Black History Month—A Continuing Series by the Beachcomber Staff
Louis Armstrong 
Satchmo the Great
Louis Armstrong (“Satchmo”) is most well known for his powerful trumpet playing in jazz. He has influenced by different types of mucis from country to rap.
He grew up in a poor environment. He had to hustle and bustle every day searching for a meals. African Americans of New Orleans had many social clubs. When he was a child, before he became a musician, he danced for money or sang in a quartet of boys on the streets of New York.
In 1922, he was asked to join the Creole Jazz Band at Lincoln Gardens in Chicago by his mentor, Joe Oliver. In 1925, he joined his wife’s band at the Dreamland Cafe. By 1929, he led his own band, Louis Armstrong and his Stompers, and played with Carroll Dickenson’s Savoy Orchestra and Clarence Jone’s Orchestra, rising into a big star in no time. In 1931, he returned to his mentor’s band, King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band. He was recognized as a hero. However, racism was interfering with his music and fame. He was not mentioned on the radio because of white DJ’s were not willing to mention his name.
Louis Armstrong became well known as the founding father of jazz. To ths day, musicians are influenced by his unique way of playing jazz, as a instrumentalist and vocalist.
Dred Scott
The Freedom Fighter
Dred Scott, born around 1800, was a man who fought for freedom, after Scott migrated with his master, Peter Blow, to Alabama. In 1832, when his master died, Scott was bought by the surgeon Dr. John Emerson and he was taken to Illinois. Scott later married another slave, and the state gave him a legal standing to make a claim for freedom, but Scott was unaware of his legal abilities. He was hired out to an army captain, and he then searched for freedom.
He had lost the trial simply because he couldn’t prove that Harriet Roberson, his wife, and himself were owned by Emerson’s widow.
His lawyer then brought the case to Federal Court. The United States Supreme Court had already declared that all blacks, slaves or not, weren’t going to be able to become United States citizens, which meant they could not sue in Federal Court. The Federal Court decided to think about it, but then said that since the laws in some states restricted slavery, Dred Scott was a citizen. Some of his old friends helped him pay his legal fees, and then let his wife and him free.
Nine months later Dred Scott died. After his death he was remembered by the Supreme Court and by everybody else, for he has one of the men who had fought for freedom, and at the end, all the work he did paid off.
Nelson Mandela
Leading the People, For the People
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was born on July 18, 1918 in the small village of Qunu, Africa. His father named him Rolihlahla; the name Nelson wasn’t given to him until his first day at school. When he attended a three-month initiation school, Mandela graduated from Clarkebury Missionary School. Four years later he graduated from Healdtown, a strict Methodist college, and left to pursue a higher education at the University of Fort Hare.
After he was expelled for political activism, he was a clerk at a law firm and attended the University of South Africa to complete his first degree. He was awarded his Bachelor’s degree in 1941, and in 1942 he started on a law degree at the University of Witwatersrand. Nelson and a few other people formed a group called the African National Congress Youth League. Nelson opened his own law office in 1952.
In 1962 Mandela left the country for military training in Algeria and to arrange training for other MK members. On his return, he was arrested for leaving the country illegally and for incitement to strike. He conducted his own defense. He was convicted and jailed for five years in November 1962.
Robben Island, where he was imprisoned, became a centre for learning, and Mandela was a central figure in the organized political education classes. In prison Mandela never compromised his political principles and was always a source of strength for other prisoners.
During the seventies he refused the offer of a remission of sentence if he recognized Transkei and settled there. Mandela has honorary degrees from more then 50 international universities and is chancellor of the University of the North. He was inaugurated as the first democratically elected State President of South Africa on May 10, 1994- June 1999. Nelson Mandela retired from Pubic life in June 1999. He currently resides in his birthplace – Qunu, Africa.
Garrett Morgan
Inventor of Protection
Garrett Morgan was born on March 4, 1877 in Paris, Kentucky. He was born as the seventh of eleven children to Sydney and Elizabeth Morgan. At the age of 30, Garret moved to Cleveland Ohio to open his own sewing machine store.
In the year 1909 however, Garret Morgan had invented the first human-hair straightener. He marketed the product under the name the G. A. Morgan Hair Refining Cream and sold by his G. A Morgan Refining Company, which became a very successful business.
In 1912, Morgan developed the gas mask, used to protect firefighters, chemists, and engineers from dangerous toxic fumes. The gas mask was also used by the United States Army and saved the lives of thousands of soldiers.
