| A Black History Celebration |
| Carter G. Woodson founder National Black History Month. ~~~ History – An account of what has or might have happened in the development of a people, country, or institution. |
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| Black history month is not about getting together and eating the best of soul food and it’s not about afros and braids, fancy african names, and it’s certainly not about slavery. We take this time to remember and reflect on what our founding fathers and mothers did and we recognize their accomplishments and achievements in spite of the horrid obstacles and circumstances that were put in their way. The observance of Black History Month was once only a week long and called Negro History Week. Carter Goodwin Woodson, a famous Black historian, wanted a special week to acknowledge Black Americans and their contributions to this country. In 1915, he started his campaign for this recognition; and in 1926, he achieved his goal. Dr. Woodson thought February would be the best month for this observation because it is the birthday month of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass, who both were important in the lives of Black Americans. Fifty years after C.G. Woodson's successful efforts, Negro History Week expanded to become Black History Month. |
In Celebration of Black History Month House of Prayer Holy Reformation Church ~~~ Presents “Reflections from the Past” ~~~ Dinner Menu ~~~ Fresh Fried Fish, Fried Chicken, Collard Greens, Hot Links Peach Cobbler, Banana Pudding and much much more! * Tap Dancing* African drum & dance * Grant H.S. Drumline * February 26th 2012 from 3:00 – 6:00 p.m. Samuel C. Pannell, Meadowview Community Center 2450 Meadowview Road, Sacramento, CA 95832 Advanced Tickets are $25.00 ages 12 and up, $15.00 ages 5-11 Please contact Jackie for information re: special discounts (916) 519-3383 Dinner will be served promptly from 3:00 – 4:00 p.m. NO EXCEPTIONS __________________________________________________________________________________ Black History Facts ~~~ Black History Month began as "Negro History Week," which was created in 1926 by Carter G. Woodson, a noted African American historian, scholar, educator, and publisher. It became a month-long celebration in 1976. The month of February was chosen to coincide with the birthdays of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln. On February 12, 2009, the NAACP marked its 100th anniversary. Spurred by growing racial violence in the early twentieth century, and particularly by race riots in Springfield Illinois in 1908, a group of African American leaders joined together to form a new permanent civil rights organization, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). February 12, 1909 was chosen because it was the centennial anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln. Jack Johnson became the first African-American man to hold the World Heavyweight Champion boxing title in 1908. He held on to the belt until 1915. John Mercer Langston was the first black man to become a lawyer in Ohio when he passed the Bar in 1854. When he was elected to the post of Town Clerk for Brownhelm, Ohio in 1855 Langston became one of the first African Americans ever elected to public office in America. John Mercer Langston was also the great-uncle of Langston Hughes, famed poet of the Harlem Renaissance. Thurgood Marshall was the first African American ever appointed to the United States Supreme Court. He was appointed by President Lyndon B. Johnson, and served on the Supreme Court from 1967 to 1991. George Washington Carver developed 300 derivative products from peanuts among them cheese, milk, coffee, flour, ink, dyes, plastics, wood stains, soap, linoleum, medicinal oils and cosmetics. Hiram Rhodes Revels was the first African American ever elected to the United States Senate. He represented the state of Mississippi from February 1870 to March 1871. Shirley Chisholm was the first African American woman elected to the House of Representatives. She was elected in 1968 and represented the state of New York. She broke ground again four years later in 1972 when she was the first major party African-American candidate and the first female candidate for president of the United States. The black population of the United States in 1870 was 4.8 million; in 2007, the number of black residents of the United States, including those of more than one race, was 40.7 million. In 1940, Hattie McDaniel was the first African-American performer to win an Academy Award (the film industry`s highest honor) for her portrayal of a loyal slave governess in Gone With the Wind. During the Reconstruction period 21 African Americans, including 10 former slaves, were elected to the United States Congress. Spanning the 1920s to the mid-1930s, the Harlem Renaissance was a literary, artistic, and intellectual movement that kindled a new black cultural identity. Its essence was summed up by critic and teacher Alain Locke in 1926 when he declared that through art, "Negro life is seizing its first chances for group expression and self determination." Harlem became the center of a "spiritual coming of age" in which Locke's "New Negro" transformed "social disillusionment to race pride." Chiefly literary, the Renaissance included the visual arts but excluded