Know Your History!
Up to the early 20th century, most American knowledge of Black history was limited to the African American struggle through slavery and emancipation. The significance of Black history is recognition of the advancements and accomplishments of a group of people once defined by the Constitution as three-fifths of a person. While slavery in America hosts the background of Black history, the African American impact on history reaches beyond the country’s early history, as African Americans have made significant contributions.
African-American Facts for Week of:Ā November 29, 2015
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November 29, 1908
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Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., Politician and Civil Rights Activist
Congressman Clayton Powell, Jr., politician and civil rights activist was born in New Haven, Conn.
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November 29, 1955
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Alice Childress becomes the first African American woman
Alice Childress becomes the first African American woman to receive an Obie Award for her play, “Trouble in Mind”.
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November 30, 1924
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Congresswoman, Ā Shirley Chisholm
Congresswoman, Shirley Chisholm was born, 1924.
November 30, 1980
Black Panther Party emerges
Huey Newton and Bobby Seale students at a California college create the Black Panther Party for Self Defense. The Black Panther Party or BPP (originally the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense) was a revolutionary black nationalist and socialist organizationĀ active in the United States from 1966 until 1982.
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November 30, 1981
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Spingarn Medal: Coleman A. Young
Spingarn Medal awarded to Coleman A. Young “in recognition of his singular accomplishments as mayor of the City of Detroit.”
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December 1, 1955
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Rosa Parks rides in the front of the bus, igniting a 382 day bus boycott
Rosa Parks rides in the front of the bus, igniting a 382 day bus boycott and launching the civil rights movement in America. On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks refused to change seats on a Montgomery, Alabama, bus. On December 5, blacks began a boycott of the bus system, which continued until shortly after December 13, 1956, when the U.S. Supreme Court outlawed bus segregation in the city.
December 2, 1975
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Ohio State running back Archie Griffin. He is college football’s only two-time Heisman Trophy winner
Ohio State running back Archie Griffin becomes the first person ever to win the Heisman Trophy twice. He will play for the Cincinnati Bengals and be elected to the National Football Hall of Fame in 1986.
December 3, 1922
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Ralph Gardner
Ralph Gardner was born on this day in Cleveland, Ohio. He was a pioneer chemist whose research into plastics led to the development of so-called hard plastics. His innovations in the manipulation of catalytic chemicals led to the products for the petrochemical and pharmaceutical industries as well as plastics.
December 4, 1927
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Duke Ellington opened at the Cotton Club
Duke Ellington opened at the Cotton Club in Harlem. In 1923, Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington first began to make his mark in New York with his band The Washingtonians, which took its name from his home city. He soon assembled a remarkable corpus of talented instrumentalists, whose qualities he exploited not only by showcasing them in dynamic solo passages, but also by joining them in astonishingly varied and colorful combinations of a kind never before heard in jazz. These achievements, in addition to Ellington’s expertise as an originator of intellectually satisfying musical structures, made him the most celebrated and critically acclaimed of all jazz composers.
December 5, 1935
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Council of Negro Women – Educator, Mary McLeod Bethune, founds National Council of Negro Women, 1935
Mary Jane McLeod Bethune, (July 10, 1875 ā May 18, 1955) was an American educator and civil rights leader best known for starting a private school for African-American students in Daytona Beach, Florida. She attracted donations of time and money, and developed the academic school as a college. It later continued to develop as Bethune-Cookman University. She also was appointed as a national adviser to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. She was known as “The First Lady of The Struggleā because of her commitment to bettering African Americans.
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Being familiar with past events gives us the ability not only to learn from past mistakes but also from the successes.
To me, the omission of any group from history teachings results in a limited understanding of history’s relationship with the present and future. Know your history.
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Twitter: @Annette92J