Black History Month Celebration
2013: Important Links and Files
2012:
Introduction Video
Assignment Instructions
Open up the assignment document. You may print the form and write your answers directly on it OR you can just type your responses on to the form itself and submit it electronically using the form at the bottom of this page!
Reading / Research Content Area
English -- Malcolm X (1925-1965)
Civil Rights Activist, Malcolm X was born Malcolm Little in Omaha, Nebraska. He spent part of his childhood in Lansing, Michigan where his father was murdered by white supremacists. Leaving school after the eighth grade, Malcolm fell into a life of crime in Harlem. He was arrested and sent to prison for burglary. In prison, he was introduced to that Nation of Islam. Upon his release from prison, he became the prominent spokesman for the organization. He taught African Americans Black Nationalism, to be independent, self-sufficient, self-reliant and proud. He later left the Nation of Islam and became an advocate of human rights. He was assassinated in front of his wife and small children in 1965.
Malcolm believed that reading was power. He read constantly while in prison. As he stated "ten guards and the warden couldn't have torn me out of those books ... I have often reflected upon the new vistas that reading opened to me. I knew right there in prison that reading had changed forever the course of my life." He told young people to "read everything. You never know where you're going to get an idea. We have to learn how to think ..."
Art: Elizabeth Catlett (1915-)
Elizabeth Catlett's artwork spans many mediums including sculpture, prints and paintings. Her subjects are often female. Catlett's grandparents had been slaves; both her parents were teachers. She graduated from Howard University and then went on to the University of Iowa School of Art and Art History. She studied in Chicago and New York also. In the 1940's, she taught in Harlem, her students coming from the working class of the city. In Harlem, much of her artwork was themed, "I Am a Negro Woman." Her sculpture titled, "Mother and Child" was also highly praised. She has received great recognition including the Lifetime Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award. She now lives in Mexico.
Elizabeth Catlett embraced what one of her own art instructors taught her: "paint what you know best."
Elizabeth Catlett embraced what one of her own art instructors taught her: "paint what you know best."
Social Studies: Shirley Chisholm (1924-2005)
Born in New York City, Shirley Chisholm graduated from Brooklyn College and became a teacher, earning a Master's Degree in Elementary Education. She became the first African American congresswoman in 1969, serving seven terms. She was also the first African American woman to seek the office of President in 1972.
Chisholm experienced both racism and sexism in her lifetime, but said, "I've always met more discrimination being a woman than being black." Reflecting on her life, she stated, "I was the first American citizen to be elected to Congress in spite of the double drawbacks of being female and having skin darkened by melanin. When you put it that way it sounds like a foolish reason for fame. In a just and free society it would be foolish. That I am a national figure because I was the first person in 192 years to be at once a congresswoman, black and a woman proves, I think, that our society is not yet either just or free." She said she wanted to be remembered as a "black woman who lived in the 20th century and dared to be herself."
For more information about Shirley Chisholm: About.com Biography
Links to Biography and Video Clips from the National Visionary Leadership Project: Shirley Chisholm
Chisholm experienced both racism and sexism in her lifetime, but said, "I've always met more discrimination being a woman than being black." Reflecting on her life, she stated, "I was the first American citizen to be elected to Congress in spite of the double drawbacks of being female and having skin darkened by melanin. When you put it that way it sounds like a foolish reason for fame. In a just and free society it would be foolish. That I am a national figure because I was the first person in 192 years to be at once a congresswoman, black and a woman proves, I think, that our society is not yet either just or free." She said she wanted to be remembered as a "black woman who lived in the 20th century and dared to be herself."
For more information about Shirley Chisholm: About.com Biography
Links to Biography and Video Clips from the National Visionary Leadership Project: Shirley Chisholm
Music: Marian Anderson (1897-1993)
Marian Anderson is one of the most celebrated opera and classical singers of the twentieth century. Her music career began at a baptist church in Philadelphia. After graduating from high school, she applied to a local music school but was rejected because of her race. She began touring, and in 1928 she performed at Carnegie Hall. Her performances we4re mainly to black audiences, because white audiences would not recognize her talent. She traveled to Europe to study and perform. While the United States did not appreciate her, Europe embraced and celebrated Anderson. Finally, in 1935, she returned to Carnegie Hall and was hailed by all. Her influence went beyond the music world. President Dwight Eisenhower appointed her as a delegate to the United National Human Rights Committee. She sang at both Eisenhower and Kennedy's inaugurations, and in 1962, she participated in the March on Washington for Job and Freedom. In 1963, President Lyndon Johnson honored her with the American medal of Freedom, and in 1986 President Ronald Reagan have her the National Medal of Arts.