Morgan then took it upon himself to solve traffic accidents. With this, he invented the traffic light. He died on July 27, 1963 and because of his contributions, the world is a much safer place.
Rosa Parks
The Historical Bus Ride 
Rosa Park’s simple act of protest influenced America’s Civil Rights revolution strongly. Her act allowed her to be famous—to be known for taking a stand when practically no one was willing to question authority. Hopefully we have all heard the story.
It was the day of December 1, 1955. Rosa Parks was riding on a bus in her hometown of Montgomery, Alabama. After a while the bus became extremely busy, and Parks, as a black woman, was then ordered to give up her seat for a white man entering the bus. Refusing to do so, Parks then sparked a controversy ending with her arrest.
Montgomery’s segregation laws were complicated. African Americans were considered inferior to white people. They had to comply with all orders given to them at all times.
Rosa Parks was the secretary for the local NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People). The incident on the Montgomery bus was intentional. She took the first seat in the colored row because she wanted it.
Her white lawyer bailed Rosa out the same day. After talking to her family, she decided to test the constitutionality of the city’s laws.
Rosa Parks ignited the Montgomery bus boycott. Despite bad weather and long distances, the majority of black people were opposed to riding the bus after the incident. Martin Luther King, Jr. had helped Rosa Park’s protest by giving a profound speech.
Up to this day, people are overwhelmingly moved by Rosa Park’s modest and simple defiance. Through her actions, she inspired people to believe that anyone can be as brave as she was when the time comes to stand up for what one knows is wrong.
Richard Pryor
The Controversial Funnyman
Richard Franklin Lennox Pryor III, comedian, actor and writer, was born on December 1, 1940 in Peoria, Illinois. In 1985 Pryor left home to serve in the Army until 1960. Before being discovered by Johnny Carson, he worked in comedy clubs. He changed his acting style, adding profanity and racial issues that would become his signature.
He was in hit films such as The Lady Sings The Blues, Uptown Saturday Night and Carwash. He created a variety of characters on stage and screen, won an Emmy and five Grammy awards. Because of his drug addiction, he retired from recording around the 1980’s. He still made films. Pryor was diagnosed with many types of sclerosis in 1986 and passed away on December 10, 2005 due to a heart attack. Many people would say his style is what got him in trouble, but his style was also what created a legend.
George "Little Chocolate" Dixon
The Twenty-Second Champion
On March 31,1891 George “Little Chocolate” Dixon became the first black man to hold an American title in any sport. Born in Hallfax, Nova Scotia (Canada) in 1870, George got his start in boxing through an apprenticeship with a photographer who specialized in boxing photography. Dixon started training at a local gym, weighing 100 pounds at 5’3” he turned professional at the age of 16.
He became the first black boxer to win an international title on June 27,1890, knocking out British featherweight champion Nunc Wallace for the international bantamweight title. In 1888 Dixon then fought seventy rounds against Cal McCarthy, the bantamweight title holder, the outcome being a draw.
In a rematch three years later, on March 31, 1891, Dixon won the title knockout in the twenty-second round. This was an important moment in history that helped pave the way for all future athletes.
Harriet Tubman
A Conductor of Freedom
Tubman was born a slave in Maryland's Dorchester County around 1820. In 1844 she married John Tubman. After fighting for her own freedom, she never left her people behind, always finding a unique way to scavenge them from the gruesome happenings. Tubman even carried a gun in which she used to threaten the fugitives if they became too tired or decided to turn back, assuring them, "You'll be free or die."
During the Civil War Harriet Tubman worked for the Union as a cook, a nurse, and even a spy. After the war, she settled in Auburn, New York, where she would spend the rest of her life. She died in 1913.
Throughout most of Tubman’s life she has had to overcome overwhelming amounts of criticism, but always kept a strong mind about all of her misfortunes, turning those misfortunes into newfound fortune.
Within a ten-year span and 19 trips into the South, she has escorted over 300 slaves to freedom. As she once proudly commented to Frederick Douglass, in all of her journeys she "never lost a single passenger."
Maya Angelou
A Life-Altering Artist
Like most African Americans during the time of racial inequality, Maya Angelou started out rough. An activist, writer, dancer, she originally was born on April 4, 1928 as Marguerite Ann Johnson. Her childhood years were spent moving back and forth from her mother to her grandmothers. Raped at the age of 8, this horrific incident caused Maya to go mute for almost six years.
