Prominent Black Historical Figures
This Minister was born in Omaha, Nebraska and became a leader and prominent figure in the Nation of Islam who articulated concepts of race pride and Black Nationalism in the 1960’s.
Malcom X
This term describes the process of changing the character of a neighborhood through the influx of more affluent residents and businesses
Gentrification
This Black female entrepreneur has too many accolades to list. She is the first Black female billionaire, a humanitarian, an activist and a TV icon, most notably for hosting the longest-running daytime talk show in television history.
Oprah
Part of a series of civil rights protests that occurred in 1965 in Alabama in an effort to register Black voters in the South, protesters marched for 3 days to raise awareness for the difficulties faced by Black voters and the need for the national voting rights Act.
Selma to Montgomery March
True or False: By 1940, 75 years after the 13th amendment was passed, 25% of southern black Americans were registered to vote
FALSE - only 3%, which was the result of restrictive Jim Crow Era laws aka “black codes” that made many things illegal for black Americans that were not illegal for white Americans - resulting in felony convictions and permanent ineligibility to vote
This woman was an American poet, singer, memoirist and civil rights activist. She published 3 books of essays, several books of poetry, and 7 autobiographies, including her most famous autobiography entitled “I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings.
Maya Angelou
This term is used to describe the more covert racism embedded into institutions or organizations that results in the marginalization of minority people
Systemic Racism
This athlete has been ranked the No.1 tennis player in the world several times throughout her career, winning 23 major singles titles, the most of any tennis player in the Open Era.
Serena Williams
On May 17th, 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously in this landmark cause that racial segregation in public schools violated the 14th amendment.
Brown vs. Board of Education
True or False: the term “Grandfather clause” was created in the Jim Crow era to exempt white men from voter suppression laws created at the time - meaning that if a man’s grandfather could vote, the new laws did not apply to them.
TRUE
This WWII Army veteran was a civil rights activist in the state of Mississippi. He was the first field Secretary for the NAACP and worked to overturn segregation at the University of Mississippi after Brown v. Board of Education. He was assassinated by a white supremacist in 1963. He has a CUNY campus named in his honor.
Medgar Evers
This term describes an individual act of subtle, indirect, or unintentional discrimination against members of a marginalized group.
Microagression
Unofficially named “The Queen of Soul”, this singer-songwriter from Detroit was the first female performer inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1987. Her most well known song was an inspiration to activists during the Civil Rights Movement, with protestors yelling “sock it to me” to cops in the streets
Aretha Franklin
In 1968 this person became the first black woman elected to the U.S. Congress, representing New York’s 12th District for seven terms from 1969 to 1983.
Shirley Chisholm
DAILY DOUBLE !
In 1909 following eruptions of anti-black violence this group was formed to secure for all people the rights guaranteed in the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments to the US constitution. It now has 2,200 chapters today.
The NAACP
(National Association for the Advancement of Colored People)
Well-known in the LGBTQ+ community, this Black trans woman was an activitst at the forefront of the Stonewall riots, which served as a catalyst for the gay rights movement in 1969. A park in Brooklyn was recently re-named in her honor.
Marsha P Johnson
An acronym used to include multiple different marginalized communities when discussing issues that affect more than one community
B.I.P.O.C.
An American civil rights activist and former quarterback. In 2016, he began kneeling during the national anthem of NFL games to protest police brutality and racial inequality in the United States.
Colin Kaepernick
This landmark supreme court decision in 1896 upheld the constitutionality of racial segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine - and became the basis of the restrictive Jim Crow legislation prominent in the many years to follow.
Plessy vs. Ferguson
This day marks the day when federal troops arrived in Galveston TX in 1865 to take control of the state and ensure that all enslaved people be freed, two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation. This day honors the end to slavery in the United States and is considered the longest-running African American holiday.
Juneteenth
In June 2021, it became a national federal holiday
This Harlem resident was an American novelist, playwright, and civil rights activist. He highlighted the ugly truths of racism, poverty and inequality beginning in the late 1940s and beyond. One of his novels was adapted into an Academy award-winning film in 2018, entitled “If Beale Street Could Talk.”
James Baldwin
An academic concept that states race is a social construct, and that racism is not merely the product of individual bias or prejudice, but also something embedded in legal systems and policies. This conceptual framework has been studied in academic institutions for over 40 years since the civil rights movement, however, now at least 4 states have passed legislation to ban its teaching in K-12 schools.
Critical Race Theory
This black American musician, born Eunice Waymon (who later changed her name to avoid being discovered by her family) became one of the most sampled voices in hip hop after selling the rights to her debut album in 1959 for just $3000. She performed at many civil rights marches and her songs became known as the unofficial soundtrack to the movement.
Nina Simone
This event remains one of the worst incidents of racial violence in US history and for a period remained one of the least unknown. Over 18 hours in June 1921 hundreds of black residents were killed and thousands left homeless.
Hint: the segregated business district where this occurred was sometimes referred to as “Black Wall Street”
Tulsa Oklahoma Massacre
According to the NY Brennan Center for Justice, a law and public policy institute that tracks and analyzes election legislation, legislators in 49 states drafted more than 440 restrictive voting bills in 2021- HOW MANY of those became law? (price is right rules, whoever's closest wins)
34 !