Black HERstory Makers
This Supreme Court justice was sworn in as the first Black woman and the 116th Supreme Court justice on Thursday June 30, 2022.
Who is Ketanji Brown Jackson?
"Get in good trouble, necessary trouble, and redeem the soul of America."
Who is John Lewis?
This group developed many early social programs that were based off of the immediate needs of the community including but not limited to free breakfast for children, free food for families and the elderly, free health clinics, and sickle-cell testing centers.
What is the Black Panther Party?
The first Black child to desegregate and enter an all-white school in New Orleans, Louisiana, William Frantz Elementary School, in 1960 - and was then taught alone for a year.
Who is Ruby Bridges?
Alice Walker became the first African-American woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1982 for this novel.
What is The Color Purple?
This author of 11 novels as well as children's books and essay collections was the first Black woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Who is Toni Morrison?
"The time is always right to do what is right."
Who is Martin Luther King, Jr.?
Doctors took samples of her cancerous cells while diagnosing and treating disease and gave some of that tissue to a researcher without her knowledge or consent. Her cells turned out to have an extraordinary capacity to survive and reproduce. Today, work done with her cells underpins much of modern medicine and illustrates the racial inequities and bioethical issues that are embedded in the US research and health-care systems.
Who is Henrietta Lacks?
On Septemebr 2, 1957, the first African American students to were set to enter Little Rock's Central High School but were met with mobs and the state's National Guard blocking them from entering school. On September 25, President Dwight Eisenhower federalized the National Guard and sent U.S. army troops to the school to begin regular class attendance. Each day the teens were harassed and threatened.
Who are the Little Rock Nine?
Worked on behalf of youth ostracized by their families for being gay or otherwise not conforming to traditional ideas about gender; advocate for those effected by HIV and AIDs and a leader in the LGBTQ+ rights movement in the 1960s and 1970s. Created trans rights group STAR and maintained the STAR House, a place for refuge for LGBTQ homeless youth.
Who is Marsha P. Johnson?
Revolutionary poet and author who used her writing to shine light on her experience of the world as a Black lesbian woman, her writings called attention to the multifaceted nature of identity and the ways in which people from different walks of life could grow stronger together.
Who is Audre Lorde?
"If they don't give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair."
Who is Shirley Chisholm?
A pioneering physician and medical researcher who made significant contributions to the fields of medicine and science, most notably for discovering a method for long-term storage of blood plasma and organizing America's first large-scale blood bank.
Who is Charles R. Drew?
The brutal murder of this 14-year-old boy in Mississippi in 1955 brought nationwide attention to the racial terror in the South and helped galvanize the growing civil rights movement in this country.
Who is Emmett Till?
Ain't no mountain high enough for this artist who released Motown's best-selling album ever; used his music to address systemic racism, police brutality, the Vietnam War and environmental injustice.
Who is Marvin Gaye?
Activist, journalist, civil and women's rights leader who took on racism in the Deep South with powerful reporting on lynchings in America in a way that had never been done before. Published findings in newspaper editorials and authored "A Red Record," a book that provided the history and statistical data on the lynching of African Americans in the US. A founder of the NAACP.
Who is Ida B. Wells?
"I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change. I am changing the things I cannot accept."
Who is Angela Y. Davis?
Established in 1862 by the Medical Division of the Freedmen's Bureau, the first hospital to aid in the medical treatment of formerly enslaved people. Later, it became the major hospital for the African American community in Washington, D.C.
What is Freedmen's Hospital (now Howard University Hospital)?
At the age of 16, was named LA Youth Poet Laureate and years later became the first National Youth Poet Laureate and the youngest inaugural poet in US history.
Who is Amanda Gorman?
While other inventors are reported to have experimented with and marketed this invention, Garrett A. Morgan was the first to apply for and acquire a U.S. patent for this device in 1923. His version was the first to include three signals.
What is the traffic light?
The first woman to be freed from slavery under the Massachusetts constitution of 1780 after successfully filing a lawsuit for freedom. Her case marked the beginning of a group of "freedom suits" that would ultimately lead the MA Supreme Judicial Court to abolish slavery.
Who is Elizabeth Freeman (Mum Bett)?
"Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced."
Who is James Baldwin?
Was one of the leading scientists to develop the Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine. At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, her team’s work became key to developing the vaccine in record time. She is also working on a universal influenza vaccine.
Who is Dr. Kizzmekia S. Corbett?
In 1955 at 15 years old, before Rosa Parks, she refused to give up her bus seat to a white passenger in Montgomery, AL. The NAACP considered using her case to challenge segregation laws, but decided against it because of her age; was a plaintiff is Browder v. Gayle that ruled Montgomery's segregated bus system was unconstitutional.
Who is Claudette Colvin?
A key organizer of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom and was one of Martin Luther King Jr.'s closest advisors. Criticism and discrimination over his sexuality led to him being an "unsung hero," having a background role in the Civil Rights Movement.
Who is Bayard Rustin?