In her teen years through early twenties, she was a dancer who toured Europe and Africa for musical reasons and at the age of 16 gave birth to her son. In 1960 she returned to New York and became involved in black activism.
As an editor of African Review, she spent a couple years in Ghana where she began to take activism and writing seriously.
Her most famous piece is said to be her five—volumes Autobiography. Maya Angelou was the second poet who has been asked by former President Bill Clinton, to read at an inauguration.
Maya Angelou truly is in a different class. She grace and poise while expressing such passionate words has allowed her to become an unbelievable force on the world.
Spike Lee
A Visionary Master
Spike Lee is one of the best in cultural and artistic movie production. As a writer, director, actor, producer, and entrepreneur, Lee has given African Americans a new name in movies, taking away decades of stereotypes. His films are outspoken and informed by commitment. He challenged cultural, racial, and gender assumptions, and is one of the most contemporary figures in cinema production that has helped many different actors and actresses alike.
Spike Lee was originally born as Shelton Jackson Lee in Atlanta, GA, on March 20, 1957, but then raised in Fort Greene. At first Lee wanted to be a major league baseball player. When he attended Morehouse College, his love for film surfaced.
He made his first movie in 1977, Last Hustle in Brooklyn. He then went to the New York University Tisch School of the Arts. The next production, Joe’s Bed Study Barbershop: We Cut Heads (1982) was awarded by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Science.
Spike’s next movie sparked tensions between people because of its racial controversy. Do the Right Thing (1989) was a said to be “provocative, insightful meditation on simmering racial tension.” This was the movie that put him in the limelight as one of the most controversial, yet accredited filmmakers. His dream movie, Malcolm X (1992), was paid for by many different black celebrities. He then took a break from politically charged movies and made a serious comedy, Crooklyn.
Lee then made Clockers (1995), which was based on the urban crime drama by Richard Price. In 1996 he made 2 different movies, Girl6 and Get on the Bus. Girl6 was about a young actress who had to be a phone sex operator. But Get on the Bus was about the Million Man March after its one-year anniversary. The 25th Hour passed up his usual topics about racial and ethnic segregation and was an adaptation of David Benioff’s novel The 25th Hour. In addition to his work as a filmmaker, he has also written many different books about filmmaking to help aspiring filmmakers.
Madame C.J. Walker
Inventor of the Hair Wonders
Madame CJ Walker was born December 23,1867 in Delta, Louisiana. Her visionary ideal was started by a dream. “[A] big black man appeared to me and told me what to mix up for my hair. Some of the remedy was grown in Africa, but I sent for it, put it on my scalp, and in a few weeks my hair was coming in faster than it had ever fallen out.”—The Black Inventor Online Museum.
In 1906 she and her husband married and they started the Madam CJ Walker Manufacturing Company but she felt her hair products were not getting enough business from the public; and in order to grow she had to make some decisions, and one happened to be the divorce from her husband.
Later on she became her own boss and started selling door to door, and in 1906 her daughter took over management of the business while she traveled cross-country to get marketing and develop new products. In 1914 her idea paid off. The $2.00 that she started off with nine years before had turned into a million. Her inventions included conditioners, facial creams and hot combs just to name a few. Dying in 1919, Madame C.J. Walker remains an inspiration of the thousands of hair products invented today.
Langston Hughes
The Man of Many Words
“What happens to a dream differed? Does it dry up like a raison in the sun?”
Born in Joplin, Missouri, James Langston Hughes was a member of an abolitionist family. He was the great grandson of Charles Henry Langston, brother of John Mercer Langston, who was the first Black American to be elected to public office, in 1855.
Hughes attended Central High School in Cleveland, Ohio, but began writing poetry in the eighth grade, and was selected as Class Poet. His father didn't think he would be able to make a living out of writing, and encouraged him to pursue a more practical career. He paid his son's tuition to Columbia University on the grounds he studied engineering.
After a short time, Langston dropped out of the program with a B+ average; all the while he continued writing poetry. His first published poem was also one of his most famous, "The Negro Speaks of Rivers", and it appeared in Brownie's Book. Later, his poems, short plays, essays and short stories appeared in the NAACP publication Crisis Magazine and in Opportunity Magazine and other publications.
Langston Hughes died of cancer on May 22, 1967. His residence at 20 East 127th Street in Harlem, New York has been given landmark status by the New York City Preservation Commission. His block of East 127th Street was renamed "Langston Hughes Place”.