Commenting on racism, Anderson said, "Sometimes, it's like a hair across your cheek. You can't see it, you can't find it with your fingers, but you keep brushing at it because the feel of it is irritating." She reflected, "As long as you keep a person down, some part of you has to be down there to hold the person down, so it means you cannot soar as you otherwise might."
For more information on Marian Anderson: The Marian Anderson Historical Society
Quotes from Marian Anderson: Famous Quotations - Marian Anderson, About.com
Commenting on racism, Anderson said, "Sometimes, it's like a hair across your cheek. You can't see it, you can't find it with your fingers, but you keep brushing at it because the feel of it is irritating." She reflected, "As long as you keep a person down, some part of you has to be down there to hold the person down, so it means you cannot soar as you otherwise might."
For more information on Marian Anderson: The Marian Anderson Historical Society
Quotes from Marian Anderson: Famous Quotations - Marian Anderson, About.com
Math: Jesse Ernest Wilkins, Jr. (1923-2011)
After beginning college at the University of Chicago at the age of 13, Wilkins earned his bachelor, master, and doctorate degrees in mathematics, graduating with his PhD at 19. He was an instructor of Mathematics for one year at the Tuskegee Institute and an Associate Physicist working on the Manhattan Project from 1944-1946.
He worked for private corporations and earned his Bachelors of Mechanical Engineering and Masters of Mechanical Engineering from New York University. After various positions in the private and educational sectors, he designed and developed nuclear reactors for electrical power generation. One of his major achievements was the development of radiation shielding against gamma radiation, emitted during electron decay of the sun and other nuclear sources. He developed mathematical models in which the amount of gamma radiation absorbed by a given material can be calculated; this is used by researchers in space and nuclear science projects.
Link for more information about Jesse Ernest Wilkins: BlackPast.org
He worked for private corporations and earned his Bachelors of Mechanical Engineering and Masters of Mechanical Engineering from New York University. After various positions in the private and educational sectors, he designed and developed nuclear reactors for electrical power generation. One of his major achievements was the development of radiation shielding against gamma radiation, emitted during electron decay of the sun and other nuclear sources. He developed mathematical models in which the amount of gamma radiation absorbed by a given material can be calculated; this is used by researchers in space and nuclear science projects.
Link for more information about Jesse Ernest Wilkins: BlackPast.org
Athletics: Althea Gibson (1927-2003)
Living in poverty and abuse, Althea skipped school and often ran away from home. Musician Buddy Walker recognized her interest and skill at paddle tennis tournaments, and she was invited to learn tennis and to play for the Harlem Cosmopolitan Tennis Association -- or ATA. A wealthy South Carolina businessman became her mentor and provided a home, education, and private tennis lessons.
She graduated from Florida A&M University and became an athletic instructor at Lincoln University. She won the ATA women's singles tournament ten years in a row, from 1947 through 1956. When the American Lawn tennis magazine featured this amazing athlete, who was unable to compete in tournaments outside of the ATA because of her race, Althea became the first African American player to be allowed to enter the Forest Hills, New York, National Grass Tournament. She was invited to Wimbledon in 1951 and in 1956 won the French Open. In 1957, she won the women's singles and doubles at Wimbledon and Forest Hills. In 1958 she again won both titles. She turned pro in 1959.
She was the first African American of either sex to break the color barrier in national and international tournament tennis.
Science: Patricia Bath (1942-)
"Sexism, racism, and relative poverty were the obstacles I faced as a young girl growing up in Harlem. there were no women physicians I knew of and surgery was a male-dominated profession; no high schools existed in Harlem; additionally, blacks were excluded from numerous medical schools and medical societies." - Dr. Patricia Bath Despite these obstacles, Dr. Bath graduated from the Howard University School of Medicine and completed specialty training in ophthalmology and corneal transplant at NYU and Columbia University. In 1975, Dr. Bath became the first African American woman surgeon at UCLA Medical Center and the first woman faculty member at UCLA Jules Stein Eye Institute. Dr. Bath is also the founder and first president of the American Institute for the Prevention of Blindness. She also became the first African American female doctor to patent a medical invention: the Cataract Laserphaco Probe, patented in 1988. This machine uses the power of a laser to painlessly evaporate cataracts.
For more information on Dr. Patricia Bath: Blackinventor.com
For more information on Dr. Patricia Bath: Blackinventor.com