jazz, despite its parallel emergence as a black art form. American black revolutionary party (aka. Black Panther Party) founded in 1966 in Oakland, Calif., by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale. The party's original purpose was to patrol black ghettos to protect residents from acts of police brutality. The Panthers eventually developed into a Marxist revolutionary group that called for the arming of all blacks, the exemption of blacks from the draft and from all sanctions of so-called white America, the release of all blacks from jail, and the payment of compensation to blacks for centuries of exploitation by white Americans. At its peak in the late 1960s, Panther membership exceeded 2,000 and the organization operated chapters in several major cities. (1905–10), organization of black intellectuals led by W.E.B. Du Bois and calling for full political, civil, and social rights for black Americans. This stance stood in notable contrast to the accommodation philosophy proposed by Booker T. Washington in the Atlanta Compromise of 1895. The Niagara Movement was the forerunner of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). In the summer of 1905, 29 prominent blacks, including Du Bois, met secretly at Niagara Falls, Ont., and drew up a manifesto calling for full civil liberties, abolition of racial discrimination, and recognition of human brotherhood. The Voting Rights Act, signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson on August 6, 1965, aimed to overcome legal barriers at the state and local levels that prevented African Americans from exercising their right to vote under the Fifteenth Amendment (1870) to the Constitution of the United States. The act significantly widened the franchise and is considered among the most far-reaching pieces of civil rights legislation in U.S. history. In 1965, at the time of the Voting Rights Act passage, there were only six African-American members of the House of Representatives and African-American members of the Senate. By 1971, there were 13 members of the House and one black member of the Senate. Garrett Augustus Morgan – he invented the 3 way automatic sign which was the precursor to the traffic light. Morgan sold his invention to General Electric. George T. Sampson – invented one of the first clothes dryer. His invention used heat from a stove in order to dry the clothes. Thomas J. Martin – patented the fire extinguisher. Joseph Winters – created the first fire escape ladder. John Love – invented the pencil sharpener. L.P. Ray – invented the first dustpan. Oscar Dunn was the first elected black former slave to serve as lieutenant governor of Louisiana during Reconstruction. The self-educated Dunn learned public speaking from the actors who often stayed in his mother’s lodging house. Alexander Lucius Twilight was the first African American to receive a college degree. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Middlebury College in 1823 Louis Latimer was the only African American engineer/scientist member of the elite Edison Pioneers research and development organization. Until Latimer's process for making carbon filament, Edison's light bulbs would burn only for a few minutes. Latimer's filament burned for hours. Xavier University, a historically black college in Louisiana, has one of the highest success rates in the country getting their graduates into medical school. Benjamin Bradley, a slave, was employed at a printing office and later at the Annapolis Naval Academy. In the 1840s he developed a steam engine for a war ship. Unable to patent his work, he sold it and used the proceeds to purchase his freedom. Of the estimated 35,000 cowboys that worked the ranches and rode the trails of the American West frontier, 5,000–9,000 or more were Black. They participated in almost all of the drives northward, and were assigned to every job except that of trail boss. The U.S. Capitol and the White House were both constructed with the help of free Blacks and slaves, working alongside white laborers and craftsmen. Harriet Tubman usually comes to mind when discussing the Underground Railroad; however, Levi Coffin was the President of the Underground Railway. Sojourner Truth’s real name was Isabella Baumfree. Joseph N. Jackson invented a programmable remote control for television. M.C. Harney, an African American inventor, invented the lantern lamp, which replaced the use of candles as the primary source of lighting when daylight was unavailable. His device was patented on August 19, 1884. In 1959, Dr. William C. Davis, invented instant mashed potatoes. Not too surprisingly, he invented them while doing research on potatoes at the University of Idaho If you enjoy buying fresh food from across the country at your local supermarket, you have an African American inventor named Frederick McKinley Jones to thank. He invented the air-cooling units used in food transporting trucks in the 1930s. In 1900, James Weldon Johnson wrote with his brother the song "Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing" on the occasion of Lincoln's birthday. The song became immensely popular in the black community and became known as the "Negro National Anthem.” Col. Guion S. Bluford, Jr., Ph.D. (USAF) was the first African American in space. |
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