Black History 101
This was a loosely organized network of connections for slaves escaping to the North. Homes, or “stations” would provide food and shelter for escaping slaves, and the leader of the group, or “conductor”, ensured that they moved safely from station to station.
What is the underground Railroad?
"I never run my train off the track and never lost a passenger."
Who is Harriet Tubman?
This Black Fraternity was founded at Indiana University in 1911.
What is Kappa Alpha Psi?
This boycott was born after Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Ala., to a white male passenger in 1955.
What is the Montgomery Bus Boycott?
The self–proclaimed “greatest [boxer] of all time” was originally named after his father, who was named after the 19th century abolitionist and politician Cassius Marcellus Clay.
Who is Muhammad Ali?
This is a decentralized political and social movement that seeks to highlight racism, discrimination, and racial inequality experienced by black people, and promote anti-racism founded in 2013. Its primary concerns are incidents of police brutality and racially motivated violence against black people.
What is Black Lives Matter?
"When they go low, we go high."
Who is Michelle Obama?
He became the first Black man to receive a master's degree from IU. (The street that NMBCC sits on has been named after him too!)
Who is Preston Eagleson?
Created in 1909 by an interracial group consisting of W.E.B. Du Bois, Ida Bell Wells-Barnett, Mary White Ovington, and others, this organization was founded to combat the challenges of African Americans, especially in the wake of the 1908 Springfield (Illinois) Race Riot.
What is The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)?
This artist has won 32 grammys and was the first Black woman to headline Coachella in 2018.
Who is Beyonce Knowles-Carter?
Black History Month was chosen in February to coincide with the birthdays of these two individuals who were imperative with the freedom of enslaved people.
Who are Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln?
"Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave, I am the dream and the hope of the slave. I rise I rise I rise."
Who is Maya Angelou?
These are the first Black man and woman to graduate from IU. (The Black Culture Center is named after them.)
Who are Marcellus Neal and Frances Marshall?
This racially motivated attack on a church caused the death of four Black girls in Alabama in 1963.
What is Alabama Church bombing/ 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing?
She became the first Black woman millionaire with her revolutionary black hair products and in 1910, she set up a laboratory and beauty school in Indianapolis, IN.
Who is Madame C.J. Walker?
This popular cartoon character in the 1930s was based on Esther Jones, a Harlem-based jazz singer. Jones was known for her use of “boops” in her singing which was called a child-like scat.
Who is Betty Boop?
"We didn't land on Plymouth Rock. It landed on us."
Who is Malcom X?
He became IU's first Black student body president in 1960.
Who is Thomas Atkins?
In August 1963, this event had 250,000 people gathered in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. to draw attention to continuing challenges and inequalities faced by African Americans a century after emancipation. It was also the occasion of Martin Luther King Jr.’s now-iconic “I Have a Dream” speech.
What is the March on Washington?
He was the first Black person to be appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court. He was appointed by President Lyndon B. Johnson and served on the court from 1967 to 1991.
Who is Thurgood Marshall?
Invented in 1989 by engineer Lonnie Johnson, this toy became a best-selling ticket generating well over $1 billion in sales over its lifetime. The prototype of this toy combined PVC pipe, acrylic glass, and an empty plastic soda bottle.
What is the Super Soaker?
“If they don’t give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair.”
Who is Shirley Chisholm?
She became the first (and only!) Black Miss Indiana University in 1959.
Who is Nancy Streets-Lyons?
The goal of this campaign, created in 1968, was to gain more economic and human rights for poor Americans from all backgrounds. A multicultural movement, the campaign included Asian Americans, Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans, Native Americans and whites along with African Americans.
What is the Poor People's Campaign?
He made agricultural advancements and inventions pertaining to the use of peanuts and was one of the first African-Americans admitted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 1990.
Who is George Washington Carver?