Malcolm X
The Voice of Superiority
Malcolm X was an African American activist born in 1952 in Omaha, Nebraska. In his early years he lived the life of a thug. Malcolm served a 10 year sentence in prison for burglary, but little did he know life after this was changed forever.
While in prison he studied the teaching of Elijah Muhammad who brought up the religion of Islam. After doing his time, he began teaching Islamic views and shared his philosophy of black superiority and separatism from whites. Later in life Malcolm X found peace with his biased views. In 1965 he was assassinated. To this day he still remains an inspiration for many Americans.
Martin Luther King Jr.
The Man with the Dream
The master of non-violent change, Martin Luther King Jr. was born in Atlanta on the 15th of January, 1929. King attended Morehouse College in Atlanta, and then went on to study at Crozer Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania. He studied Ghandhi’s non-violence strategy for social change. King became the new president of the Montgomery Improvement Association after Rosa Parks' refusal to get off the bus. The Southern Christian Leadership Conference was formed by King and other black ministers. The demonstration in Birmingham sparked conflict between the blacks and whites. After the Birmingham incident, the Civil Rights Act was passed in 1964.
On the 28th of August 1963, more then 250,000 people gathered in Washington D.C. to hear King’s famous “I have a Dream” speech. King earned the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. He received criticism from Black Power proponent Stokely Carmichael, as well as resistance from national political leaders.
Unfortunately, on the fourth of April, 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. To this day, King remains a powerful symbol of the African American civil rights struggle. He is honored by many for his bravery to stand up and speak on behalf of nonviolence and condemned by others for his militancy and uncompromising views.
Oprah
The One Named Wonder
One of the richest African Americans of all time with a net worth over $1.5 billion, as well as being one of histories most philanthropic figures of society, Oprah Gail Winfrey, has become an iconic force to be forever remembered. Born on January 29, 1954 in Mississippi, Oprah struggled through numerous accounts of sexual abuse and even lost a child weeks after labor when 15 years old.
After making her mark as a news anchor for WLAC-TV (Nashville) and WJZ-TV (Baltimore) Oprah moved in 1983 to Chicago’s WLS-TV where the lowest rated show, AM Chicago, soon became the nation’s top rated, numerous Emmy award winning talk show in television history, The Oprah Winfrey Show. In 1986 she shined on the big screen in The Color Purple, which earned her an Oscar nomination.
During Oprah Winfrey’s 21 years of broadcast, she has done more than interview big celebrities or troubled families. Her humanitarian efforts have went above and beyond gracious, donating an est. $250 million alone as well as building a $41 million school for girls in South Africa in 2006. Her Oprah’s Angel Network has raised more than $51 million.
She has influenced millions of people across the globe through a number of outlets including two monthly magazine’s, O, The Oprah Magazine and O at Home; an online website, Oprah.com which gets 100 million views a month; a station on XM Satellite Radio, Oprah and Friends; as well as the ever so influential Oprah’s Book Club. Her production company Harpo Productions has developed some of the most well known daytime shows for television, The Dr.Phil Show and The Rachel Ray Show.
Oprah Winfrey is a force of nature. She is a woman of grace, strength, ability and persuasion. A woman who will be described in years to come as one of the greatest figures of American history.
Frederick Douglass
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| Frederick Douglass |
An Abolitionist Savior
Frederick Douglass (born as Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey) was born into a life of slavery on February 14, 1818. The son of an enslaved woman and his white master, young Frederick lived within bondage until 1838, losing his mother and grandmother in the process.
Making a name for himself with his passionate words, Douglass grew into one of the most influential authors in American history. He conferred with Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War and recruited northern blacks for the Union Army. After the War he fought for the rights of women and African Americans alike. Only 23 years old, Douglass overcame his nervousness and gave a stirring, eloquent speech about his life as a slave. Douglass would continue to give speeches for the rest of his life and would become a leading spokesperson for the abolition of slavery and for racial equality. Click here for more info.
Previous stories in this series:
Black History Month
Honoring Strength and Persistence
In the year 1976 the once week long black history celebration created by Mary Church Terrell with two significant people in mind, Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln, turned into a month long commemoration for the distinct and life changing people within black history who fought for equality without a deadline to their fight.
MBHS, as many know, is a diverse school with a broad base of people. With the start of Black History Month let us all look back and truly find our own appreciation for the amazing people who changed the way the once enslaved race of African Americans are looked at today, as they are, members of society with an amazing impact to make.
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| Mary Church Terrell | Frederick Douglasss | Abraham Lincoln |