the Dodgers to the National League championship - the first of his six trips to the World Series. In 1949 Robinson won the league MVP award, and he was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962. Despite his skill, Robinson faced a barrage of insults and threats because of his race. The courage and grace with which Robinson handled the abuses inspired a generation of African Americans to question the doctrine of "separate but equal" and helped pave the way for the Civil Rights Movement.

Zora Neale Hurston

Zora Neale Hurston was a boisterous writer who was part of the Harlem Renaissance, a social and cultural movement that explored the experiences of black people in America during the 1920's. She used her background in anthropology at Barnard College to write short stories and essays about African American folklore. Her most famous novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, was published in 1937, because some people disagreed with the way she wrote African American dialogue, her works were not initially as popular as they later became. She had influence on black female writers like Alice Walker.

Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong had a difficult childhood as his father abandoned the family after his birth, and his mother often turned to prostitution to support the family. Due to his economic condition, he had to quit school and work odd-jobs such as selling newspapers and supplying coal to the red-light district. Louis had a passion for music, and a Jewish family, the Karnofskys, encouraged him to pursue his passion. It was in the year 1918 that Louis was able to focus completely on his music career as he joined one of the most popular bands in New Orleans - Kid Ory. In the following years, Louis became one of the most distinguished trumpeters of his time, and gave jazz music a new definition. He died in 1971, but the impact he left on the jazz scene continues to this day.

Sojourner Truth

Sojourner was born into slavery with the name Isabella Baumfree. She changed her name after escaping from her owner and became a Christian preacher while living with a family in New York. After the state's Emancipation Act was passed, she became a vehement and vocal supporter of abolition and women's rights. She traveled the country giving speeches, including a famous one entitled Ain't I a Woman? that emphasized the strength and power of women and the need for equality between the sexes.

W.E.B. Du Bois

He is known as arguably one of the most intelligent individuals to ever live, W.E.B. Du Bois was instrumental in bringing along the process of human rights for African-American's. In a time when the despotic and abundant prejudice and bigotry towards African-Americans was not only tolerated, it was with reason and law. Du Bois was the first African-American to earn a PH.D from Harvard University. He was also the founding member of what we know today to be the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People).

President Barack Obama

Obama was born on August 4, 1961, at the Kapi’olani Medical Center for Women and Children in Honolulu, Hawaii born to a Kenyan father and English mother. He was a civil-rights lawyer and teacher before pursuing a political career. He was elected to the Illinois State Senate in 1996, serving from 1997 to 2004. Barack Hussein Obama is the first African-American to serve as President of the United States and is the 44th President.  

Langston Hughes

Langston Hughes is best known as a poet. He was prolific in a wide variety of writing styles, in addition to 15 books of poetry. He published a number of novels and short story collections, nonfiction books such as A Pictorial History of the Negro in America, plays, children's books, and more. He edited the literary magazine Common Ground, co-wrote the screenplay for Way Down South, and wrote two autobiographies. Hughes was given many awards and honors – a Guggenheim Fellowship that allowed him to travel to Spain and the Soviet Union, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, the NAACP's Spingarn Medal for distinguished achievements by an African American. He was awarded honorary degrees by Lincoln University, Howard University, and Western Reserve University. After his death, the City College of New York began awarding an annual Langston Hughes Medal to an influential and engaging African-American writer.

Eartha Kitt

Eartha Kitt was one of the first mega-stars of her time. Paving the way for the Beyonce's of today. Kitt, born on a plantation farm and conceived of land-owner/share-cropper rape, moved off the South Carolina cotton plantation and eventually to New York with her biological mother. There she started working on a career in showbusiness, reaching career peaks with a starring role in the Orson Wells film Dr. Faustus, portraying Helen of Troy. She most notably earned the recurring role of Catwoman in the television version of Batman. But above all of her success in film in t.v., Eartha earned the most stripes as an activist and social speaker on many causes. Eartha was utterly blacklisted from the professional community for her position on the Veitnam war and the Johnson administration's policy on the youth who fought.

Jane Bolin

Jane Bolin was the first black woman to become judge in the United States (1932) . She was also the first black woman to earn a law degree from Yale, the first black woman to pass the New York State bar exam and the first to join the city's law department. Bolin worked to end segregation in child placement facilities and the assignment of probation officers based on race. She also helped create a racially integrated treatment center for delinquent boys.

Samuel R. Lowery

Samuel R. Lowery was born in Nashville, Tennessee to Peter and Ruth Lowery in December of 1832.  His mother died when he was only seven years old,  leaving Samuel to be raised by his father. Samuel’s father, Peter, had been born a slave, but purchased his own freedom.  As a Freedman, he ran a business, worked as a farmer, operated a livery stable, and served as a janitor at Franklin College.  The Reverend Talbot Fanning, white proprietor of Franklin College, would become tutor to both Peter and Samuel. In 1848, Samuel himself became a Christian Church minister. However, after a local race riot in December 1856 endangered the lives of many free black families, Samuel moved his family North.  He continued working as a pastor in Cincinnati, Ohio and organizing Christian Churches in Canada until the mid 1860′s, when Union forces occupied Nashville and Samuel returned from exile, between 1865 and 1875, Lowery was involved with the State Colored Men’s Conventions, the National  Emigration Society, and the Tennessee State Equal Rights League. He studied law under a white attorney in Rutherford County and began a law practice.  On February 2, 1880, Lowery was admitted to the bar of the U. S. Supreme Court, a first for Blacks in America. In the 1880s, he established a cooperative community, Loweryvale, in Jefferson County, Alabama, where he died around 1900.

Greensboro Sit-in

In the fall of 1959, four young men (Joseph McNeil, Franklin McCain, Ezell Blair, Jr. and David Richmond) enrolled as freshmen at North Carolina A&T University. The four young men quickly became a close-knit group and met every evening in their dorm rooms for "bull sessions". It was during these nightly discussions that they considered challenging the institution of segregation. The breaking point for the group came after Christmas vacation when Joseph McNeil was returning to N.C. A&T after spending the holidays at home in New York. McNeil was denied service at a Greyhound bus station in Greensboro. McNeil's frustrating experience was shared by the group, and they were willing to make the necessary sacrifices - even if it meant their own lives - to provoke change in society. On that final night in January 1960 in Scott Hall, the four friends challenged each other to stop talking and take action. They didn't realize the journey they would take the next day would ignite a movement, change a nation and inspire a world. Joseph McNeil, Franklin McCain, Ezell Blair, Jr. and David Richmond (The Greensboro Four) entered the F.W. Woolworth store in Greensboro, N.C., around 4:30 p.m. and purchased merchandise at several counters. They sat down at the store's "whites only" lunch counter and ordered coffee, and were denied service, ignored and then asked to leave. They remained seated at the counter until the store closed early at 5 p.m. The four friends immediately returned to campus and recruited others for the cause. It started on February 1 and ended on July 26, 1960 with more than 70,000 people had participated in sit-ins, which resulted in more than 3,000 arrests.
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Origins of Black History Month

The origins of Black History Month can be traced back to a man named Carter G. Woodson born on December 19, 1875, in New Canton, Virginia, to Anna Eliza and James Woodson. He of the first African Americans to receive a doctorate from Harvard, Woodson dedicated his career to the field of African-American history. Woodson chose the second week of February to celebrate Negro History Week because that week included the birthdays of two important men: President Abraham Lincoln (February 12) and Frederick Douglass (February 14). When Negro History Week turned into Black History Month in 1976, the celebrations during the second week of February expanded to the entire month of February.